Another Taser Casualty
by digby
An inmate at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin died after he charged at Alameda County sheriff’s deputies and was subdued with the help of Taser shock weapons, authorities said Thursday.
Martin Harrison, 50, of Oakland died at a hospital early Wednesday, two days after the jail incident, sheriff’s Sgt. J.D. Nelson said.
Harrison had been arrested by Oakland police Friday for allegedly driving while intoxicated.
At about 7 p.m. Monday, Harrison began acting erratically, breaking a food tray and flooding his cell by overflowing his toilet, Nelson said. Deputies found Harrison hiding behind a mattress, and the inmate told them that someone was trying to kill him, authorities said.
Harrison charged at deputies when they tried to handcuff him to move him to another cell so his could be cleaned, Nelson said.
Two deputies shocked Harrison with Tasers. Harrison was taken to the jail’s medical center, where he collapsed that night, Nelson said.
The deputies who used their Tasers have been placed on routine paid administrative leave pending an investigation into Harrison’s death.
The Alameda County coroner’s office said it is awaiting the results of toxicology tests, which could take two months, before determining a cause of death.
Right. You wouldn’t want to jump to any conclusions based on the fact that he was shot with electricity and died in the hospital within days. For all we know, he had cancer and his number was up. In any case, we know that tasers can’t kill — it’s just a coincidence that so many people die after they’ve been shot with them.
The use of tasers against the mentally ill is one of the cruelest aspects of this whole horrible experiment in authoritarian coercion. They are deluded and therefore can’t comply with police officers’ orders. It’s second only to the tasering of children and seizing epileptics for sheer barbarity.
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h/t to tl and c