T n' T: Torture and Tasers

Randi Aho, a Fellow from the Center for Victims of Torture was in town today. The Center is looking for people to help them "bird dog" candidates to find out what their views on torture are (e.g., the ability to send prisoners where torture is condoned) or whether they approve of "enhance interrogation techniques" (EIT) as they are called for the delicate of hearing, code for torture techniques.

- Did you know that the military can not engage in torture, but the CIA can?
- Did you know that EIT that includes organ failure is not considered torture?
- Did you know that the Israelis, who used to allow torture as a legal activity, made it illegal
after it was discovered that it failed to yield better information from those they interrogated?

Here in Iowa City, we are looking at a different type of torture technique called "Tasering". Imagine a electrified barb being shot from 21 feet that would send 50,000 volts of electricity (500 times the electricity in your average electrical socket or 5555 times more jolt than licking a 9 volt battery) into your body and you have a beginning to understanding what a Taser can do.

Our city council is considering (and currently, is unanimously in favor of) allowing our PD to carry Tasers in addition to their service revolvers. The research on the use of Tasers is not huge, but a recent article by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel showed that Tasers were used some 262 times in the first year they were deployed with the Milwaukee Police Department. There have been numerous deaths by Taser, 156 in 2006 in the US (illegal drug use, mental illness and Tasers don't mix).

According to another report, the rise in deaths accompanies a marked increase in the number of U.S. law enforcement agencies employing devices made by Taser International of Scottsdale, Ariz. About 1,000 of the country’s 18,000 police agencies used Tasers in 2001; more than 7,000 departments had them last year, according to a government study.

Police had used Tasers more than 70,000 times as of last year, Congress’ Government Accountability Office said.