Tasered in cuffs
by digby
The latest taser death (that I know of). In Florida, of course:
The episode began Saturday on the north end of the Dunedin state park. Barnes had received news about the health of a boyfriend, the sheriff’s said, and told his aunt that he wanted to “cleanse himself” at the beach.
The aunt, Paula Yount, joined Barnes in the water. But Barnes “went berserk for no reason” and began cursing and pushing her, Gualtieri said.
Yount declined to comment Sunday.
An officer with the state Department of Environmental Protection, Joseph Tactuk, was on patrol at the park and saw the altercation.
Tactuk tried to stop it, the sheriff said, but Barnes got into a fist fight with the officer, bloodying his nose.
During the struggle, Barnes was placed haphazardly in handcuffs, with one hand tangled behind his head.
Marine sheriff’s Deputy Kenneth Kubler and other Pinellas County patrol units arrived.
Barnes was pulled to the shelly part of the shore, where he continued to throw elbows, flail about and head-butt the officers, Gualtieri said.
As Barnes continued to struggle, Kubler fired a Taser at him, limiting the bursts to less than what the weapon allows. The sheriff said Kubler fired it twice more — for three-second bursts — as the struggle continued.
Barnes stopped struggling. After officers adjusted his handcuffs, they discovered he was not breathing. Emergency crews were called to the beach, and Barnes was then taken to Bayfront Medical Center.
Gualtieri said there’s no specific policy about using Tasers on handcuffed suspects. But, he said, it is usually proper to use them when someone, like in this case, is using physical resistance against a deputy.
And why would there be policy? When you have an obviously distraught person everyone knows that the only logical thing to do is shoot them full of electricity while they are bound. It’s just common sense. Indeed, I would imagine that deputy’s would appreciate having the leeway to shoot handcuffed suspects full of electricity whenever they need to. Why not? (Well, except for the whole state brutality and possible death thing, but that’s hardly a concern in America, is it?)
I do appreciate how the story is so precise and detailed about the “limited bursts” until the citizen “stopped struggling.” It makes it so nice and clinical.
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