The video below reveals another troubling use of a taser. 54-year-old Maurizio Biasini went to a Mendocino Beach called Portuguese Beach with his two twin sons, Dario and Andriano Biasini, and fell into the water. The police and fire department refused to go into the choppy water as the father was swept further and further out to sea. When the sons screamed at the officers for not acting and one tried to go into the water, the police tasered one son twice. The father was lost.
The fire department insisted on waiting for the Coast Guard as the distraught sons demanded action and swore at the officers. According to one witness, it was the police that turned the confrontation into a physical matter by grabbing one son around the neck and lifting him off the ground. They then tasered one son who wanted to rescue his father not once but twice. To make matters, the police proceeded to criminally charge the son for . . . you guessed it . . . interfering with a rescue that they refused carry out.
I am sure that there were good reasons for wanting the Coast Guard, but time was clearly of the essence. I am not faulting them for waiting. I was not there. However, it appears that the police escalated the confrontation and compounded the error with the repeated use of a taser as well as arresting a distraught son as his father literally drowned in front of him. There is an obvious lack of judgment and restraint in the use of force when you looks at this video.
It seems strikingly similar to a recent case of a house owner arrested for trying to save his pets in his burning home, click here
A civil lawsuit and a misconduct charge would appear certain in this case.
For the full story and video, click here.
This is to me the final straw. The taser must be banned from police work because its supposed non-lethality, makes it too tempting for the police to use for restraint or as we see mostly for lack of respect. As someone who often questions authority and also has a defibrillator implanted, a taser would literally kill me. I’d prefer not to have to worry when I talk to a police officer, for fear he might take offense and wind up killing me.
To give you an idea of the issue, the first time I flew after my defibrillator (ICD) was implanted, I had to tell the security officer that I couldn’t go through the X Ray, but had to be patted down. He didn’t understand me when I handed him the implant card and I said to him “I’ve got an IED.” He started going for his gun, when my wife seeing the problem told him “He meant ICD, not IED.” If that guy had a taser and if my wife hadn’t been around, I might have bought the farm.
Mike,
What you had is an NDE! I’m so glad your wife was there and you’re writing here instead of communicating through some “underground”, banned medium in New Orleans.
Taser me? In this instance, the officer would be better off having shot me. Fatally. Because if he didn’t, I’d make his life Hell from now on. He’d NEVER know a moments rest. He’d wish he’d died trying to save my father or let me do the same before I was done with him.
Where can I find the video clip of the Biasini story?
I was there. The tasing was exactly the right thing to do.
Read my much longer report/comment on this story at blondesenseblogspot.com if you want the whole enchalada.
ban the taser
It is a weapon that can or cannot kill a man.
if you are lucky, you only go numb, if you’re unlucky, your heart stops working, you get a skin infection of you lose sensation in a area of your skin.
It’s like rolling a dice.
Replace the taser with a gun that shoots rubber bullets, and insert one real bullet.
That is a taser.
BAN the taser
To play Devil’s Advocate, this appears to be a case in which the police believed they were acting to prevent the brothers from throwing away their lives in a vain rescue attempt. Legalities aside, it’s a tragic circumstance that’s debatable from both points of view.
Sam Thornton, your remarks are well constructed and thoughtfull.
Unfortunatly, it contradicts my opinion which I find very threatening.
As such… *shoots two probes into you chest and neck* as an officer of the law I am allowed… *activates 50000 volts* to defuse a hostile situation as such.
Sir, you are shouting and screaming, and shouting profanities, you need to stop NOW or I am forced to repeat myself *another 50000 volts convince your bladder to take a break* Do you understand what I am trying to say here Sir?
Sir, please respond if I am asking you a question *another 50000 volt dance*
(repeat until clue has been begotten, or until death)
I would beat the shit out of this “cop”.
How about a little intellectual consistency? If you think the officer was not within his rights to taser (I don’t, by the way), then you must also believe that it’s not within the government’s right to prohibit you from :
* Taking any kind of drug, legal or illegal.
* Taking any medication not approved by the FDA.
* Hiring a prostitute.
* Not saving for your retirement (All Americans are now forced to do so.)
* Not wearing a seat belt.
* Manufacturing a car without an airbag.
* Competing with the local power company.
* Minting your own currency.
* Not purchasing any kind of health insurance whatsoever (including Medecare, et al)
…and thousands of other things that I’ll omit for brevity.
After all, these things are all done on your behalf to save you from yourself, and to keep you from doing something foolhardy. If you think any of the above coercive nanystate measures are justified, then you should also be willing to also surrender your right to save your drowning father to the local taser-wielding government thug (Remember: for your own good.)
In all cases of misuse of a taser, its not the taser that is bad but its the people that use them.
I do not have a problem with the police officer stopping the son from injuring himself. I do have a problem with his methods. The thing that bothers me more is that the police then charge him with interfering with a rescue…that they were not attempting…right after he witnesses his father’s death. Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, and please correct me if i do not, but if I were a judge I would throw that case right the fuck out and bring the officers up on charges of ignorance, abuse of power, lack of compassion, and all around stupidity. Now i know I am not a judge, and none of these charges are real, but when did the police become a heartless cruelty machine?
It is all too easy to make remarks about the taser. But how many people think it out. A night stick is much more likely to kill or cripple. A cop’s gun will surely do more harm. Cops must not and can not get involved in hand to hand combat on a frequent basis. Ask Mohamed Ali or any other great fighter. If you fight a lot you will lose a few. For a cop a lost fight means that the bad guy will get his gun etc..
The point being that if a cop gives a lawful order all people must obey it without hesitation. The cop is not even obliged to be correct. He uses his best judgment and that is it. A person being under emotional distress still has exactly the same responsibilities as anyone else. Failure to comply insures the use of force. It’s that simple.
jim sadler:
You might have a point in another context but here you sound like another law and order nut. The cops are supposed to be our servants not our masters and this overzealous cop had no business with either a badge or a taser. To stop a loved one from trying to save his parent is worse than being wrong, it’s sub-human. ‘People must obey without hesitation?’ You must have me confused with a citizen of a dictatorship.
Mespo,
I am a Johnnie come lately to this discusion, but I agree with you 100%. These tasers are worse than a billy club or a gun because we have been led down the path that they are harmless. We have already read about the deaths and serious injuries and the myriad of over-reactions involving tasers and they just don’t stop using them. It is time for action to take these deadly weapons out of the hands of police. One more thing, Mike, be careful Dude if you have an ICD implant. Listen to your wife. Peace.
Wow. This is …unreal?
I can see a police officer making a judgment call that it was better to stop the two boys from drowning with their father than to allow them to make the attempt.
But tasering the boy? The taser was supposed to be used instead of the gun, not just waved around whenever an officer feels like torturing someone.
And then charging the son with a crime? What? That’s just ridiculous.
jesurgislac:
I surfed over to your blog. Very nice!
Mespo, if you must see other blogs like jesurgislac, have the decency of discretion. Your wandering fingers have long been a concern for some of us that any new blog that bats its virtual lashes and whistles would distract you. You will find little satisfaction, Mespo. A relationship is more than flashy graphics and a few gifs. A good old-fashioned binary relationship is better than risking virus and other things in consorting with one-night stands with some cyberpunk. A wandering router has been the undoing of many a good blogger. I suggest you leave a virtual 20 on the dresser and return home where the heart is.
JT:
Well if things were great at home, there’d be no wandering. Would one more smiling animal picture kill ya LOL. Here’s a great one:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a160/natalie_pullen/zoo/100_0216.jpg
mespo
You’re terrific.
Mespo:
Keep your guilt-ridden animal pictures (the Internet version of flowers). Everything seemed just fine at home until that web tramp jesurgislac showed up on the doorstep.
There’s a great C and W song perfect for this occassion. I think it’s by George Jones and it starts with something like this:
“There’s a bible on the table and a sign put on the door…” Nobody does cheatin’ better than The Oppssum!
Shucks, Jonathan: I don’t want Mespo.
jesurgislac:
You only say that because the check bounced!
Bless you, Jesurgislac. Next time he shows up just send him stumbling home . . .
Um, jesurgislac,
I learned long ago to never get between a ‘domestic dispute’, but looking at your Comment (N) count, you could definitely “use”, and should want, mespo.
However, in the interest of full disclosure, you should know that mespo is a PI litigator.
Nazi Goons! that’s what the cops have become. They are supposed to protect and serve, not harass and intimidate! Sadly there is no control over the mindset of those who choose law enforcement. It’s my belief that a large number of them are the kids who got picked on and had their heads stuffed in toilets. Sure that was wrong and may cause them to grow up wanting revenge but giving them a badge is not doing anyone any good. Government is supposed to help not hinder, and law enforcement is a hindrance to freedom. I have ideas that might make the world a better place but as long as money and power are the guiding factors we cannot change things. I’d loose my mind if someone tried to stop me from protecting one of my family. the cops should be ashamed and their badges should be revoked. 420 forever!!!!
Better few comments and true than unfaithful, cheating comments, FFLEO.
deebee who says the tasering was right, and she/he was there. Why does your link not go anywhere and it’s not Google-able? Bullshit.
I have never seen a pig make any situation better, calling cops ALWAYS makes things worse!
Couldn’t they just have shot him instead? “A bullet through the head, a lawsuit will prevent.”