Use of Force Continuum needs revisiting due to lethal nature of taser guns (Day of Blogging for Justice)
Categories: African-American, Blogging, Featured, Justice/Law Enforcement
Written By: Shawn Williams
We have talked quite a bit about the lethal nature of tasers here at Dallas South. Most recently the device also known as a “stun gun” was in the news due to the death of Baron “Scooter” Pikes. Pikes was shocked nine times with a Taser in the town of Winnfield, Louisiana.
It’s time for law agencies across the country to revisit the use of this device. The rate at which African-Americans are subject to taser shocks seems out of whack to say the least. But a revision in the Use of Force Continuum could make this deadly tool less likely to be used as an instrument of torture and retaliation.
As documented here by way of Electronic Village, the use of force continuum provides law enforcement with a guide of how much force to use against a resisting subject. Those guidelines go as follows:
Level One * Officer Presence
Level Two * Verbal Commands
Level Three * Empty Hand Control
Level Four * Pepper Spray, Baton, Taser
Level Five * Less Lethal
Level Six * Deadly Force
My suggestion would be that law enforcement consider moving the Taser away from level 4 and creating a 7th level. The new continuum might look like this:
1) Officer Presence - 2) Verbal Commands - 3) Empty Hand Control - 4) Pepper Spray/Baton - 5) Less Lethal Force - 6) Taser - 7) Lethal Force
The reason for this change would be that tasers have been shown to be quite lethal. Taser Nation reports that there have been 360 people to die in North America as a result of tasers since 2001. Truth Not Tasers posts a lists 363 individuals that they report have been killed by tasers. Here is a list of 46 people that they say have died in 2008 from tasers, which includes a recent death in Dallas.
318. January 2, 2008: Brandon Smiley, 27, Mobile, Alabama
319. January 5, 2008: Ryan Rich, 33, Las Vegas, Nevada
320. January 9, 2008: Otis C. Anderson, 36, Fayetteville, North Carolina
321. January 11, 2008: Xavier Jones, 29, Coral Gables, Florida
322. January 15, 2008: Mark Backlund, 29, New Brighton, Minnesota
323. January 17, 2008: Baron Pikes, 21, Winnfield, Louisiana
324. January 18, 2008: Daniel Hanrahan, 44, Staten Island, New York
325. February 3, 2008: Louis Cryer, 32, Port Arthur, Texas
326. February 3, 2008: Joseph Davis, 50, Brandon, Mississippi
327. February 7, 2008: Richard Earl Abston, 53, Merced, California
328. February 19, 2008: Garrett Sean Farn, 41, Bakersfield, California
329. February 26, 2008: Barron Harvey Davis, 44, Mayes County, Oklahoma
330. March 4, 2008: Christopher Jackson, 37, Clay, New York
331. March 6, 2008: Javier Aguilar, 46, Roswell, New Mexica
332. March 18, 2008: Roberto Gonzalez, 24, Chicago, Illinois
333. March 20, 2008: Darryl Wayne Turner, 17, Charlotte, North Carolina
334. March 21, 2008: James Garland, 41, Deerfield Beach, Florida
335. March 29, 2008: Henry Bryant, 35, Indianapolis, Indiana
336. March 30, 2008: Walter Edward Haake Jr., 59, Topeka, Kansas
337. April 2, 2008: Jason Jesus Gomez, 35, Santa Ana, California
338. April 6, 2008: Yvelt Occean, 31, New Kent County, Virginia
339. April 22, 2008: Uriah Samson Dach, 26, Richmond, California
340. April 24, 2008: Kevin Piskura, 24, Cincinnati, Ohio
341. April 24, 2008: Dewayne Chatt, 39, Memphis, Tennessee
342. April 27, 2008: Paul Thompson, 24, Greensboro, North Carolina
343. April 28, 2008: Jermaine Ward, 28, Jackson, Tennessee
344. May 4, 2008: Joe Kubat, 21, St. Paul, Minnesota
345. May 6, 2008: James S. Wilson, 22, Alton, Missouri
346. May 28, 2008: Ricardo Manuel Abrahams, 44, Woodland, California
347. May 31, 2008: Robert Ingram, 27, Raceland, Louisiana
348. June 5, 2008: Willie Maye, 43, Birmingham, Alabama
349. June 6, 2008: Donovan Graham, 39, Meriden, Connecticut
350. June 8, 2008: Quintrell T. Brannon, 25, Vincennes, Indiana
351. June 9, 2008: Tony Curtis Bradway, 26, Brooklyn, New York
352. June 23, 2008: Jeffrey Marreel, 36, Norfolk, Ontario
353. June 24, 2008: Ernest Graves, 26, Rockford, Illinois
354. June 27, 2008: Nicholas Cody, 27, Dothan, Alabama
355. July 2, 2008: Isaac Bass, 34, Louisville, Kentucky
356. July 4, 2008: Othello Pierre, 23, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
357. July 8, 2008: Samuel DeBoise, 29, St. Louis, Missouri
358. July 8, 2008: Carlos Vargas, 42, San Bernardino, California
359. July 14, 2008: Marion Wilson Jr., 52, Houston, Texas
360. July 14, 2008: Deshoun Keyon Torrence, 18, Long Beach, California
361. July 22, 2008: Michael Langan, 17, Winnipeg, Manitoba
362. July 23, 2008: Richard Smith, 46, Dallas, Texas
363. July 26, 2008: Anthony Davidson, Statesville, 29, North Carolina
The uneven use of tasers against African-Americans is alarming and is documented at Tasered While Black. But a common sense solution by law enforcement could make it more difficult for officers to misuse this deadly weapon. We must continue to put pressure on the agencies involved until the changes are made.
February 3rd, 2009 at 5:27 pm
I’m the Mother of DeShoun Torrence and highly recommend for the tasering be stoppped due the lost of my son. We are tax payers and pay tax for jails and prisons so why so many families are suffering from lost of love ones due to police brutality.
February 15th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I agree, police officers should not be using tasers anymore. They are way too lethal. The police should stick to batons and their guns. A person is less likely to die from being beaten with a baton, and if any kind of gun needs to be used it might as well be a real one. They should strike with the baton till the person complies of if using their gun, shoot till the person is no longer a threat to anyone.
August 12th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Why don’t you publish statistics on how many people DID NOT die when tasered?
The threat of being tasered diffusion thousands of situation weekly. People see the taser and decide to comply.
If the office uses a baton or asp, then people scream police brutality.
September 16th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Tasers while being effective , have also made many children father and motherless, many husbands and wives widowed, and made many families mourn deaths of thier loved ones, anything that causes that kind of tragedy should be considered too effective….especially when now on the list are young children of 15 16 and 17 losing their lives to these tasers. I Am the mother of a child who lost her father to tasing at 3 mos old. She is now almost 2, and will never now how great of a father her dad was too her, and that makes me want tasers to be gone for Good!!!!
September 16th, 2009 at 10:02 am
By the way he is number 350 on this very list
September 17th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
MY cousin shannon graves also known as ernest was killed last year and that has had a big effect on our family. I wish the police would think twice before using deadly force. And they need to start listening to people, my cousin told the police officers that he could not breath and they did not take him seriously and that led to his death. I want to be a detective so I can solve crimes like this and give famlies the closure that they want. RIP SHANNON ERNEST GRAVES