Author: mopress

By Greg Moses

IndyMedia Austin

As details of the Austin case are still being
puzzled together by press and police officials, local activists said at
a press conference Tuesday afternoon that tasers are dangerous enough
to be taken out of service pending further review.

[Wednesday’s
Statesman reports that 33-year-old Michael Clark was shocked multiple
times after being pepper sprayed during a struggle involving nine
police officers. Family members told the Statesman that Clark was using
crutches after a leg injury Sunday]

Austin Dullnig of the
Texas Civil Liberties Union questioned police use of lethal force in
two recent incidents: the fatal shooting of "130 pound 18-year-old"
Daniel Rocha who was allegedly resisting arrest in June during a
traffic stop/drug bust; and now the death of a 30-something African
American male who allegedly struggled with nine police officers who
were called to the scene of a fight between the man and a woman. Police
have been slow to post an official version of Monday’s Taser associated
death. As of midnight Tuesday, no press releases mentioning the
incident appear at the department’s official web site.

Although
Austin Police Chief Stan Knee has been widely quoted saying that
Monday’s death was, "the first time someone has died in custody after
being Tased," activists point to the case of Abel Ortega Perez who "was
tased several times and later died". The Austin Chronicle reports that
the official cause of death for Mr. Perez was "accidental overdose".
The American-Statesman reports that police say Perez also had a
superficial head wound prior to the burglary he was arrested for
committing. Could the head wound prove to be the official cause of
death? Statesman reporter Joshunda Sanders writes that the final
autopsy (for the June 2004 case?) was still unavailable Monday night.
Sanders attended Tuesday’s press conference outside police headquarters
(see press release below).

The Perez case went unreported in
the press for more than a year, until local activists noticed a taser
associated death in a routine statistical report. The Chronicle
mentioned the case in August when reporting on an admission by Taser
International, Inc. that "repeated, prolonged and/or continuous
exposure to the Taser may cause strong muscle contractions that may
impair breathing and respiration, particularly when the [weapon’s
metal] probes are placed across the chest or diaphragm."

‘When
Taser International admits their product is lethal, then you know you
have a problem," said Debbie Russell at Tuesday’s press conference.

Try
"dies taser" on your favorite search engine. Try "dies taser" on your
favorite search engine under news. In California, South Carolina,
Nashville, and now in Austin, four people died this past week following
taser attacks. In late August, men died in Ohio and Florida following
taser attacks. In the Florida and South Carolina cases, reports say the
victim was stunned twice. In Nashville it was "multiple times" by as
many as 11 officers.

Said Victoria of the Austin Spokescouncil,
"The public perception of Tasers is that they save lives. But they are
not only immoral, they are potentially deadly."

Tasers were
originally billed as weapons to be used instead of guns, but the weapon
has taken on a life of its own. Taser use went up from 66 to 334 from
2003 to 2004 says the Statesman. TCLU’s Dullnig said at the press
conference that of 334 Taser uses reported by the Austin Police
Department in 2004, only five were said to have replaced use of guns.
Police are claiming that injuries to suspects and police have gone down
as a result of taser deployment, but it’s not clear from web sources
whether being stunned is being itself counted as an injury under usual
circumstances.

Spencer Crowl of ownside.org
said, "Considering that the Taser is the second line of defense, I
would be shocked if APD came out and said they would have needed to use
guns 300-350 times."

Amnesty International also worries,
"that US police agencies are deploying tasers as a routine force option
to subdue non-compliant or disturbed individuals who do not pose a
serious danger to themselves or others." But Amnesty also worries that
sometimes, "the use of electro-shock weapons appears to have violated
international standards prohibiting torture or other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment as well as standards set out under the United
Nations (UN) Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the
Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement
Officials."

As Chief Knee told the Statesman, "use of the Taser
during the arrest was in line with department policy, which allows use
of a Taser whenever a suspect actively resists arrest."

—–
For immediate release – Sept. 27, 2005
Contact: Debbie Russell: (512) 573-6194 "The Taser Hotline"

MORATORIUM on TASERS NOW!!!!
Austin Police Department must stop targeting the people of southeast Austin!

PRESS CONFERENCE: 5pm today: APD Headquarters, 8th and I-35

Yesterday,
a person of color died approximately an hour after being “Tasered” by
APD. According to the Statesman, there were 5 officers present to
subdue the one reportedly uncooperative suspect. Given these odds, the
police should have been able to subdue a single individual without
having to use the second most deadly weapon in their arsenal. Instead,
they used a lethal weapon on a single unarmed and outmanned suspect,
and ended up killing him, as in the shooting of Daniel Rocha that
occurred not 4 months ago. Contrary to statements by Chief Knee, such
exaggerated use of force is not in accordance with APD policy, which
calls for the “least amount of force necessary” to resolve a conflict.

Now that more and more medical examiners nationwide are ruling that
Tasers are a contributing cause, and in some cases, the primary cause,
of deaths; since some segments of the law enforcement community are
coming out AGAINST the weapon such as 2 divisions of the Department of
Homeland Security having dsallowed their use and a national law
enforcement-based class action suit against Taser, Int. has been
brought forth – accusing the company of misleading the law enforcement
community and the public in terms of safety; since the SEC is now fully
investigating Taser Int., (after earlier this year announcing an
inquiry into the safety of the product); and while TASER, INT.
themselves admit they are lethal,* there is no logical reason to
continue to use these poorly-designed and potentially lethal tools on
the streets.

While the City of Austin’s Human Rights Commission
is hard at work on improving policy and oversight regarding the use of
these lethal weapons, the City must act today by placing a moratorium
on Taser use until further studies have been conducted and APD use of
force policies and procedures have been further examined and revised.
It is too late to help the second victim in Austin of Taser abuse by
the APD, but we can prevent further deaths! We must implement an
IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM on their use in Austin!

—
Christian
Hartwig, a very recent APD Taser victim, will be on hand to relay his
story about how policy was broken when police on 6th St. repeatedly and
simultaneously tasered him as a means to resolve a conflict that was no
longer even taking place.
—

*From a June 28 memo:
"repeated, prolonged and/or continuous exposure to the Taser may cause
strong muscle contractions that may impair breathin

g and respiration,
particularly when the [weapon’s metal] probes are placed across the
chest or diaphragm…[which] may lead to death.” This is the first
admittance that the weapon is, in fact, NOT non-lethal. This came out,
certainly without coincidence, on the same day that the first medical
examiner in the nation (in Chicago) ruled a Taser as the primary cause
of death.

Links related to above info:
http://www.newsinferno.com/storypages/8-23-2005~001.html
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0927Taser27-ON.html
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=business&story_id=092605d1_taser

By Greg Moses

As we await Alex Jones’ promised sequels to his report from the Diez y
Seis rally, a review of links at Azteca net suggests that preliminary
reports from Mr. Jones appear to be based on a 2003 smear campaign
against California’s Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, whose college membership
in MEChA was turned against him during his campaign for Governor of
California. As argued
by Jorge Mariscal, the scare tactics used by familiar pundits against
MEChA have a legacy in Anti-Mexican hate groups. See also: Mecha
Facts and Myths by Ralph de Unamuno at azteca.net

Alex Jones is a Minuteman sympathizer who
sees the US-Mexico border in terms of a war zone. On the Alex
Jones radio show today (Sept. 22) he encouraged his audience to help
him get some Minutemen guests on his show, explaining that his direct
calls to the organization have not been very successful. He pleaded
with his audience to remind the Minutemen that Alex, "is having rallies
to defend you!" Apparently, some of the Minutemen treat Mr. Jones
as a lightweight. Meanwhile, standing among
the protesters who demonstrated with or merely alongside Mr. Jones
Saturday were people with signs demanding "Mexico Out of USA" and "One
Nation One Language". Whenever people who keep such company shout
loudly about "Mexican Supremacism" we have a right to wonder what
bothers them most: supremacism or Mexican?
In keeping with our general method of approach, to not
multiply disputes, I enjoyed hearing Mr. Jones today jealously guard
the liberties of USA citizens against powerful government
encroachments. What puzzles me is why Mr. Jones would support
efforts by citizens to extend the power of the state over the freedoms
of migrants. It seems the puzzle is solved so long as one draws a
very bright line around who does and who does not count as a person
with rights. And so long as Mr. Jones seeks to cultivate favor
with fellow demonstrators and organizations who prefer to draw bright
lines between Mexicans and the USA, we have a difficult time
understanding why he gets so miffed at the very idea that others might
appropriate his bright line schema, only to reverse the hierarchy of power.

A framework of human and civil rights is the better alternative, and
that’s why we won’t support one supremacist who stands in the favored
circle condemning the alleged existence of would-be supremacists who
would only reverse the
power dynamic between groups already separated by Mr. Jones’ bright
line. In this sort of sordid atmosphere, we wonder, why
Mr.
Jones, did you stand with or merely beside an obviously supremacist
outpouring on a day of Mexican-American celebration? You say it was to
expose extremist hate groups within the Mexican-American community. But
given the company you stood with–and the supremacist exclusions they
represent in their plain sign language–what gives you the right to
complain about supremacism of any sort?

—–

Note: "In parts two and three, I will detail the long trail of horrors that I
witnessed as well as posting a lengthy video report documenting our
claims. We have ten hours of footage from four cameras, which includes
people frothing and screaming racist comments and then calling us
racists for saying that we should all live together in peace."–Alex
Jones

I am a resident of Austin Texas and read your recent articles About
Alex Jones and his counter Diez y Seis de Septiembre rally on Saturday.
I believe that you along with our local mainstream media have
completely missed the point here. No where does Alex suggest that his
is protesting against the celebration of Diez y Seis, but in fact
explicitly states "Our press release that was sent to the media clearly
stated that we were there to expose racist groups that were preaching
their message in the Hispanic community, and that these groups were
creating division that was detrimental to everyone." From this and
listening to anything that he says you can easily realize that he was
not protesting the celebration at all, but only certain elements that
are overtly racist. How can you attack him for this? You are obviously
eating all the lies thrown down by the mainstream media, who in this
case outright lied and completely mislead the public. I Would not be
supprised if some of our local media will eventually be sued for their
slander. Alex and you are working for the same cause. The man hates all
forms of racism and has proven so time and again. Why attack him for
it?

Concerned Austinite
(with a Harte-Hanks email address) From the Austin American-Statesman of Sunday, Sept. 18:

"We’re
protesting the concept of a parade about Mexico’s independence from
Spain," said George Pangborn, 48, of Burnet, who wore a T-shirt from
the conspiracy Web site infowars .com and was videotaping the
demonstration. He said most of the demonstrators were from Austin.

Things
got noisy when about 200 people in the parade, who were marching to
protest the Minutemen — an ad hoc citizens group planning to try to
stop illegal immigrants at the Texas-Mexico border — confronted the
demonstrators.

"Hey, hey, ho, ho, Minutemen have got to go," the marchers chanted, some with bullhorns.

The
demonstrators yelled back through their bullhorns and waved signs with
such slogans as "Mexico out of USA" and "One Nation, One Language."

"If anything, we’re pro-Minutemen," Pangborn said.

Alex Jones to Minutemen, from the Alex Jones Show of Sept. 22: "Alex is on the horn having rallies to defend you!"

Dear Friends:

After having been through surgery, Ramsey was taken to ICU, and I believe that he is still there. He is doing better. He is able to converse and reflect on family, friends, and the grave illness that he has experienced for the past several weeks.

The surgical procedure consisted of cleaning his intestines, as they had a tremendous amount of infected fluids. Doctors did not see a bile leak.

Ramsey still has infected fluids that doctors continue to suction out. He has a tube inserted through his nose and four other tubes inserted through small incisions on his stomach. They continue to give him antibiotics in hopes that they will minimize the infection so that his body begins to fight on its own. His kidneys are functioning normally and his will to survive is strong. God willing, he will overcome this illness.

Again we thank many families and friends who have prayed for Ramsey, expressing hopes that God restore his health. Love and positive energy are powerful forces that can bring about profound change.

With gratitude and love,

Irma Muniz