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Today in Tasering: WTF Edition

Submitted by scarshapedstar on Sun, 2008-07-20 14:24.

Via Booman, read the whole thing.

Back in the great state of Louisiana, Baron “Scooter” Pikes was spotted by the police while walking peacefully down the street. Given his outstanding warrant for possession, one Officer Nugent gave chase, and Pikes was cornered. Due to his failure to submit, Nugent tased him. Nine times. In 14 minutes. While Pikes surrendered and begged him to stop.

Pikes died shortly thereafter. He was a healthy man of 33 years. Nugent claimed that, in an apparent Bob Woodward-style near-death confession, he told them (in between the screams of pain and death rattles) that he was high on crack and PCP (never heard that one before!) and had asthma. The coroner found no evidence for any of these claims and ruled the death a homicide, but hey, what are you gonna believe, hearsay from a hardly-impartial participant or hard science from a 33-year veteran?

In an apparent goodwill gesture to shock Pikes back to life, Nugent admitted that he tased Pikes twice while he was unconscious and in custody.

I really wish I could link to the part of the Milgram experiment wherein the actor “dies” and the unwitting partipant shocks him again, and again, and again. Gee, I don’t know why. A person administering an electrical shock that they are told is, well, maybe-sorta-safe, but they definitely won’t be held responsible if things go awry… nah, never mind, there’s no similarity there whatsoever. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Safer than bungee jumping, y’all! Thank god the cops didn’t have to use lethal force. Things could have gotten ugly.

Fucked Fact (tm Maru): Officer Nugent is the department’s most “enthusiastic” taser user and once tased an innocent 15-year-old runaway. But hey, Nugent once got a 1-second shock from a taser, so he’s absolved of any responsibility.

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Now that the Supreme Court has said the right to bear arms....

Submitted by lambert on Sun, 2008-07-20 14:34.

… is an individual right, perhaps I can let go of my dream of owning a taser, and go for the real article…

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Milgram

Submitted by FrenchDoc on Sun, 2008-07-20 14:56.

Sidebar material...

Submitted by lambert on Sun, 2008-07-20 15:20.

I wish I hadn’t seen that video.

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

I still owe you a post on Milgram

Submitted by FrenchDoc on Sun, 2008-07-20 15:33.

I haven’t forgotten!

Thank ya, Doc!

Submitted by scarshapedstar on Sun, 2008-07-20 15:34.

The whole 90-minute film, “Obedience”, used to be on Google Video. It pops up occasionally… my favorite part was one of the stronger-willed partipants, who refused to go on the moment the actor started complaining. Milgram told him “The experiment requires that you continue” and he responded with something like “The hell do I care about your experiment?” After he stopped, he explained, “Who are you? I don’t know you. Why should I listen to you?” in between cigarettes of course… gotta love the Fifties. It’s one of my all-time favorite moments captured on film.

But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists!!

Correction

Submitted by scarshapedstar on Sun, 2008-07-20 15:40.

Actually the final exchange was more like:

“You have no other choice, you must go on.”

“What do you mean, I don’t have a choice? Sure, I have a choice.”

But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists!!

Bonus quote from Milgram

Submitted by scarshapedstar on Sun, 2008-07-20 15:47.

Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ [participants’] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ [participants’] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.

Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.

But hey. Surely the police are different. And they know what the tasee is going through! After all, nobody gave the subjects of the Milgram Experiment an electric shock beforehand… wait, what, they did? Hmm…..

But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists!!

Akron Courts decide that Taser deaths are "fooey"

Submitted by LuigiDaMan on Sun, 2008-07-20 17:26.

That’s right! We already had a court case where the City of Akron sued alongside the Taser Corporation AGAINST the Summit County Coroner who had ruled that, hell yes, you use a taser against someone a bunch of times and they die THAT MIGHT ACTUALLY BE THE CAUSE!! The Akron Beacon Journal no longer makes their archives available after seven days, but here’s what my search picked up:

DISCOVERY AT TRIAL WHAT CAUSED THE DEATH OF MARK MCCULLAUGH AT THE COUNTY JAIL?
Wed, May 21, 2008
More, in a civil case brought by the makers of the Taser stun gun and the city of Akron, visiting Judge Ted Schneiderman ruled both that the weapon could not be listed as contributing to the cause …