Another Taser death at the hands of Canada's police

lessen the voltage

physical differences

] Justice Minister Cecil Clarke ordered the review into the use of Tasers in Nova Scotia, he said, following the death of a 45-year-old man who died in police custody on Wednesday, hours after being zapped. “I have ordered Police Services officials in my department to immediately begin a review of policies and procedures regarding Taser use in Nova Scotia'' by law enforcement, corrections staff and sheriffs, Mr Clarke said. “At the same time, RCMP are being called in to investigate the circumstances of the death at the correctional facility and I understand Halifax Regional Police will also have the RCMP conduct an external investigation into the arrest.'' In October, Robert Dziekanski, 40, died after being shocked repeatedly by policemen with a Taser stun gun only 60 seconds after they first approached him at the Vancouver airport in westernmost Canada. A bystander’s video released last week showed the four officers then piled on top of the distraught traveller as he lay writhing and screaming in pain on the floor, and within minutes he fell still. Days later, a Montreal man died in hospital after being shocked by police with a stun gun, touted as a safer alternative to firearms. [url=http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22807924-23109,00.html:
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] “The use of these weapons causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture,'' the UN’s Committee against Torture said. “In certain cases, they can even cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life events,'' the committee of 10 experts said. Three men, all in their early 20s, were reported to have died in the United States this week, days after a Polish man died at Vancouver airport after being Tasered by Canadian police. The man, Robert Dziekanski, 40, fell to the ground and died after the police officers piled on top of him. There have been three deaths in Canada after the use of Tasers over the past five weeks. The company that makes the weapons has said that similar deaths have been shown by “medical science and forensic analysis'' to be “attributable to other factors and not the low-energy electrical discharge of the Taser”. The UN committee made its comments in recommendations to Portugal, which has bought the newest Taser X26 stun gun for use by police. Portugal “should consider giving up the use of the Taser X26,'' as its use can have a grave physical and mental impact on those targeted, which violates the UN’s Convention against Torture, the experts said. [url:
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] Trooper Jon Gardner of the Utah Highway Patrol Tasered Jared Massey as he was walking back to his car on September 14. The UHT has received thousands of phone calls and emails criticising Trooper Gardner since the video appeared on YouTube. There have also been online threats against the officer, Fox News reported. “I wish people would have some common decency every once in awhile," Mr Massey said. “When I posted the video it wasn’t to vilify the guy, demean him or destroy him, and that’s one of the things I hate about this. “I wish people would realise and think about this: Trooper Gardner is a real person, he’s got a real family. Real lives are being affected." UHP spokesman Sgt Jeff Nigbur downplayed the insults. “I think mostly it’s people blowing off steam, and that’s fine," he said. “But you can’t say you’re going to endanger somebody’s life." Sgt Nigbur said there was no evidence that Trooper Gardner was in danger. The UHP is still investigating the Tasering incident. [url:
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] A Minnesota man who died after being Tasered by state troopers this week was a healthy 29-year-old, his family said Thursday. Mark Backlund’s parents and sister said they had no answers for what led to a confrontation between Backlund and troopers following a rush-hour crash Tuesday evening. Backlund suffered from a bad back and sometimes drank too much Mountain Dew, but “other than that he was healthy," his father, Gordon Backlund, said from the family’s living room in this northern Twin Cities suburb. Autopsy results released Thursday shed no light, saying “further studies” were needed. The Minnesota State Patrol has said only that Backlund was “uncooperative” with troopers after crashing his car on Interstate 694 in the northern Twin Cities suburb of New Brighton. He had planned to drive to the Twin Cities airport to pick up his parents, who were returning from a short trip to Florida. His parents said they tried calling him when they arrived and were still at the airport when one of Mark’s friends called crying, saying Mark was in a car accident and had died, Gordon Backlund said. Hospital staff told Backlund his son’s arms had been “flailing around” before his heart stopped. “They couldn’t get his heart started," Backlund said. The Backlunds said their thoughts Thursday were more on remembering Mark than on questioning how he died. “There’s an inquiry, and we’ll see the result," Gordon Backlund said. “Yes it’s important, and in due process we’ll know, but right now it’s secondary, if that." [url=http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4154984&page=1:
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] In May 2007, the French branch of Amnesty issued a statement claiming 220 US deaths had been linked to a Taser gun put up for auction on eBay. After a complaint from SMP Technologies, which has supplied Taser guns to the French army, police and gendarmerie since 2004, Amnesty said it had sent out the statement by mistake. An investigation showed the eBay item was a publicity gadget, not a Taser gun, Amnesty said. SMP’s lawyer, Catherine Hennequin, said Amnesty agreed to publish a clarification but has yet to do so eight months on, and has continued to claim deaths were linked to the weapon’s use. Amnesty’s lawyer Simon Foreman said his client was mistaken about the eBay sale, but not about the “dangerous nature” of the Taser itself. He accused SMP of taking legal action “with the sole aim of intimidation”. Amnesty International says 300 people have died around the world after being zapped with a Taser and has called for the weapon’s use to be suspended pending a full investigation. The Taser packs a 50,000-volt punch that can paralyse targets from up to 10m away. The UN Committee against Torture ruled in November that its use constitutes “a form of torture” which can result in death. The UN criticism followed a string of deaths in the US and Canada after police used Tasers to subdue people, including a Polish man who was filmed dying after being stunned at Vancouver airport. A verdict in the French trial is due on March 11. [url:
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] The U.S.-based manufacturer of the controversial stun guns, Taser International, has won a court order in Ohio that forces a medical examiner to change autopsy reports. Dr. Lisa Kohler had found that electrical shocks from Tasers were partially to blame for the deaths of three men in separate confrontations with police. Taser International launched and won a civil suit, forcing Kohler to delete any reference to the deaths being related to electric shocks, and to term them “accidental deaths." Dr. Matthew Stanbrook of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) says the decision doesn’t take into account the difficult of determining an exact cause of death in almost every case. “If we were required to have at the level of scientific and medical certainty that something was the cause of death, before we were permitted to declare it, most of the people who died in North America would have died of unknown causes," Stanbrook said. “It is a physician making their best judgment given all the facts available." Stanbrook is deputy editor of the CMA Journal, which last week carried an editorial that expressed discontent with the current research into the effects of Taser use on suspects. The editorial said most of that work was done at the behest of Taser International and needed to be verified by independent researchers. “New and independent research, both epidemiologic and biological, into whether Tasers can kill is essential to settle this issue," the editorial said. Doctors and medical examiners in the United States have also expressed unease over the Ohio court decision. [url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/05/07/taser-court.html?ref=rss:
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