Many police departments spent countless minutes trying to get people off building ledges or perches. New York police, however, have a more efficient approach: they shot him with a taser and collect him after he falls. In the case of Inman Morales, 35, it resulted in his death.
Morales was found naked on the top of a roll-down gate about ten feet above the ground. He was dancing as people took pictures as police tried to grab him. He was wielding a florescent light bulb when an officer shot him with a taser and hit him for five seconds with 50,000 volts. He fell head first and died. For the video, click here.
It turns out that he was having a bad reaction to medication. The question is why the police didn’t just shatter the florescent light with a baton if they considered it to be a danger.
Police seems to have a serious problem with naked people, here.
NYPD.
To protect and swerve.
I find it amazing that cops are permitted to use these devices, designed to look like and function like a handgun, at their leisure.
“NEVER POINT THE GUN AT ANYTHING YOU’RE NOT PREPARED TO DESTROY” is one of the first lessons of gun handling.
You’d think that the aforesaid rule would apply in some way to the use of tasers. Who says 50,000 volts throughout the entire body is less harmful than a bullet in the leg or arm?
How many of these things have thrown people into shock, seizure or cardiac arrest?
And where are the rules about where and when to use these things? Further, what’s the difference between tossing a man off a ledge and tasering a man off a ledge?
And that’s my two cents.
This made me remember a surprisingly insightful article that the comedy website Somethingawful had on non-lethal weapons last year. Here’s a couple of the best quotes:
“Until the 1980s, most cops only had one tool at their disposal: a wooden club. In use since caveman times by caveman police, this simple device has allowed cops to have a slight advantage over unarmed criminals.
With the wooden club there was an honest interplay between cops and the public. It was understood that if you try to hit a cop he is going to beat your face with the club. Sometimes he might hit you with his club once or twice if you get lippy and no one is around. Not cool, but it was what you get for mouthing off to the cop on a deserted road after he pulled you over for a busted taillight. The club was just a harder and hurtier version of a fist, and you can hardly expect a cop to go fistless.”
“…that the woman in the video was pulled over for having a taillight out and was tased for refusing to comply with the officer’s instructions. That seems like an awfully shitty reason to be shot and electrocuted. In that situation the Taser did not take the place of a firearm, nor did it fill in for a baton strike. The cop in the video did not seem angry and I doubt he was breaking the rules by shooting the woman with his Taser.”
i am just out of breath from all of these taser injuries and deaths. This device is dangerous and more dangerous than advertised. How many of these stories will it take before the police take these “safe” weapons off the street? Now, about these braniacs that hit this guy with any kind of weapon. They should be spending some time in jail. Shooting voltage into an obviously disturbed individual when he was situated in a very dangerous location is foolish at best. Bob,Esq. your question is the same as mine. Where are the controls on the use of these weapons and when should they be used at all?
“Non-lethal” weapons are a requirement for an effective police state. Think about it.