Police use taser on blind woman with cancer

[DogPoundPup]

Edited to add links

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Family members are angry and speaking out after Dayton police used a stun gun on a woman who is blind and suffering from cancer. Police said they were looking for a suspect when they knocked on Denise Harris's door Thursday morning. But according to both police and witnesses, things quickly got out of hand and Harris was tased.

"She was able to force herself down on to the floor and not be cooperative, grabbing on to the detective. A taser was dry stunned onto her arm to control her hand movement, then she was cuffed," said Sgt. Charles Anderson.

Her family said she was yelling at officers because she was scared.

"She was terrified. She was extremely terrified," said Harris's niece, Dionna. "She was scared because the person identified themselves as a police officer. But she's been robbed before by someone using the same technique."

They said police used unnecessary force when officers came to the Fernwood Avenue apartment looking for Harris's son, who is wanted. Officers said Harris attacked a detective.

"She's blind and they pulled her off her Futon, handcuffed her and tased her because he said she swung at him. She can't see," said Harris's sister Elvita Harris. "I'm very frustrated and upset. Dayton police need to implement a sensitivity program."

Neighbors said they told officers she was blind and sick.
http://www.wdtn.com/Global/story.asp?S=8693659

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COPS W/TASERS ARE JUST HAVING A FIELD DAY WITH THE TAXPAYERS WITH THEIR NEW TAXPAYER FUNDED TOYS AREN'T THEY?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

ALSO SEE: Caught On Camera: Teen Dies After Shot With Taser Gun

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A teenager died after being hit with a police Taser gun for 37 seconds, and the whole thing was caught on tape by surveillance cameras.

Authorities said that Darryl Turner had been in a confrontation with a supervisor at work at a North Carolina grocery store.

When Officer Jerry Dawson arrived, he fired his Taser gun at the 17-year-old and struck him in the sternum.

"The initial use of the (Taser gun) is not in question," said Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Ken Miller.

However, for 37 seconds, Dawson continued to use the Taser gun against the teen.

An autopsy revealed that Darryl Turner died of a heart attack, authorities said.

NBC Charlotte affiliate WCNC reported that Dawson was given a five-day suspension for firing the Taser gun too long.
http://www.nbc4.com/news/16919904/detail.html

:wtf:

[TomInTib]

1. I am no cop-basher, but this is getting ridiculous.

The trigger-happy cops - who, in the past, have been restrained by regs on service weapon use - are having a field day with these new toys.

37 seconds on that kid? Damn.

I have benn tasered (self-inflicted) and I will tell you right now that is is a miserable experience.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. It's freaking out of control and something needs to be done

[EFerrari]

9. It is ridiculous. It really seems to me that the training on this weapon

is just so wrong and so wrong all over the damn place.

Grandmas, disabled people, kids, cancer patients. This isn't what most cops sign up to do. :shrug:

[TomInTib]

15. You know what?

I am just far enough into the early evening to start thinking.....

How about if those Tasers were bid on an efficancy/usage factor? More "deterrance", less trauma/report/tissue-disruption

Take that, dearest Freeper/Trolls, and run to Mommie with it.

Think about it.

God Loves You When You Dance.

I love every one of you (troll bitches, you know who you are. Because it is COP business, and it is me, and your impotent dick is seeping over everything that I write).

And I know you sniff my butt (not to be confused with sfexpat200).

I love it. I often wonder if you "know" your siblings/family as much as you "know" me?

Somehow, I kinda doubt it.

But I do love how often my posts show up on your cretinal site.

And I promise to wear the same pair of underwear (not Didies, as your Mother would) for the next week.

You're gonna love 'em.

Tom

[EFerrari]

16. Freepers' biblical knowledge of their close relations is famous

but too much to think about on a Monday.

lol

[LiberalFighter]

2. They have tasers and they deem it to be the only tool they can use.

I wonder if they will use it on a baby because it cries too much and won't keep their arms and legs still?

[jeff30997]

4. "use it on a baby "

When I read the article I thought the same thing.The worst thing is that I would be barely surprised if it happened.:(

[tblue37]

20. They have been used on a 6-year-old boy, on an 8-year-old girl who

was handcuffed in the back of a cop car, on a 75-year-old woman who was upset in a nursing home because she thought her friend had died, on a deaf, blind 71-year-old woman and her 94-year-old mother, on a man slumped over the wheel of his car in a diabetic coma, on a customer at Best Buy because she stepped out to take a phone call before completing her purchase--it goes on, and on, and on. I have been collecting stories for about 3 years. I have 20 pages of them already.

[LiberalFighter]

21. Don't lose those stories.

[tblue37]

22. I won't. I often use them as the basis for my English 101 Final Exam.

I have my students read about Stanley Milgram's obedience experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment. Then I have them read these stories. Then I ask them to respond to one of several questions about whether those two experiments help to explain this sort of behavior--and the fact that Americans seem so willing to tolerate such assaults on citizens by the police.

[MadMaddie]

5. So they were looking for a suspect didn't find him/her

and they were frightend of a blind sick women?

Second case a healthy 17 year old dies from a heart attack because the officer tasered him in the sternum (heart).....seriously the officer doesn't talk he just pulls the taser out and for 35 seconds in the heart - he murders this kid.

This is getting out of hand...they can kick in our doors, scare us and say oops we got the wrong address. They can taser obviously blind and scared and sick women....this is * America, this is what has been done by this Administrtion there is a lawlessness among our police departments.

In most cases I support the police but these are criminal acts.

[Joanne98]

6. You know Taser has lost about 70% of it's value in the last six months.

I'm not going to throw any charts up you but.. WHEN the stories started coming out about six months ago. People on the TASR message board.. (yahoo/finace) didn't think it was going to have an effect. BOY were they WRONG. Six months ago TASR was worth 16$ dollars a share.. NOW it's worth,,,

5.52$ a share. WHOA! Sounds like LOSERS to me!!!!!!!!!
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=TASR

KEEP IT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!

[EFerrari]

10. I guess this is good news, but the mfing COST has been obscene.

:(

[Joanne98]

17. True. But if the company goes bankrupt, there is no one left to sell..

the product! End of story.

[crikkett]

25. don't worry the bush administration will bail them out. n/t

[seabeyond]

7. these are our male cops in all their wussiness can not handle a blind old woman

need a weapon to take on a blind old woman. there were at least two, and assuming both male, one i know was. two males with sight and not nearly as old cannot restrain the lady and had to use a taser

that is pathetic adn humiliating for these males, .... in my view.

[Truth4Justice]

12. Why are we allowing cowards like these to "protect" us ?

[Ilsa]

8. "The lady next door is blind and sick. You should have no trouble

subduing her and torturing her while looking for the suspect." :sarcasm:

What the hell is wrong with these people?

[fascisthunter]

11. freaks on a power trip

these types usually seek out positions of authority.

[ColbertWatcher]

13. I see the name of the victim...

...her relatives, a police spokesmodel, but not the name of the assaulting officer.

The pig isn't identified on Bad Cop either, but I'm sure they'll have his/her name up when it becomes available.

Bastards.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. I've seen more and more stories of cops out of control

or on a power trip.

Hell, I've SEEN cops on a power trip, such as the time Cheney visited Portland and the cops came charging out of the basement of city hall in their Darth Vader outfits and pepper-sprayed unarmed demonstrators who weren't even moving toward them.

[bdamomma]

18. these cops are out of control, and treating everyone like criminals

[SmileyRose]

19. 5 day suspension for murder.

WTF is right.

[indepat]

31. Cold-blooded pre-meditated 1st degree capital murder imv.

:grr: :mad:

[seabeyond]

32. told kids today, just the facts and 10 yr old said, suspension for murder?

cant get anything over that kid. wink

[TheWraith]

23. I've said it before: Taser use should be treated the same as firearm discharge.

If a Taser is the last resort before the use of deadly force, as police organizations always claim, then the use of a taser should bring the same consequences and investigation that the discharge of a firearm would. Period. Otherwise it's just a toy and a convenient cattle prod to get people to do whatever you tell them.

[shadowknows69]

24. I don't want to live in this world anymore

This is just so out of hand.

[crikkett]

26. don't say that

i was sitting here crying too and trying to find a way out of my despondency. there's too much dark news today. lets both hang up the DU for an afternoon and go outside (or in my case I need to get some cleaning done).

[shadowknows69]

29. good advice

thanks crikkett. it just all seems so hopeless at times though.

[undeterred]

27. I am sick of cops who have ZERO interpersonal skills

and who enjoy abusing their power.

[L0oniX]

28. Police brutality ...the fun part of law enforcement and a great employer...

for those returning from an illegal war.

[HEyHEY]

30. Are they trying to upstage the RCMP?

[Uncle Joe]

33. Fuck sensitivity programs, outlaw electrocution devices being used against the American People!

If a police officer is too damn afraid of being hurt by a blind woman hitting them, they need to get out of the business and find a new line of work.

If the electric chair is unconstitutional because it's considered cruel and unusual punishment, then why aren't tazers?

Every time I come to believe they've reached a new low in tazing somebody, they exceed it, what's next babies and toddlers, they might bite after all, at least the ones with teeth?

[malaise]

34. More and more electrical shocks are coming

It will only get worse.

[Sequoia]

35. Dawson only gets a 5 day suspension for murder.

He MURDERED that teen. I hope his family sues that police department.