So it’s official. Taser guns can and do kill. Today a joint Queensland Criminal Justice Commission and Queensland Police review into the death of 39-year-old Antonio Galeano, who was shot 28 times by police with a Taser gun and who subsequently died of a heart attack, confirms what the critics of Taser guns have said all along — that these are lethal weapons and that their use should be strictly controlled or banned.
According to The Australian this morning, the CJC/Police review notes that the “possibility of Taser use causing or contributing to death is possible and cannot be ruled out”. Such a finding is not earth-shattering in itself; Amnesty International released a report in December last year that linked almost 350 deaths in the US to the use of Taser guns, but it is the first official statement in any Australian jurisdiction about the lethal capacity of Taser guns.
Taser guns are used more often than the media and law enforcement agencies report. They are, for example, used in prison systems around Australia. I am personally aware of their use in the Tasmanian prison system, and they are also used in Western Australian prisons.
The UN Committee Against Torture, in a statement in November 2007, said: “The use of TaserX26 weapons, provoking extreme pain, constituted a form of torture and that in certain cases it could also cause death, as shown by several reliable studies and by certain cases that had happened after practical use.”
In 1989 Australia became a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture and in July this year the Rudd government signed the Optional Protocol that allows for UN inspections of prisons and detention centres. Attorney-General Robert McClelland is under pressure now to create a crime of torture to ensure Australian compliance with the convention. If he does so, might the use of Taser guns by law enforcement and prison officials be outlawed?
There is an urgent need for the Rudd government to take national leadership on the issue of Taser guns. At the moment each state and territory has different rules, prisons are a black hole and people are dying or suffering long-term injury as a result of this weapon being too readily available to too many.
I’ve yet to figure out why this confected debate is taking place. Tasers, when used against miscreants, may result in death. Guns &c &c Until such time as I see robust figures on deaths per use by police for both tasers and firearms, I’ll remain firm in my belief that there are a lot of circumstances where someone getting a 50,000 volt jolt is preferable to a 9mm drilling.
Good Article.
I think it is vitally important that, if police continue using these machines, police guidelines are changed to treat them as potentially leathal force.
If police officers were properly educated about the effects of Tasers and they also had to treat drawing their Taser the same as drawing their gun in terms of paperwork etc, we would see them being used a lot less.
More on my blog:
http://www.civiltonguesaustralia.com/
If I shot you 28 times with a potato gun or a tennis ball launcher I’m sure I’d do some damage too. What a ridiculous finding. What the hell were the cops doing shooting someone 28 times? Surely after one or two they’d be able to put the handcuffs on and that would be it.
In the wrong hands a lead pencil could be lethal. I still believe tazers are the best non lethal (and yes, I still say non lethal) force a cop can provide.
And on a side note now that the forces are allowing in anyone, and I mean anyone, even 5’1 45kg young blonde things nowadays, anything that is going to help is something we need.
Agree Adam.
And in other news, water was found to be acutely toxic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia
Surely the police officers who shot the man 28 times ahave been charged with manslaughter. No reasonablt person could expect that doing that would pose the risk of death to the victim.
I personally have no problem with police having Tasers. But they should be require to justify each use of them in the same fashion as they do with their firearms. There is a lot of incentive to overuse generally non-lethal devices such as Tasers in apprehending and controling people.