by Christopher Bollyn
http://educate-yourself.org/pnt/bollyntasertorturedevice09apr06.shtml
April 9,2006

The TASER: A Police Device for Torture and Death by Christopher Bollyn

http://www.bollyn.com/index/?id=10369

Say 'Hello' to 50,000 Volts

The growing use by local police departments of the supposedly "non-lethal" TASER electro-shock weapon has caused the deaths of nearly 200 citizens [April 2006 statistic] in the United States and Canada .

There are reportedly nearly 200 citizens of the United States and Canada who have been killed by the electro-shock police weapon known as the TASER, according to the Auckland, New Zealand-based organization Campaign Against the TASER. From Woonsocket, Rhode Island, to Wisconsin, Colorado, Arizona and California, there are numerous current news reports about the death of a local individual caused by excessive force used by the police involving the TASER weapon.

Photo: The X26 TASER, the police torture/compliance tool that was used on Bollyn in the "drive stun" mode, which is when the square end of the device is held directly against the body. The "drive stun" cannot be applied from a distance or on a moving subject. The "drive stun" can only be used on an individual who is already restrained and held down. This is, by definition, an application of torture. It should be noted that the "drive stun" is used on a daily basis by police across America.

"Primarily for toture"
In 1997, Robin Cook, then Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, said the British government considered all such electro-shock weapons, including the TASER stun gun, commonly used by police in the United States, to be equipment "designed primarily for torture." Cook said the British government would "press for a global ban."

"We are committed to preventing British companies from manufacturing, selling or procuring equipment designed primarily for torture and to press for a global ban", Cook said in July 1997. TASER guns, and similar electric-shock batons and shields were listed by Cook as being the weapons that he would ban from Britain.

TASER is an acronym for "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle," Thomas Swift being a science-fiction character from literature for boys. The actual TASER weapon was designed in 1969 by Arizona inventor Jack Cover and is produced today in a variety of models by TASER International, Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona. Some 7,000 police departments in the United States and Canada currently use TASER guns. No spokesman from TASER International was available to comment for this article.

The TASER gun can be used in two ways. It can either be fired from a short distance at an individual or it can be used as a stun gun that is placed directly on the individual before releasing its charge of 50,000 volts – and higher. The capacity to inflict repeated and extended shocks at the push of a trigger makes the TASER open to abuse in both dart and stun gun mode, critics say. In some cases, individuals have been shot with TASER darts, then threatened or stunned with repeated jolts during transportation or custody. Researchers with the Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project at the University of Bradford (UK), asked,

"What is it like to be incapacitated by a TASER weapon?"

"When fired the TASER propels two barbed darts with trailing wires that attach to the skin or clothing. Upon impact a 50,000-volt electric shock is discharged into the victim for a period of five seconds. Whilst the barbs remain attached this discharge can be repeated multiple times by pulling the trigger again (and again)", researchers Nick Lewer and Neil Davison wrote in their report, Electrical stun weapons: alternative to lethal force or a compliance tool?

Extreme Pain

"The immediate effects are debilitating. The current causes involuntary muscle contraction and extreme pain. The victim completely loses control over their body and falls to the floor until the current stops. The whole experience is both painful and degrading", the Bradford study said.

Amnesty International (AI), the leading anti-torture watchdog organization, has long called on "U.S. state, federal and local authorities to suspend all transfers and use of TASERS and other electro-shock weapons pending a rigorous, independent inquiry into their use and effects."

Amnesty International considers the use of TASERS to constitute "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment – and torture."

Amnesty International has reported that TASER devices are frequently used to torture and interrogate people such as political prisoners and that TASERS are used by police in the U.S. "particularly for torture to 'gain compliance.", but law enforcement agencies in the United States, however, have not heeded Amnesty International's call to suspend use of TASERS. Today, some 7,000 law enforcement agencies, out of a total of 18,000, use TASERS as part of their arsenal.

Amnesty International recently reiterated its concerns about the use of the TASER stun gun on individuals who have already been handcuffed or placed in mechanical restraints. "The use of the TASER in conjunction with restraints has been a common factor in many of the deaths", AI reported on 28 March, 2006

X26c TASER Stun gun

"Amnesty International considers that inflicting excruciating pain on a suspect who is restrained, and not able to pose a serious threat to their own life or that of police officers or members of the public, constitutes an excessive use of force, sometimes amounting to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

A 2004 study by The Denver Post found that in one county, one third of the 112 people shot with a TASER had been handcuffed at the time.

[Author Tasered in front of wife and child]

Amnesty International has repeatedly protested about subjecting individuals to TASER shocks while in restraints. This is, however, exactly what happened to me, in front of my wife and 8-year old daughter, during a brutal attack at my home near Chicago last week by three still un-identified armed men apparently affiliated with the Hoffman Estates Police Department.

I was tortured with the TASER stun gun while I was in handcuffs and pinned down by two of the men, one of whom knelt upon my head.

The police department subsequently fabricated an utterly false report of the incident, which they passed on to the corporate-controlled media. The Chicago Tribune based its brief article on my arrest completely on the fabrications produced by police.

"Police used a TASER to stun a Hoffman Estates man during a struggle after he called authorities to report a suspicious vehicle that turned out to be an unmarked police car", the Tribune article began.

The last sentence repeated the police lie: "The officers stopped Bollyn from entering his house and stunned him with Taser after failing to subdue him."

Clearly, this is an essential lie that the police need the mainstream media to support.

As my wife and daughter can attest, there was no struggle or resistance from my side as I was attacked by the three thugs from behind. The square end of the TASER weapon, and its charge of 50,000 volts, was applied to my lower back as I was handcuffed and pinned down by two men on my front lawn.

As I later wrote the Tribune, "The only possible explanation for the gratuitous use of the TASER weapon in this case is that it was applied to torture me and inflict long-term damage."

A medical expert has informed AFP [Americn Free Press] that TASER energy can cause heart attacks, blood clots, and long-term damage to vital organs. In such instances, AI reported in 2004, the force used by the police officers "violated international standards prohibiting cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as international guidelines on police use of force."

Yet in most cases documented by AI, the police officers were exonerated and not found to have violated any official policies. The Hoffman Estates Police Department appears to be preparing a similar whitewash and has begun an internal investigation to be headed by a Lt. Ted Bos, an officer who has a well-known record of committing similar acts of police brutality, on and off the job.

In 2004, for example, the department paid $100,000 to Sergio Pantoja, a 2001 victim of police brutality at the hands of Bos and two other officers. Now Lt. Bos is being called upon to investigate the Bollyn incident. At the village board meeting on August 21, I told the mayor, the board, the chief of police and their lawyers, that a corrupt "in-house" investigation headed by an officer with a record of police abuse was simply unacceptable.

Christopher Bollyn

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Please see also:

http://www.campaignagainstthetaser.com/

Campaign Against the TASER
http://www.campaignagainstthetaser.com

Florida Student TASERed for Asking Kerry a Question
18 September 2007
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=109969

Related Articles:

ADL Link to Local Police Agencies Uncovered in Chris Bollyn Affair
Click here http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/adl_link_to_local_police.html

TASER Causes Severe Injuries to Police (no link)

BOLLYN and "Patrick Henry" Serve Corrupt Officials
Click here http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?noframes;read=92086

Bollyn Protests Media Lies and Corrupt Police Investigation
Click here http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?noframes;read=92104

Bollyn Press Release on Police Assault with Taser Weapon

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?noframes;read=91985

U.S.: Christopher Bollyn 'Arrested'
UN Observer http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2540&blz=1

See also:

* Death by TASER - The Tragic Death of Roger Holyfield
http://www.bollyn.com/index/?id=10629

* TASER Causes Severe Injuries to Police
http://www.bollyn.com/index/?id=10423

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Recommended Reading and Sources about TASERs:

"The TASER: A Police Device for Torture and Death - Say 'Hello' to 50,000 Volts" by Christopher Bollyn

http://www.bollyn.com/index/?id=10369

"TASER Causes Severe Injuries to Police" by Christopher Bollyn

http://www.bollyn.com/index/?id=10423

"Bollyn Press Release on Police Assault with Taser Weapon" August 17, 2006

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?noframes;read=91985

"Eyeballing Stun Gun Fervor" with many photos about TASERs at:

http://eyeball-series.org/taser/taser-eyeball.htm

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http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=109969

TASER - A Military Tool for Torture & Compliance

Posted By: ChristopherBollyn
Date: Tuesday, 18 September 2007

In Response To: THE TASER INCIDENT : HOAX ? , PROPAGANDA ? , OR SETUP ?, OR REAL? (Striderus)

This posting of the video of the University of Florida student being arrested and TASERed after asking Sen. John Forbes Kerry if he was a member of Skull & Bones is a very important video that should be watched by every American.

You will notice that as the polite university student was asking the question, the blue shirt thugs beside him both look to their left at the same time and then are clearly given an order by the man wearing a tie who is standing behind them. This man then takes the microphone from the student as he is grabbed by the man and woman in blue shirts.

Then the attack begins in earnest. The student has done nothing wrong except to ask a proper question from the microphone during the question session. There was no reason to attack him. The student is grabbed as Kerry tries to answer the question.

Notice how not one single student gets up to come to the defense of the student who is seized by 4 or 5 blue shirts who then TASER him while he is restrained. This is the sad state of affairs in the United States today. Even university students today have become as docile as lambs being led to the slaughter. At what point would these student have decided that a mass protest was required? When they are lined up against the wall?

These students should have protested vigorously this violent abuse of the student's freedom of speech. The attack on him for asking his question was an assault on all Americans freedom of speech. If ten or twenty students had risen from their soft chairs and protected this fine young man in his moment of need things would have turned rather differently. These blue shirt thugs would have been chased off the campus.

The TASERing this fine young man received is exactly what happened to me when three undercover thugs from the Hoffman Estates Police Dept. came to my house in August 2006. In my case, however, I was TASERed while I was handcuffed with one man kneeling on my right temple. I was not resisting arrest in any way. Try to resist being arrested with a 200 lb. man kneeling on your temple and another kneeling on your back with your left hand handcuffed and your right arm trapped beneath your body. The third non-uniformed officer stood nearby in the "lethal position" prepared to deliver a lethal shot with his 45 calibre as he testified carrying during my trial. The TASER in my case was clearly used ONLY to torture me.

I have written several articles about the TASER torture/compliance device used by a growing number of police departments in the United States. It should be noted that the TASER is not a non-lethal device; some 300 Americans have been killed by this torturous weapon. Some police have been severely injured while practicing with the TASER on each other.

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