14 The Hampton Roads Messenger


Volume 10 Number 5


Expert: Stun-Guns Far From ‘Nonlethal’ Alternative to Bullets


James: Exposure to Taser blasts


used to be a mandatory part of ECW training. But the [nonprofit] Police Executive


Research Forum came


out with a model policy a few years ago saying there’s too much injury to use Tasers in training situations with officers. And the U.S. military has done the same. Their “Electronic Control Weapon Guideline” states, "Agencies should be aware


January 2016


officers in controlled settings to show that they’re safe? If he’s telling the truth, he’s going to say, “No, we’re not going to do that.”


Bottom line: They’re not safe to


use on unarmed people and they’re not safe for police to use against armed suspects.


Q: What are appropriate uses of ECWs? James: None in my view. The that exposure to


ECW application during training could result in injury to personnel and is not recommended.”


So my question is, if law


enforcement knows ECWs are too risky to use even in very controlled training circumstance,


why the BY PAUL KLEYMAN SAN FRANCISCO--In the wake


of public outcry over the latest police shooting of an unarmed African American, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr has revived his previous call to equip his offers with electronic stun-guns, also called electronic control weapons (ECWs). With similar cases in Chicago, New York and Miami, New America Media’s Paul Kleyman interviewed Aram James, a leading opponent of ECWs about their risks. James, a former public defender in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, spent over 25 years in the public defender system. Now in private law practice, he is a consultant and advocate opposing the use of Tasers. Following are excerpts from the interview.


Question: You’ve been critical of


arguments that ECWs are a nonlethal or less lethal alternative to guns. What are the myths you've raised regarding Tasers?


Aram James: That Tasers save


lives is the first myth. That’s a lie. That Tasers can be used as a substitute for deadly force--that’s not true, that’s not accurate. A 2011 Department of Justice (DOJ) report found that over 200 Americans have died after being shocked by Tasers and the advocacy group Truth Not Tasers has documented over 900 deaths from them since 2004.


They are the most likely of the intermediate-force


weapons, which


Tasers were designed as, to kill. Other intermediate-force weapons would be a pepper spray, batons, take-downs, verbal commands, canines, etcetera.


Q: That same DOJ report says


several police departments have seen reduced injuries by using ECWs as a “less lethal” weapon. What’s your response?


James: The issue is appropriate use. People have said, “Well, Mr. James, wouldn’t you rather be shot by a Taser than a gun?” And I say, of course, but that’s a red herring. If you have a knife or gun I’m not going to use a Taser to stop you. At that point a police officer needs to have a gun. Alternatively, it’s the most lethal intermediate weapon to use with people who are unarmed. A recent study by the Stanford Criminal Defense Clinic makes it very clear that


research on Tasers undercuts arguments for adopting them. If you talk to law enforcement


offices who know Tasers, you don’t take a Taser to a gunfight. Tasers are effective about 70 percent of the time in dart mode, and 60 percent of the time directly applied to the body. So, if I have a knife or a gun in a range close enough to use it against a police officer, you absolutely do not use a Taser. The training is shoot center mass to kill.


Q: So, who are police using


ECWs on? James: A 2014 study from


the Nebraska three-quarters


ACLU said that of Taser blasts they


included were used on vulnerable populations. Over and over again studies have shown that disproportion- ately Tasers are used on young African Americans, Hispanics, the mentally ill, elders and other groups at high risk for injury. Documented cases there included a nine-year-old boy and a 63-year-old man who was confused.


In 2005, the Houston Chronicle


reported that local police officers used Tasers on minorities 87 percent of the time. The paper followed up two years later with an analysis of over 1,000 incidents showing almost all were unarmed. And Houston police used Tasers over 120 times on people with mental illness.


Studies also show that many of the most serious injuries or deaths have occurred when officers inappro- priately tased someone repeatedly or with a continuous charge.


Q: How did you get involved with this issue?


James: I first got involved in 2003, with the Coalition for Justice and Accountability in San Jose. It came into existence shortly after the murder of a mentally-ill San Jose citizen, Cau Bich Tran. Police shot her in her kitchen seconds after they entered and saw her holding what turned out to be a vegetable peeler.


Members of the coalition,


including me, initially supported the use of Tasers, believing they’d save lives, having bought the propaganda and the deceptive ad campaign put out by the major manufacturer, Taser International. But we learned that’s simply not true. The company has also lost lawsuits stemming from injuries or deaths when police used Tasers, also believing their claims.


Q: How are Tasers used in police training?


heck would they want to use it on unarmed citizens in uncontrolled street situations? The question I would put to [Police Chief ] Greg Suhr is, are you willing to use these on your own


Whoppers FROM PAGE 6


inequality than any other major country on earth.” Actually, the World Bank estimated that


at least 41 countries


had greater income inequality than the U.S. As for the share of wealth held by the top 1 percent, the U.S. ranked 16th out of 46 economies included in the Global Wealth Databook.


Sanders on Climate Link to


Terrorism: Sanders said “climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism.” The Department of Defense has referred to climate change as a “ ‘threat multiplier’ — because it has the potential to exacerbate many of the challenges we are dealing with today – from infectious disease to terrorism.” As for the current rise in terrorism, one study concluded that climate


change likely worsened a


drought in Syria and contributed to instability there. But the report stopped short of drawing a direct causal link between climate change and the Syrian civil war, let alone between climate change and terrorism.


former


O’Malley on Wages: In October, Maryland


Gov. Martin


O’Malley claimed that “70 percent of us are earning the same, or less than we were 12 years ago.” Not true. Average weekly earnings for rank-and-file workers are up 5.8 percent, according to Labor Department statistics.


Other Republican Whoppers Fiorina on Planned Parenthood


Video: Carly Fiorina falsely claimed that Planned Parenthood videos released by an


anti-abortion group


showed “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.” But that scene isn’t in any of the videos. She continued to insist that she had “seen the footage” after her vivid description was shown to be false.


Fiorina on Job Losses: Fiorina


claimed that 92 percent of the job losses in President Obama’s first term belonged to women, but women — and men — gained jobs by the end of Obama’s first term. After initially sticking by the claim the day after the debate, Fiorina relented and admitted she had “misspoken.” She said, “Well, in this particular case the fact-checkers


are correct.” Cruz on Refugees: Sen. Ted Cruz


falsely claimed the 2013 immigration bill Sen. Marco Rubio cosponsored “would have dramatically expanded President Obama’s authority to admit Syrian refugees with no background checks


whatsoever.” Not so. The


bill would have made it easier for members of certain groups designated by the president to qualify as refugees, but they would still be subject to the required background checks


before


they could come to the U.S. Cruz


on Hispanic


Unemployment: Cruz said “Hispanic unemployment has gone up” under Obama. Actually, it’s the reverse. The number and the rate of unemployed Hispanics are both


Carson on Choosing to Be Gay in Prison: Ben Carson claimed that being gay is “absolutely” a choice, and as proof he said “a lot of people” go into prison and change their sexual orientation while incarcerated. There is no evidence to support these claims.


Carson on Illegal Immigration: Carson said that “a lot” of the people captured crossing the U.S. border and then released are from Iraq, Somalia and Russia. He’s wrong. Federal statistics show that number is less than 1 percent.


Carson on Syrian Refugees:


Carson said that the majority of Syrian refugees are “young males.” But the United Nations’ figures showed that women outnumber men, and children 11 years old and younger, male and female, account for 38.5 percent of all refugees.


Bush claimed that unclear


as


contribute United


to


Bush on Climate Change: Jeb the


science Nations climate is


to how much humans global warming. The change


research organization, however, said it was “extremely likely” that more than half of the warming since 1950 is due to human activities.


For fact-checkers, 2015 has been a whopper of a year. We hope we won’t see another like it, or feel compelled to name another King of Whoppers, for a long time.


alternative, more community police is the key. When police officers are walking the beat and know people in their communities, and their vulnera- bilities they’re much less likely to use force in those circumstance.


Community intervention policing, crisis training--a lot of


departments have a small percentage of their officers who have been properly trained in crisis interventions. Getting police out of their cars into the communities, walking the beat, riding


their neighborhood, bicycles, walking there’s plenty the there


to look at in terms of how we can do community policing in a much more effective and constitutional fashion.


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