Taser Lawsuits Filed (by Cops injured during training classes)

[Blue Diadem]

Taser Lawsuits Filed
Aug 21, 2005, 07:53 AM


PHOENIX (AP) -- An Toledo patrolman is among police officers from five states who have sued the Arizona-based maker of Tasers, claiming they were seriously injured after being shocked with the electronic stun gun in training classes.

In the past two weeks, four lawsuits have been filed in Maricopa County Superior Court here on behalf of officers in Florida, Kansas, New Mexico and Ohio. A fifth was filed in St. Louis. The lawsuits accuse Taser International Inc. of encouraging officers to get shocked during training and of hiding information on injuries to about a dozen other injured officers. The officers claim they suffered "severe and permanent" injuries including broken spines, burns, a shoulder dislocation and soft-tissue injuries.

Toledo Patrolman Daniel J. Wagner, a union vice president, broke a rib and a vertebra in his chest when his muscles contracted from a shock in an August 2003 training session. He referred questions about the lawsuit on Saturday to his Phoenix attorney, John Dillingham.

The lawsuits challenge Taser's claim that its product is safe and accuse the company of misleading officers about the severity of potential injuries. Four of the lawsuits accuse the company of telling shareholders and the public that an officer whose spine was broken had just a shoulder injury.

more here: http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=3746816

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. And Baghdad is just a little unsettled

Chicago had the first finding of death by Taser - I can tell you, the storm from the company reps was something else.

They even tried a propoganda letter writing campaign to the local papers, but for some reason, the papers refused to play along. Good thing, too.


Is their technology being adapted in that mass riot protection weapon they are creating for use in US cities? shocking hundreds of people at the same time?

[geomon666]

2. Of course

You can bet it will be. Or some other company will get it.

[merh]

3. Maybe this lawsuit will make a difference.

I hope it does. The tasers are dangerous, dangerous weapons.

[oda]

4. they taser...

everyone from cops to pregnant mothers, of course they are safe!

[merh]

8. The taser exists as a weapon for law enforcement because it is

manufactured by a bushbot croonie and federal funds provided to local law enforcement agencies are to be used for weapons that meet the taser's description.

It is just another way to line their buddies' pockets, injury to folks is just a "unfortunate" :sarcasm: side effect. :argh:

[donsu]

5. this is important - we should spread this news far and wide and follow

the lawsuits.

[William Bloode]

6. O.k.

Now lets see the law enforcement appologist rationalize this one away. How long till one shows up and tries?

[Swamp Rat]

7. Bushler said, "NO MORE FRIVOLOUS LAW SUITS!"

:sarcasm:

[Thor_MN]

11. Right!! The officers that tried out their handguns on each other during

training are not complaining and filing lawsuits, why should these people be different? What a bunch of weenies... :sarcasm:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. No kidding. Same as our troops whose humvees and protective personal

armor failed in their first tests.

geez. If we don't try these things out in the field first, how can we get the data be need? Just like Merck.

[merh]

9. Recommended.

n/t

[bribri16]

10. New progressive push should be to OUYLAW tasers.

They are only a lethal weapon to earn big bucks for the RW corporations. The PR about them is to make them seem like a "humane" measure taken by the "police state." In fact, they are lethal killing weapons.

[FlaGranny]

12. I'm certainly not

a TASER apologist, but I don't believe they should be banned. It is a tool that is being misused, due to misinformation as to their safety. They should be considered a weapon that is less lethal than a gun, but still potentially lethal. The fault here lies in poor training due to probably intentional misinformation from the manufacturer.

The problem is using a dangerous weapon BEFORE trying less potentially damaging methods - the kinds of methods that police have always used. The TASER should be the NEXT TO THE LAST RESORT when trying to subdue someone.

Additionally, there probably will always be a few bad apples in any police department who enjoy hurting people. Got to get rid of them.

[Sgent]

14. I'm sorry

but I've heard of a bunch of cheap tricks by police forces....


Breaking the back of the union president (vice) has got to be amongst the lowest. That screwed him, this guy isn't going to rest for a long time.

[PATRICK]

15. Linkage linkage linkage

And what about the safe crowd tortures of long range noise and microwave skin frying about to be ground tested in the ME? They still are tortured the exact same way, presented to the public at large as relatively harmless and humane except for the non-discriminating excruciating torture for the generic purpose of breaking up unpleasant crowds.

Would someone at least inform the lawyers and victims that much much worse is PLANNED using the taser as a golden path to the same sales pitch, the same torture, the same abuse and surely, inevitably the same physical harm and worse that the manufacturers lie about as routinely as the incurious reporters swallow them and regurgitate to the masses.

Do we really really have to wait for the mass applications of torture as crowd control to even begin engaging in the argument? Why wait for dead or savagely traumatized Iraqi victims? Or American victims? Or rampant fascism?

If you were stupid enough to go along with that "harmless" taser demo are you now smart enough to properly sue and oppose this entire criminal industry?

[psychopomp]

16. kick

:kick:

[shanti]

17. where are the DU police apologists now?

?????