Shocked to death: Tasers under fire.TASERS, "NONLETHAL" dart guns with a range of about 15 feet that deliver 50,000-volt electric shocks for five seconds at a time, are under fire for their roles in several civilian deaths and police injuries. About 6,000 law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe any agency which enforces the law. This may be a local or state police, federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). , including officers at nine public schools in Tempe, Arizona Tempe (pronounced /tɛm.'piː/) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with a population of 169,712 according to 2006 Census Bureau estimates. , have Tasers in their arsenals. A November report from Amnesty International Amnesty International (AI,) human-rights organization founded in 1961 by Englishman Peter Benenson; it campaigns internationally against the detention of prisoners of conscience, for the fair trial of political prisoners, to abolish the death penalty and torture of on Taser use in the U.S. found that the weapons "are used on unarmed suspects in 80 percent of the cases, for verbal non-compliance in 36 percent, and for cases involving 'deadly assault' only 3 percent of the time." Tasers have become especially controversial in Florida, where police recently have zapped a 6-year-old boy, a fleeing 12-year-old girl (allegedly drunk), a 14-year-old girl in the back of a squad car, and a wheelchair-bound man brandishing scissors scissors Cutting instrument or tool consisting of a pair of opposed metal blades that meet and cut when the handles at their ends are brought together. Modern scissors are of two types: the more usual pivoted blades have a rivet or screw connection between the cutting ends . It's policy in at least three Florida police departments that Tasers are appropriate for suspects merely offering "passive physical resistance" without posing any threat to officers or the public. In December 2004 alone, three Florida suspects died after being tasered. The Arizona Republic reported in January that it had discovered 84 deaths of shocked suspects since 1999 in the U.S. and Canada, although in only II of those cases have medical examiners authoritatively blamed tasering for the deaths. Manufacturer Taser International claims the suspects would have died whether shocked or not. (Of the 84 deaths the Republic examined, 36 were officially blamed on drug overdoses.) Former Maricopa County, Arizona Maricopa /ˌmɛ.ɹəˈko.pə/ County is located in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. , deputy Samuel Powers is suing Taser International over a spinal fracture he claims resulted from being tasered in a training exercise. (The company strongly encourages police to zap themselves in Taser training.) The family of a San Francisco man who died of cardiac arrest cardiac arrest n. Abbr. CA A sudden cessation of cardiac function, resulting in loss of effective circulation. Cardiac arrest A condition in which the heart stops functioning. after a New Year's Day New Year's Day, among ancient peoples the first day of the year frequently corresponded to the vernal or autumnal equinox, or to the summer or winter solstice. In the Middle Ages it was celebrated among Christians usually on Mar. 25. tasering is also suing the company. As these controversies mounted in early 2005, USA Today reports, at least six police departments delayed Taser buys. Taser International stock fell almost 10 percent in the first week of the year, after quadrupling in value last year. |
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