Man dies in Swissvale after being tasered

[timtom]

Well! We just seem to be racking 'em up, left and right, in 2009...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08218/901977-100.stm

<Edited to correct glaring error>

"...left and right, in America"

[IDemo]

1. Except that this story is from 2008...

[timtom]

5. Damn!

There I go again.

Sorry for the misleading statement...

[Junkdrawer]

2. It wasn't the taser that killed him...

...

"I saw them shove to the ground, and they handcuffed him," the neighbor said. "They killed that man. They killed him. They killed him," she added, her hands trembling. The woman said she saw one officer stomp on Mr. Thomas's upper back, holding his foot there while the subject lay on the sidewalk with his head hanging over the curb. Another officer "reared back and punched him in the head with all his might," she said.

Mr. Thomas vomited. Then, for several minutes, he lay motionless, another nearby resident said, before an ambulance was called. The rescue truck stayed on the scene for several minutes more before Mr. Thomas was taken away, the witness said.

...

[Junkdrawer]

3. Many challenge the finding of "not the result of excessive force"...

Too bad Andre Thomas of Swissvale is dead. He probably would have disputed the Allegheny County medical examiner's report that his death was not the result of excessive force by the Swissvale police.

...

After he was shot with a Taser and reportedly kicked and punched while in handcuffs, Mr. Thomas' treatment might be within the acceptable range of brutality for Swissvale. Whether that is a standard that should shock the conscience of citizens throughout Western Pennsylvania is another question.

...

"There was no evidence in general, no evidence of excessive force being used," Dr. Karl Williams of the Allegheny County medical examiner's office told a reporter. Dr. Williams also refused to define "excessive force" or shed light on other aspects of the autopsy.

....

The nearly 20 protesters who marched up Braddock Avenue to the Swissvale Borough Building on Wednesday evening want an answer.

"I knew the guy they killed," said Sabrina Williams, 40, a Swissvale resident who cheered the protesters as they passed her on the sidewalk. "I've had my own run-in ," she told me. "That's why I'm scared to call them about anything."

...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08221/902721-153.stm

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. P'burgh is a surprisingly lovely town.

A real secret amongst those looking for a place that has a lot of great qualities. That said, the police do have a "certain way"about them, taking great liberties in the course of their working day.

I went out with a woman from the South Hills for a while, so I spent some time there with her, and the Karate dojo I trained in was closely associated with William Duessel Hanshi, as much a P'burghian as they come and we were there a lot to train with him. I got to know the town, and like it a lot, but the cops...

[screembloodymurder]

6. They are using the taser to cover their crimes.

They probably broke his neck or hit him in the back of his head and gave him a severe concussion.