Police Seizure
by digby
We know that tasers are dangerous to the health of the people who are tased, but is there some evidence that tasers must leak some sort of chemical that causes brain damage to the people who use them? There must be something because police are constantly doing idiotic things like this with them:
Police officers fired a 50,000-volt stun gun charge into a man who had collapsed with a major epileptic seizure, the policing complaints watchdog said yesterday.
The man, 40, who has accused police of being negligent and using excessive force, claims that he was Tasered five times despite police being told about his medical condition.
He spent more than two weeks in hospital after the incident, which is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
Sophie Khan, the man’s solicitor, said her client had been in a gym when the seizure occurred. “The officers were made aware by the ambulance staff and the gym staff that he was suffering from an epileptic seizure but they continued to Taser him in the stomach and forcibly restrain him in a manner that has caused him long-term nerve damage to his wrists and back,” she said.
A leading epilepsy charity said that the incident should prompt a review of police training.
“We are disturbed that the police used a Taser on a person who was clearly in, or recovering from, a medical emergency,” said Monica Cooper of Epilepsy Action.
“A Taser should not be used on a person who is having, or has recently had, a seizure. During a seizure, and for a period of time afterwards, the person may not be fully aware of their surroundings or what is happening, and they may be confused.
The seizure was pretty violent and the paramedics had called the police to help them with the patient. Why they then thought it was a good idea to shoot him with electricity is beyond me. Common sense would suggest that someone who is having an involuntary seizure isn’t able to “comply.” So unless they were conducting some kind of electro-shock experiment, this was obscenely dumb.
I’m guessing that when this sort of thing happened before tasers came along, police didn’t put a bullet in epileptics who were having seizures. But I could be wrong.
h/t to sleon