NATHAN’S SHOCK DECISION STUNS PUBLIC
Several days after Townsville police killed a man with a Taser, Premier Nathan Rees announced he would buy NSW police 1,962 stun guns. The government’s shock decision could not have been more poorly timed, coinciding with Australia’s second Taser death in the last two months. At a price tag of only $10 million, the cost of arming our own ZAPatistas is a mere fraction of the total $2.6 billion the government has pledged to spend on the NSW police force in this fiscal year’s budget.
By rolling out stun guns over the next year and a half, the Premier has ignored the recommendations of the NSW Ombudsman, who last year called for a two-year freeze on the statewide distribution of the weapons, citing safety and training concerns. In rejecting claims that police would misuse stun guns, Rees stated, “Every Taser once unholstered has a video camera in-built that gets activated instantly.”
But on the same day Rees defended the use of stun guns, a 38 year old man announced he is suing NSW Police in a civil action after he was zapped in the back on Oxford Street’s gay strip three months ago. The man was taken to St Vincent’s hospital, where, he claims doctors were unable to remove a dart from his back. Initially police reviewed the March 29 Taser tapes and decided the incident was “okay”. Then in mid June, the City of Sydney released separate video footage, which shows the burly 38 year old falling to the ground after a cop shoots him from behind. In the tape, the man’s legs twitch violently before he stumbles to his feet and is stunned again, despite being surrounded by four officers. Solicitor Nick Boyd told the press, ”It is clear that the use of the Taser in this instance was unwarranted as three other officers from the public riot squad were close at hand to detain my client who only appears to be intoxicated and not posing a threat to any other persons,” In his suit against the State Police the victim claims he suffers ongoing trauma following the attack.
Giving every Constable Plod the power to electrocute the public puts the community at risk. In mid June Queensland police shot a 39 year old three times and killed him. In Alice Springs in May another 39-year-old man died after being Tasered by police. In 2002 a violent, mentally-ill NSW 56-year-old was stunned and killed after he threatened police with a frying pan. Similar incidents in North America led Amnesty International to issue a 132 page report in January of this year, condemning the use of stun guns, except as “a last resort.” Amnesty International found, “There has been ongoing controversy surrounding the potential lethality of conducted energy devices, especially since the introduction in the past decade of more powerful new generation models. Since June 2001, more than 330 people in the USA are reported to have died after being struck by police Tasers and 25 similar deaths have been reported in Canada.” Since the report was released at the start of this year, the death toll has climbed further. In California, in February a 28 year old Hispanic man was clubbed and tasered to death by two police officers. And in Michigan, in April a 5-foot-2, 110-pound 16-year-old, learning-disabled boy with no criminal record died after being Tasered by police.
After Canadian Mounties similarly killed an agitated tourist at the Vancouver Airport in October 2007, the the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation commissioned a study which found that nearly ten per cent of the 41 Tasers tested delivered significantly more current than the manufacturer said was possible. A typical gun should only release a stunning 50,000 volts when an officer pulls the trigger. According to Amnesty International, “it is undisputed from the testimony of those who have experienced even a short shock, including police officers, that they cause substantial pain … [One] officer described the pain as ‘By far, the most excruciating pain anyone can feel’”. It is little wonder then that in January of this year, two University of California at San Francisco researchers found “there is a potential lethal risk with Tasers.” Cardiologists Byron Lee and Zian Tseng’s report, published in an American medical journal, studied data from 50 US cities and found the number of in-custody deaths went up six-fold in the first year a department started using Tasers. The researchers believe officers may be aiming too close to the heart.
With nearly 2,000 stun guns about to be purchased in NSW, it is all but certain that more citizens will die after being electrocuted by police. When strun guns were similarly rolled out across Queensland last year, criminal defence lawyer Jim Coburn correctly predicted someone in that state would die in 2009 as a result of their use. The death of a Townsville man in June seems to be of little conern to politicians here in NSW, where both sides of the aisle have welcomed the massive deployment of Tasers. The opposition’s police spokesman Mike Gallacher celebrated the government’s decision, stating, “the Opposition and the police association for well over 12 months now have been calling on the Government to make Tasers available to all first response vehicles, it was our policy in the lead up to the last state election.” With stun guns on issue from Bega to Balmain to Byron Bay, the Police State of NSW is set to obtain a shocking human rights record.
