Jesse Saenz' Raton, NM post-taser death- Different Henhouse, Same Foxes

I get comments so infrequently here! I hate to be negative about any of them. This post is in response to a thoughtful comment to my earlier post about a flawed Wake Forest University taser injury study. The responder wrote:

“Say what you wish but I would much rather be shot with a Taser than with a 9mm. The reality is that the persons being shot have predominately caused a scenario to unfold wherein they have or are about to cause bodily or deadly harm to themselves or someone else. Again, stopping the threat is the main desire and I would preferred to be stopped by a 5 second Taser hit than a possible deadly hit from a 9mm or other weapon.”

Thanks for the comment- but this is is a false dichotomy. I'd rather be shot with a taser than with a 9mm myself, but I'd much rather not be shot at all.

Taser use often has nothing to do with threats to the victim, to bystanders, or to the officers. They're increasingly used not for defense or to avoid the use of deadly force but to terrify or simply force compliance with the officers' demands. Too many are not a low-voltage five-second jab in drive-stun mode (pressing the taser against the target) but sustained and repeated shocks administered through taser darts embedded in the victim's flesh and under full control of the attacker. Case in point...

This weekend the Las Cruces Sun-News ran an AP report describing how city police officers used two tasers to shock a Raton man 23 times. Jesse Saenz died before reaching the county detention center. A witness states that there was no struggle, and that the shocks continued over a period of five minutes. The AP report says that the exact cause of his death has not been determined. The officers using the Tasers said the devices malfunctioned, of course- they're unlikely to admit that they hosed Jesse unnecessarily for an extended period of time.

Watch the KOAT (7) Albequerque video here- the victim's sister claims that he was handcuffed at the time. Watch Captain Mike Galardi Of the Raton PD state that the taser was used to force compliance, not in response to a deadly threat. Hear police claim that they tasered the victim once, and hear a witness describe watching multiple extended taser flashes and hearing Jesse scream for five minutes.

The incident has been turned over to the New Mexico State Police for investigation. Will they investigate until the truth is revealed and then report it honestly, or will they protect their brothers in law enforcement? See my earlier post about Foxes guarding the Henhouse.

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Idiot cops taser deaf man

Eyewitness News 12 in Wichita, Kansas reports that multiple police officers responding to an anonymous call about a shooting broke into the wrong house and tasered a naked deaf man. Donnell Williams had just gotten out of the bath tub, wearing only a towel around his waist, when he turned the corner to see guns pointing right at him.

"I ain't never been so scared," says Williams. Without his hearing aid he is basically deaf. "I kept going to my ear yelling that I was scared. I can't hear! I can't hear!" The cops, apparently deaf, blind, and stupid themselves, feared for their own safety because it appeared Williams was refusing to obey their commands to show his hands. I suppose he was holding up the towel with one hand and pointing at his ear with the other. So they tasered him.

The case is being reviewed by the Wichita Police Department. This is a lot like relying on the fox to review security measures at the henhouse. Nothing to see here, folks... move along, move along. Deputy Chief Robert Lee said, "The first few minutes getting control of the scene are very, very important. Do I wish there would have been some way they were notified in advance this gentleman was hearing impaired? I certainly do. No one is happy with the way it worked out." I imagine the tas-ee is just a little more distraught than the tas-ers. Officers repeatedly apologized, no doubt hoping to ignore a huge lawsuit.

Eyewitness News, shilling for the cops, actually published this sentence: “Police wish it never happened, but with the information they had at the time, their choices were limited.” Limited to shooting first and asking questions later?

The whole incident is one long string of mistakes for which no one will be held accountable. Eyewitness news will drop the story and never follow it up. Dispatch reported the wrong address for an untraceable shooting call. Inept cops failed to correctly evaluate the threat level of a dripping wet, naked, empty-handed man fresh out of the bathtub and decided their best option was to tase him. The excuse machine kicked into high gear and spewed twisted logic to justify the screwup; for example, I'm very sure the department has no written policy that explicitly forbids tasering naked unarmed deaf people, so the cops violated no procedures.

If this is handled like most unwarranted tasering incidents, the shooters are probably still working or on administrative leave with pay, waiting to be returned to active duty once the news storm blows over. With fresh cartridges in their tasers.

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Tasering is not the same as an insulin injection.

The Dothan (Alabama) Eagle reported on Nov. 9 that Police in Ozark tasered a sober man who was having a diabetic seizure. Three police cruisers investigated a truck and trailer pulled over on the side of the road. James Bludsworth, 54, with no criminal record, was was slumped over behind the wheel. He was not responsive to police commands.

Did these Officer Friendlies help the sick man? Did they realize that this inert, possibly unconscious man was no threat to anyone? Did they call paramedics? No, this brave crew summoned their courage, overcame their terror, and tasered him three times. One now says that he smelled alcohol on Bludsworth, who blew 0.00 (stone cold sober) on a breathalyzer. Ozark Police Chief Myron Williams also claims the sick man was "combative." Maybe he was snoring too loud.

Did they take him to a hospital? No, he was booked at Dale County Jail and charged with resisting arrest (by using the force of gravity?) and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). Bludsworth has no recollection of the incident and is free on $1000 bond pending a December court date.

There must be something in the gene pool other than stagnant pond scum in Ozark, Alabama.

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Gunslinger cops in Frederick, MD non-lethally taser another target. He's dead.

Do police departments get Most Frequent User awards from Taser International? The Frederick County Sheriff's Department must be up there in the standings. CNN reports that a 20-year-old man died Sunday after being tasered by a sheriff's deputy. Cpl. Jennifer Bailey of the Frederick County Sheriff's Office said deputies responding to a fight tasered one of four people, who then fell unconscious and was pronounced dead at Frederick Memorial Hospital. The shooter is on administrative leave with pay pending completion of an investigation.

This is the same Jennifer Bailey who insists that Cpl. Jody Maybush acted with “necessary and reasonable” force when he tasered a Tuscarora High School student November 8 after threatening another with the same the day before. She said, "There's no information that indicates he did anything inappropriate at all." She's a busy lady. No word yet on whether FOP attorney Patrick J. McAndrew considers today's tasering as “heroic” as he did the Maybush incident. Stay tuned.

The manufacturer of the electroshock weapons claims that post-tasering deaths are not caused by the taser itself, but by related police action or the victim's excited delirium. Video of the Vancouver airport taser death of a Polish man that showed the victim continuing to struggle after being shot with the device "is proof that the Taser device was not the cause of his death," the company said on its website. Despite that, deaths are increasing as tasers become more common. Which of the following statements makes any sense?

“The man continued to struggle after being tasered. This proves the taser didn't kill him.”

“The catfish flopped around on the bank after I landed him. This proves the fishhook didn't kill him.”

“The buck ran a hundred yards after I shot him. This proves the shotgun didn't kill him.”

Amnesty International reported that since June 2001, more than 150 people have died in the US after being subdued with a stun gun and has called for police to suspend use of the devices pending study of their risks. Back-to-back electroshocks, one resulting in death, are reason enough for an immediate moratorium on their use in Frederick, MD.

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Taser Willie, will yeh, yeh cheesehead sherrrriff!

The Green Bay (WI) Press-Gazette reports that on November 6, a Brown County Sheriff's Department resource officer “inadvertently and accidentally discharged” a taser, striking the janitor at Bay View Middle School. The officer was removed from the post at the school, given “remedial” training, and disciplined. Not canned outright.

How does this happen unless the taser unholstered and the cop is displaying it or playing with it? Cops nationwide have driven taser use to such a casual level that this department considers it appropriate for show-and-tell. This kind of liaison kids don't need- a poorly trained cop wandering around a middle school armed with a 50,000 volt electroshock weapon that law enforcement officials everywhere desperately wish to believe is universally non-lethal and without lasting effects. And she can't control it.

I hope the janitor has a good lawyer. There's no reason to believe that the neural and neuromuscular effects of taser electroshock won't manifest themselves later in his life. He should be able to retire comfortably on a judgment or settlement in this case. I hope the parents get a good lawyer to protect themselves from a sheriff and school district willing to expose their kids to the same poorly understood systemic damage.

A cop has an itch he wants to scratch? Out comes the taser. A sudden itch, a spastic twitch, you're on the ground. Gee, sorry.

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Chicago Granny channels M.C. Hammer- It's Taser Time!

CBS2 reports that a Chicago police sergeant tasered 82 year old, 5'-1”, 160 lb. granny Lillian Fletcher last week. Workers with the city's Department on Aging saw her through the window of her apartment with a hammer in her hand, swinging it back and forth. The social workers called police. A landlord opened the door with a key and when police stepped inside, Lillian was seen swinging the hammer. Officers immediately wet themselves and, fearing for their lives, tased Granny Fletcher in self defense.

Fletcher's granddaughter told the Chicago Sun-Times that Fletcher suffers from schizophrenia and dementia. "She can be belligerent," Traci Taylor told the newspaper. "I just don't think they should be tasing 82-year-old women."

Amnesty International USA agrees, and voices concerns that police use tasers routinely rather than in cases of serious danger. In 2005, the Chicago Police department suspended the distribution of stun guns following the deaths of two people police shot with tasers. They've reconsidered that cautionary step in response to the surge in grannies with easy access to hand tools. About 200 cops have tasers and 150 more will be issued to field training officers.

Police stress the need for additional training and seek citizen volunteer taser targets to “help teach officers how to use tasers effectively when faced with physically intimidating perpetrators in life-threatening situations,” said department liaison patrolman Suzy Bluesuit. “Candidates should be at least as fierce as drunken blond waitresses or infants. Catatonic paraplegics, the blind, triple amputees, and patients confined to iron lungs” are encouraged to apply.

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