Facing a public safety committee looking for hard data on taser use on Tuesday night, Chief of Police Frank Limon presented the bare bones numbers: There were 12 incidents of taser in December, tasers were used a total of 115 times in 2010, and there were 116 incidents in 2009.
So reported Police Chief Frank Limon Wednesday night to members of the Board of Aldermen’s Public Safety Committee gathered at City Hall.
Aldermen said they appreciated the information—but they want more.
“There doesn’t seem to be much context,” said committee Chairman Alex Rhodeen. “And not that it can’t be found out, but that’s really the area of interest.”
Rhodeen said the New Haveners he’d spoken to were looking for confirmation of the value of the tasers, which police started receiving in 2007 after controversial public debate. “They say, ‘Well how do you know if they really work?’ And I say, ‘Well no one got shot [by real guns].’ But it was brought to my attention that that’s really not enough of a standard.”
Taser Use: the Numbers
Causes for taser use in the month of December varied, according to Limon. Three incidents involved interfering arrests. Two involved unlawful discharge investigations. The cases also included one fight, one emotionally disturbed person, the evading of an accident, one incident involving a handgun, one case of domestic assault, a narcotics investigation and a disorderly conduct arrest.
As of this month, Limon reported, 182 tasers are in use at the NHPD. That number includes the 32 tasers added to the arsenal in 2010.
Tasers were introduced mostly in response to a series of shootings in 2004, two of which involved the fatalities of emotionally disturbed people. Read more about the introduction of tasers to the force here. For some examples of incidents involving tasers, click here, here, here, here, here.
Those tasers received renewed attention in 2010 in the wake of an incident a Yale student and a club raid.
More after you follow the link.
Yesterday New Haven Against Police Brutality delivered a christmas card to police Chief Limon with photos of three men after each of them was assaulted by Officer Dennis O’Connell. There was also anti-police brutality caroling. If I can get the song lyrics I’ll post them, because it might be handy for others to use.
Yesterday New Haven Against Police Brutality delivered a christmas card to police Chief Limon with photos of three men after each of them was assaulted by Officer Dennis O’Connell. There was also anti-police brutality caroling. If I can get the song lyrics I’ll post them, because it might be handy for others to use.
Yesterday New Haven Against Police Brutality delivered a christmas card to police Chief Limon with photos of three men after each of them was assaulted by Officer Dennis O’Connell. There was also anti-police brutality caroling. If I can get the song lyrics I’ll post them, because it might be handy for others to use.
From the article:
Once again police officers did not make the list for America’s Ten Most Dangerous Jobs. Despite this fact, the perceived dangers of police work are often used as a justification for police misconduct. If you look in the comment section of any article about police misconduct you will find it riddled with the predictable defense of the officers actions by someone who states “they put their lives on the line everyday to protect us.”
Even if it was true that police officers “put their lives on the line everyday” (I’ll address that below), it is not a valid defense for police thuggery. Would anyone defend a truck driver’s actions if he ran a car off the road? What if the truck driver said “the other driver made a furtive move with his vehicle, I feared for my safety, so I had to run him off the road to protect myself.” Would you buy that explanation? Most likely you would not, even though a truck driver’s job is very dangerous, more dangerous than a police officer’s job. Why are people so willing to give officers the benefit of the doubt, when they would not do so for those who work in other more dangerous professions?
#dayx3 #demo2010 #bcops Eyewitnesses say that Jody McIntyre, a journalist and blogger who took part in today’s London protest against student tuition fees, was pulled from his wheelchair on two separate occasions by riot police.
(Source: brutalcops)
Arizona
California
(Source: ihaveyettodeletethis)
Our buddy Luis was arrested for videotaping the police, with the arrest order coming directly from the assistant Chief. The story is getting pretty big press coverage.
Very good critique of how the discussion around police interactions leaves out the complications brought up by disabilities. Important things we need to be aware of when we talk about tactics in our organizing.
The outcome of interactions with law enforcement is highly inconsistent and is very much tied in with intersectional issues like race. Let’s say you have a situation where a person who uses a cane is pulled over and ordered to get out of the car. The person says ‘ok, but, Officer, I want you to know that I use a cane for mobility. It is not a weapon, but I do need it to stand and walk safely, and I wanted you to know that before I got out of the car.’ The race of the person being pulled over shouldn’t affect the way the officer responds to that, but it will, and the colour of your skin should not determine whether you get your mobility device seized or not.
The idea that you just tell the Nice Officer about your disabilities and everything is ok is quaint and all, but really does not work out in practice. I’m trying to imagine a situation where I say ‘Officer, I’m not trying to give you the sideye, I just have a very difficult time making eye contact with people.’ Yeah. That’s going to go over real well. How many cases of ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ do there need to be before we acknowledge that the ‘communication breakdown’ here is not on the side of people with disabilities, but on the side of law enforcement?
…
But one thing I see repeatedly being left out, not just from guides for civilians, but also in pushes for police reform, is better training for interacting with people with disabilities. I see lip service occasionally, usually in the wake of really awful cases like Deaf folks being shot for ‘refusing’ to comply with verbal orders from police, but I don’t see much follow through. Some disability rights organisations are working with individual police departments; I’ve actually interacted directly with several police officers and provided advice and suggestions on making encounters with people with disabilities go more smoothly, but this reduces the situation to individual cases. It’s good that something rather than nothing is happening, but I would like to see nationwide policy initiatives, like very clear requirements that all law enforcement officers receive appropriate training in working with people with disabilities.
New Haven Against Police Brutality, of which Copwatch is a member, held the first of our neighborhood marches this past Saturday. We had good turnout, people joined in off the street, and we ended with a meeting at the library about different kinds of work being done against police brutality. It was a success!
Work being done by friends against racial profiling of Latino immigrants in East Haven, CT.
