Mother Loses Child to Murderer, So Louisiana Police Shock Her With Electrocution Device

Hat Tip to African American Political Pundit,
editor of the Tasered While Black blog.

How should police handle a mother in shock over the shooting death of her six year old child? Naturally, they should try to soothe and calm her, call psychological specialists to her side, and perhaps offer her a cup of water, right?

That is, unless she is a Black woman in Louisiana. If she is a Black woman in Louisiana:

The frantic mother of a 6-year-old boy killed in this morning's triple murder in Terrytown was subdued with a Taser gun by Jefferson Parish deputies at the murder scene, a sheriff's spokesman said.

The mother of Four Overstreet grew irate with authorities when she arrived at the Monterey Court apartment where the rampage happened before 4 a.m. Saturday. When she got physical, deputies stunned [gave her a 50,000 volt electrical shock] her to bring the situation under control, Col. John Fortunato said. New Orleans Metro Real Time News

African American Political Pundit says,

One has to wonder if this would happen in a middle class community and the woman was of another color? . . . It's time to have Congressional Taser Hearings into Taser Torture in America. Sign the petition HERE.

According to New Orleans Metro Real Time News, polce are offering a $2,500 reward for tips:

The Sheriff's Office is asking anyone with information to contact the Homicide Division at 504.364.5300 or Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment. New Orleans Metro Real Time News

Here's a tip: Charge the police officers with assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder for trying to electrocute a woman who just lost her child to murderers not on the police force.

And here's another tip for those who believe stronger Electrocution use guidelines will resolve this problem:

Electroction Guideline 664(b): If a woman has just discovered that her son was murdered, then giving her an additional shock of 50,000 volts might send her into cardiac arrest. That's not a good idea.

If police don't know that Blacks are human, will "guidelines" help them to learn this?

Police Electrically Shock Black Student for Wearing a Baseball Cap in City Council Chambers

Below, police electrically shock pregnant woman for attempting to leave her child with local police, as a recent state law permitted her to do.



Considering that many deaths have resulted from use of the above electrocution device, is it really appropriate to electrically shock an otherwise peaceful student for refusing to remove a baseball cap?

If so, shouldn't we also electrically shock people who carry eleven items into the ten-item check-out lane at the supermarket?

Hat Tip to Indigenist Intelligence Review Blog for the above videos.

Texas Police Electrically Shock White Woman, 72, Making Nightly News in Brazil

The above film is from an unrelated police shocking incident
in Orange County, CA.

I live in Brazil and I just saw a scene on the nightly news here, from the US state of Texas (click here for video), that disgusted me, and will shock and astound Brazilians nationwide. A Texas police officer was arguing with a elderly white woman during a highway traffic stop, stemming from a speeding ticket. The police officer is easily a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than this slightly built white woman, and yet he ultimately fires an electrocution device at her and she can be seen falling to the ground. She is a wrinkle-faced white woman who is seventy-two years old.

Would the police officer have shot this woman with a handgun had he not had an electrocution device available? Of course not! Police officers don't shoot elderly white women at traffic stops. So, the electrocution device served as a new tool of curbside behavior management and pre-trial punishment that, unfortunately, often results in death or serious injury.

Should you really risk killing an elderly woman as part of issuing a traffic ticket?

There is no good reason for "Tasers" to exist in the USA today, any more than there was "an appropriate law enforcement role" for gas chambers in Auswhich, Germany. While it's true that people who died in the gas chambers escaped being burned at the stake, that is not a sufficient rationale for the existence of gas chambers. And the threat of being shot to death is not a sufficient rationale for being electrocuted instead.

Even as President Obama attempts to change the world's impressions about America's ruthlesseness and violence, local police officers are making television news around the world, electrically shocking little old white ladies into submission.

Tasered While Black Internet Radio Show Launched

Today, my friend and afrosphere colleague African American Political Pundit announced that he has launched a new Tasered While Black Internet Radio Show, which I hope will include some call-ins by people who have actually had the experience of being tasered.

As I commented at AAPP's blog, I don't think you have to have been personally murdered to understand that murder is bad. Likewise, those of us who haven't been shocked with 50,000 volts yet need to work to make sure that it never happens to us, our children or our neighbors. Because often "tasering" results in electrocuting and dying. And that IS bad.

Of course AAPP and I differ on the role of electric shocks in law enforcement. AAPP believes that they can be used as an alternative to deadly force, but I think that, like choking, the application of 50,000 volts of electricity to people whose physical condition is a mystery to police is a practice that is inherently dangerous and inherently has a high risk that many people will die among those who are shocked. Particularly since that is sometimes the INTENTION of the police who use these weapons.

I don't think electrical shocks have any place in law enforcement, grammar schools, mental hospitals or playgrounds. Electrical shocks are inherently dangerous. Police in the United States operated for 300 years without these weapons.

AAPP says he is willing to see these weapons used as an alternative to deadly force. If he can show me ONE example of a city where deadly force decreased after police had access to electric shock devices, then I might be willing to listen to that argument. However, I suspect that police are continuing to shoot people and, in addition, are electrocuting people who would never have been shot.

Again, I challenge anyone to show me statistics that prove that police shootings decrease when police have access to taser electrocution devices. That's about as likely as rapists using less physical force because they have access to handcuffs. Let's give rapists handcuffs and see if that reduces the physical force used in rapes?

Online Petition Says, "Confirm Wise Latina Woman Judge Sonia Sotomayor Now."

Because Blacks and Latinos are more likely to suffer police brutality, including electrocution, than are others, we have a strong mutuality of interest when it comes to equal justice under the law. That mutuality of interests and our determination that the US Supreme Court no longer be monopolized by white men, who constitute less than 33% of the United States, are the reasons why we sign the petition in support of President Barack Obama's nomination of this wise Latina woman, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who has more varied legal experience than any member sitting on the court now had when appointed.

View Current Signatures - Sign the Petition

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To: Members of the US Senate

I strongly support and urge immediate Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama’s nominee for the US Supreme Court: “wise Latina woman”, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who now sits on U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

At present, the US Supreme Court has nine members, of whom seven are white men. This is unfair and unbalanced. According to the US Census, the nation is less than 33% white male, while it is approximately 51% female, 15% Latino and 13% Black. Although white males are the minority of America, they remain the vast majority of the US Supreme Court, just as was the case before women and minorities gained the right to vote.

It is impossible in a pluralistic society for a Court comprised of 78% white men to make wise, reasoned and sound decisions affecting the lives of a nation which is less than 33% white male. A wise and just Supreme Court requires a diversity of experiences, with the participation of representatives of the majority of Americans.

For far too long, there has been a quota system at the United States Supreme Court. The de facto quota system required that all or the vast majority of the nine members of the Court be white males. In the history of the nation, there have never been more than three members of the court who were not white males at any one time. The anachronistic white male quota system is no longer tenable as the nation strives to treat all Americans equally and to have a government all of whose branches have the consent and participation of the nation’s diverse populace.

The US Supreme Court cannot function wisely, justly, and fairly without the full participation of wise women and wise members of the nation’s minority groups, including the nation’s largest minority – Latinos. Therefore, we urge our elected representatives in the US Senate to immediately confirm the “wise Latina woman” who has earned our respect and support: soon-to-be US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

View Current Signatures

Man Takes Police Officers Electrocution Device and Fires Uses it on Officer

Fifteen years is a long time to spend in jail for defending oneself from a police officer who has an electrocution device in his hand, by taking the device and shocking the police officer. But, many Black people believe it's better to electrocute the officer and take your chances in court than to be electrocuted over and over by the officer and perhaps dying at curbside, without ever seeing the inside of a courtroom first.

Many Blacks believe it's better to fight and live than to acquiesce and die. Perhaps police officers will consider the possibility that the same 50,000 volt gun they use on us may one day be used on them.

Hat Tip to Coversations with Brothers and Sisters blog for this story.

MAN GETS 15 YEARS FOR TASERING A COP

A Great Falls man who took a Taser from an officer during a scuffle and used it on the police officer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Neal Walton was charged with assault on an officer. He appeared at the sentencing hearing in Cascade County District Court by video from Montana State Prison, where Walton, 34, is serving time on unrelated charges. The video can be seen at http://www.truveo.com/Police-taser-cam-video-released-prior-to-mans/id/2103264362

Click here for full story

Police Brutality Blog Selected 8th Among Top 100 Criminal Justice Blogs by CriminalJusiceCareersGuide.Com

The Police Brutality Blog, started two years ago as a project of various AfroSpear members including myself, has now been recognized by the Criminal Justice Careers Guide the number eight blog among the "Top 100 Criminal Justice Blogs":

This diversity of issues makes criminal justice dynamic but it also makes it dizzyingly complex for someone trying to educate themselves in justice issues. Consequently, we have compiled this list to help anyone involved in the criminal justice field — including academics, practitioners and students — find information and resources about their niche, as well as any other aspect of criminal justice. Criminal Justice Careers Guide

Congratulations to all of the readers and writers at the Police Brutality Blog.