Police accused of firing Taser into head of innocent man
Robert Booth
Tuesday December 18, 2007
The Guardian
Police fired a 50,000-volt Taser into the head of a 45-year-old company director who later proved to be unarmed and innocent.
Daniel Sylvester, the owner of an east London security firm employing 65 staff to guard council offices, pubs and nightclubs, was driving home on October 20 when he was stopped by armed police because of "firearms related intelligence".
According to Sylvester, he got out of his car and was surrounded by officers, at least two of whom were carrying automatic weapons. Without warning, one officer fired a Taser into the back of his head which made him drop to his knees, he said. A second shock caused him to fall on his face, breaking a front tooth. A further six shocks made him wet himself and left him lying in the road in pain while the officers and sniffer dogs searched the car and found nothing.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has started an investigation and David Lammy, Sylvester's MP in Tottenham, north London, has written to Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, to say he is "deeply concerned".
The incident was part of Operation Neon, a crackdown on guns on London's streets by using armed response units to stop and search cars. Sylvester said the incident had left him traumatised and he now suffered from short-term memory loss. He doubts the police would have stopped him had he not been black. A spokesman for the Met said: "Just after midnight, officers on an intelligence-led operation stopped a car in Bounces Road, N9. The driver got out of the vehicle and was subsequently Tasered. Our information is the Taser was deployed once."
Sylvester had been followed by police cars for about three miles through Tottenham before they boxed him in.
"Armed police jumped out and opened my car door," he said. "I said OK, I'm coming. I asked what was going on and as soon as I stepped out of the car I felt something touch me on the back of the head and then I was on my knees. Then it happened again and I was on my face and I felt somebody pressing my head down with their foot. By the fifth time I realised officers were pinning my arms together. It was like they were trying to break my arms and I was in pain, screaming out.
"I was shocked eight times altogether and I had urinated on the floor. It was like being tortured. It went on and on and I felt they were going to kill me."
According to guidelines set by the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers, Tasers should be deployed "where officers are facing violence or threats of violence of such severity that they would need to use force to protect the public, themselves and/or the subject(s) of their action". Tasers have been used 47 times in London this year, with black people accounting for almost two-thirds of those stunned.
The government extended the right to use Tasers for all firearms officers in England and Wales this summer.
Was he because he was black constable?
Tell you the truth Sarg, I didn't notice.
Lucky he didn't have Mongolian eyes and didn't have wires hanging out of the bulky jacket that he wasn't wearing. _________________ The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 179 Location: Manchester
Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:11 am Post subject:
Well dont just sit there. make effort. write to the police force, and your MP, councillor to protest this obscene behaviour by the authorities _________________ keep asking questions!
Then it'll be time to pull the guns out and dispence some natural Justice.
Be warned Nazi Police. _________________ The queens real name is: Saxe Coburg Gotha. not Windsor. They were installed in 1915.
Government, Meaning/Translation;
Govern = To Control;
Ment, taken from Latin/Greek, Mente = Mind
Government = Control Mind.
Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 103 Location: In a camper
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:01 pm Post subject:
jahschild wrote:
Then it'll be time to pull the guns out and dispence some natural Justice.
Be warned Nazi Police.
I hear ya mate but dont let this system or the mindless minions drag you down to the level of violence and aggression
If we play the game by their rules they will win every time.
Raise awareness my friend not your fists..........
just my 2ps worth _________________ Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut, that held its ground.
David Icke
Does anyone think that anything will happen to these policeman who did this?.
It's like those policeman that shot and killed that innocent man at stockwell underground station, nothing happened to them did it.
No, they just lied through their teeth, probably gave someone a backhander, swept it under the carpet and they got away with it.
The police have these new 50,000 volt toys and they are going to want to enjoy playing with them whenever they can.
They are going to enjoy making people squeal, i'm sure it will give them a great feeling of power.
According to my partner when a certain police stations officers were issued with these tazers (i don't know whitch one), they were playing with them on each other like children playing cowboys and indians.
Please don't expect anything to happen to these police that done this to this man because i don't and i'd be very surprised if anything does happen to them.
And it'll be only a matter of time before someone is killed by one of them. _________________ One sure way for evil to prevail, is for the good to do nothing.
I hear ya mate but dont let this system or the mindless minions drag you down to the level of violence and aggression
If we play the game by their rules they will win every time.
Raise awareness my friend not your fists..........
just my 2ps worth
Your not Mr Nice who wrote that book are you?
I hear you too mate, it's not my first choice, just I can see * comming down the Pipe. We are already under attack big time. They are gassing us from the air, poisoning our food, poisoning our children with compulsary innoculations/vaccines, destroying the rain forest so we or the planet can't breath etc etc, and that is only scratching the surface.
The people you are fighting are not who you think, i reckon. Check this web site out, it looks serious to me.
Also check out your local chuch leaders and Monestrys, I went to one in Surrey, and I can tell you, they are gearing for War, go and see for your-self.
They have the best locations, their buildings are fortresses.
Lets also be clear as to the Types of people in them. These are half people, they are not allowed to become whole by enforced chastity, that alone is an afront to the Creator [whatever- whoever that is]
They only have the male perspective, all the Catholic Priests are the same, although some decons can co-habit, but this should be regarded as damage control by the Catholic church, as they would have had a internal revolt 20 years ago, and this was how they stopped it.
What really blows me away though, is all these twats who think they are cool, cos they are in charge, lose far more by joining these fascists than by opposing them.
If only they would realise that.
Just refusing to work for them would be enough, to topple the hidden controllers, forcing thems out onto the public platform to hold their positions rather than using imbasilic puppets to do the dirty work for them.
You are right though a peacful solution would be best, I just don't see it happening. The only thing that ever changed anything up to now is Fire Power. _________________ The queens real name is: Saxe Coburg Gotha. not Windsor. They were installed in 1915.
Government, Meaning/Translation;
Govern = To Control;
Ment, taken from Latin/Greek, Mente = Mind
Government = Control Mind.
Some police in america are now going around tazering people for the slightest little thing, people are not even allowed to disagree with anything the officer says otherwise they get zapped.
Is that what it's going to be like in the UK as well? _________________ One sure way for evil to prevail, is for the good to do nothing.
Joined: 13 Sep 2006 Posts: 2568 Location: One breath from Glory
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:05 pm Post subject:
What affect would it have if we wore foil linings in clothing? Would it just make matters worse or reflect the current back?
Trouble with thick clothing is that in summer it looks that suspicious you might be mistaken for a suicide bomber and get shot dead rather than just tazered.
It does appear that the police or their masters are trying to create a bigger fear factor. Recent ads on buses show police in riot gear and balaclavas. gone are the days when a cuff round the ear from PC Plod was enough to strike fear into you. _________________ JO911B.
"for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places " Eph.6 v 12
Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 179 Location: Manchester
Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 4:10 pm Post subject:
Louise wrote:
Does anyone think that anything will happen to these policeman who did this?.
It's like those policeman that shot and killed that innocent man at stockwell underground station, nothing happened to them did it.
No, they just lied through their teeth, probably gave someone a backhander, swept it under the carpet and they got away with it.
The police have these new 50,000 volt toys and they are going to want to enjoy playing with them whenever they can.
They are going to enjoy making people squeal, i'm sure it will give them a great feeling of power.
According to my partner when a certain police stations officers were issued with these tazers (i don't know whitch one), they were playing with them on each other like children playing cowboys and indians.
Please don't expect anything to happen to these police that done this to this man because i don't and i'd be very surprised if anything does happen to them.
And it'll be only a matter of time before someone is killed by one of them.
And here we see his Grieving mum. Robert was her only son, and she had gone through years of effort to bring her son over to Canada
Checkout connected videos regarding this, because it gives--me personally anyway--you faith in humanity to see how shocked many people are.
In looking at some, I hear that recently there has been a death caused by police use of Taser, of a 20 yearl old male in Marland U.S.
tasers MUSY be stopped. the company is actually called 'Tasers' where these devicies which are torture devices are made, and promoted. so they MUSt be held accoutnable, as must those that allow them--the government, etc, and the cops. _________________ keep asking questions!
Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 179 Location: Manchester
Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 4:11 pm Post subject:
zoomer wrote:
Louise wrote:
Does anyone think that anything will happen to these policeman who did this?.
It's like those policeman that shot and killed that innocent man at stockwell underground station, nothing happened to them did it.
No, they just lied through their teeth, probably gave someone a backhander, swept it under the carpet and they got away with it.
The police have these new 50,000 volt toys and they are going to want to enjoy playing with them whenever they can.
They are going to enjoy making people squeal, i'm sure it will give them a great feeling of power.
According to my partner when a certain police stations officers were issued with these tazers (i don't know whitch one), they were playing with them on each other like children playing cowboys and indians.
Please don't expect anything to happen to these police that done this to this man because i don't and i'd be very surprised if anything does happen to them.
And it'll be only a matter of time before someone is killed by one of them.
And here we see his Grieving mum. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fRpHCAfZZ0 Robert was her only son, and she had gone through years of effort to bring her son over to Canada
Checkout connected videos regarding this, because it gives--me personally anyway--you faith in humanity to see how shocked many people are.
In looking at some, I hear that recently there has been a death caused by police use of Taser, of a 20 yearl old male in Marland U.S.
tasers MUSY be stopped. the company is actually called 'Tasers' where these devicies which are torture devices are made, and promoted. so they MUSt be held accoutnable, as must those that allow them--the government, etc, and the cops.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject:
No Louise, they have an informal masonic death cult immunity.
Please watch this film if you haven't already. When they screened it in Bristol some thuggish guys from, I assume, Special Branch turned up drinking coke and saying nothing.
Only clips are available on the net I believe which is a shame
Does anyone think that anything will happen to these policeman who did this?.
It's like those policeman that shot and killed that innocent man at stockwell underground station, nothing happened to them did it.
No, they just lied through their teeth, probably gave someone a backhander, swept it under the carpet and they got away with it.
The police have these new 50,000 volt toys and they are going to want to enjoy playing with them whenever they can.
They are going to enjoy making people squeal, i'm sure it will give them a great feeling of power.
According to my partner when a certain police stations officers were issued with these tazers (i don't know whitch one), they were playing with them on each other like children playing cowboys and indians.
Please don't expect anything to happen to these police that done this to this man because i don't and i'd be very surprised if anything does happen to them.
And it'll be only a matter of time before someone is killed by one of them.
"When we got issued with the nice shiny American side handled batton back in the 1990s, we spent the first month beating the nonsense out of each other for fun in the Nick. The new batton was treated like a toy, and NEVER EVER give a copper a new toy!!!!.
Even the new tanoy system was so abused by silly arsed coppers, the Chief Superintendant had the thing taken off line, farts sounded great !!!!."
And the above is coming from a serving policeman. _________________ One sure way for evil to prevail, is for the good to do nothing.
The guy didn't do anything wrong, if you listern closely you'll hear the person he was questioning say that his questiion was very valid and he felt it important that he should answer it.
So why did the coppers jump on him and do that to him?.
The officers involved should have at least been severely repremanded, if not suspended or sacked from the force. _________________ One sure way for evil to prevail, is for the good to do nothing.
Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 374 Location: North East
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:41 am Post subject:
Louise wrote:
So why did the coppers jump on him and do that to him?.
The officers involved should have at least been severely repremanded, if not suspended or sacked from the force.
They jumped him because they were told to. A guy stood behind the questioner acknowledges the order with a nod.
As for being police, these are University Police, essentially, campus security guards with police powers. No doubt they knew they were being filmed and when they heard "Don't tase me bro!" it would have been a red rag to a bull, to show the student who was in charge. (Pardon the pun)
Tasers were introduced as a weapon of last resort before using firearms. In reality, they have become weapons of convenience.
Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 179 Location: Manchester
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:43 pm Post subject:
In looking at the videos about the Vancouver Airport murder of an innocent m an by the RCMP, I heard that soon after a young man in Maryland has been tasered and killed! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v-kbuxqt4Y
I was not surprised to see he is a young AfroAmerican male (though of course I know white people are tasered too) _________________ keep asking questions!
Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 179 Location: Manchester
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:40 pm Post subject:
Louise wrote:
The voltage is clearly too much on these things and they are killing people.
Also the police are getting carried away with using them.
I know, but we mustn't get into the trap of calling for 'less voltage' as though electrocuting anyone at all is alright. BAN these torture devices is what I want!!!
EVEn the UN which many say is Illuminati calls them torture devices!
I dont need them to tell me. I can see it. _________________ keep asking questions!
What about a gun that fires a tranquilliser dart that knocks the person out very quickly?.
Put yourself in this situation zoomer............
Your a policeman and you attend an incident which involves a drunken violent yob weilding a lump of wood/iron bar etc.
You try to calm him down but now he's coming for you.
If he gets to you he's going to take your head off.
You need a way to take him out/down from a distance WITHOUT killing him.
What would your answer to this situation be?, what weapon would do the job and ensure that neither you or the yob are harmed?.
I think my suggestion of a fast acting tranquilliser dart might be the answer. _________________ One sure way for evil to prevail, is for the good to do nothing.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 6:47 pm Post subject:
Sounds a bit 'Man From UNCLE' Louise (very good but fiction) and I'm not sure darts would knock people out quick enough. There's also the matter of it being extremely invasive of one's blood system with evil chemicals.
What about netscombined with good old fashioned restraint techniques and proper training in unarmed combat?
I don't think many people really know the kind of evil, very violent SCUM that the police have to tackle sometimes.
If anyone else was to face them they'd run away crapping their pants.
The only trouble is the solution (whatever it may be) like anything would be open to abuse, whitch of course is not good.
I agree that a tazer is a brutal weapon.
But it is very hard (if not impossible) to be civilised with a person that is being uncivilised.
Also the company that makes them has raked in huge amounts of money with all the orders they have received for them, and they are not going to be to happy about not making them anymore so how do you get around that problem?.
I just sometimes wonder if they hadn't done away with good old fashioned discipline would it have ever come to tazers ever being invented or thought of?...........Maybe not.
But even if you smack your child these days they can go running to Social Services or childline and you get get into a lot of trouble so you have no choice but to simply let them run wild, not a good idea either.
Obviously there has to be a line between discipline and abuse, but as long as the child isn't coverd in bruises, burn marks or has broken limbs then it's ok.
Knowing right from wrong is not something instictive that you instantly know when your born, you have to be taught it. _________________ One sure way for evil to prevail, is for the good to do nothing.
I just thought i'd post that my partner has informed me of another abuse and misuse of the tazer weapon by cops in America.
Apparently the cops where conducting an illegal serch of someones property without following the normal proper proceedure to carry out such a search.
One person got angry and got his camcorder to film the cops in the act.
At whitch point the cops demanded that the person stop filming them and to give them the tape.
When the man refused and said it was his right to film he was tazerd.
I'm not sure if the cops got the tape or not.
In my opinion, the cops new they were in the wrong and they saw that tape as evidence against them that's why they wanted it so that they could destroy the evidence that could get them into a lot of trouble, and then they of course they could get away with their illegal act.
I really don't know who we should be more afraid of these days, the actual criminal, or the coppers who are on a power rush and see their position as a means to get away with anything they like. _________________ One sure way for evil to prevail, is for the good to do nothing.
Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 179 Location: Manchester
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:02 pm Post subject:
Louise wrote:
I just thought i'd post that my partner has informed me of another abuse and misuse of the tazer weapon by cops in America.
Apparently the cops where conducting an illegal serch of someones property without following the normal proper proceedure to carry out such a search.
One person got angry and got his camcorder to film the cops in the act.
At whitch point the cops demanded that the person stop filming them and to give them the tape.
When the man refused and said it was his right to film he was tazerd.
I'm not sure if the cops got the tape or not.
In my opinion, the cops new they were in the wrong and they saw that tape as evidence against them that's why they wanted it so that they could destroy the evidence that could get them into a lot of trouble, and then they of course they could get away with their illegal act.
I really don't know who we should be more afraid of these days, the actual criminal, or the coppers who are on a power rush and see their position as a means to get away with anything they like.
Maybe at last you are beginning to understand what is what Louise, I dont know. I mean in a pre-post you call the people who are NOT police nor officals, government, the RULERS, 'SCUM'. Is that so? I mean I am not saying there aren't some bad people who would rip off their own mum. Of course not. But you HAVE to see the bigger picture: like the scum corrupt ones at the very top creating a brutal desperate scenario that breeds the violence all around.
Now you were suggesting that their 'law enforcers' have tranquilizing darts'??
So as not to over complicate things. let us for now focus of Tasers. Let me tell you. Here in the UK several years ago an investigative journalist went undercover. He pretended to be a policeman who was a new recruit, but secretly filmed the goings on in the police, as well as with 'friends' he made with other policeman over quite a lonmg time period.
This was extreemely controversial reporting because it showed the RAMPANT racism, and misogyny in the police. Where you had policeman laughing as they told the secret policeman what they'd like to do to Asians 'Pakis', etc. it qwas shocking! And you want these kind of people to have access to torture devices?
You also just gave us a prime examople of the way things are going UNLESS WE WAKE THE * UP. (have you go the link to that story please, and even better a video link?). A person is excercising his rights to film their goings on and is basically tortured with a Taser. Now please watch this video I received this morning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wJsovPRTEM
and alomng with viewing that video, please give some time to reading this article: Police State America – A Look Back and Ahead http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7622 “…The Act also creates the federal crime of "domestic terrorism" that broadens the definition and applies to US citizens as well as aliens. It states criminal law violations are considered domestic terrorist acts if they aim to "influence (government policy) by intimidation or coercion (or) intimidate or coerce a civilian population." By this definition, anti-war or global justice demonstrations, environmental activism, civil disobedience and dissent of any kind may be called "domestic terrorism." The Patriot Act was just for starters. Much more was ahead with a bipartisan Congress acting like a gift that keeps on giving and the President loving it….DHS [Department of Homeland Security] is part of the administration's plan to centralize unprecedented military and law enforcement power in the executive branch that aims for greater global dominance - to rule the world unchallenged including repressively at home by suppressing civil liberties in the name of "national security." DHS and USA Patriot Act are two frightening measures to do it.”
So do you see the way things are going if we are asleep to all of this? _________________ keep asking questions!
I'm not saying that there isn't SCUM at the top zoomer, i know there is, just as there are SCUM that walk the streets seeking to destroy and do whatever harm they can.
Both sets of SCUM should be dealt with just as decisively.
The government is ment to be our representatives zoomer not our leaders/dictators they are supposed to do what we want them to do and be open, honest and truthfull.
But remember you can't please everybody, no matter what you do you'll always get some people moaning about it.
If the government of this country was to give everybody £5,000 you'd get some people moaning because it wasn't £10,000.
But at the moment you have got all these corrupt people in these positions.
I have watched the youtube video that you told me to.
But you will agree zoomer that there must be some basic laws don't you agree?.
The alternative is anachy and noone would be safe in their own homes or beds if that came about. _________________ One sure way for evil to prevail, is for the good to do nothing.
Either for the story or the incredible "journalism" of Richard Wray.
A play list. A laugh.
Quote:
For those who like a little music with their personal protection: the Taser that plays MP3s
· US company uses fashion and music to sell stun gun
· Public can buy device in most American states
* Richard Wray
* The Guardian,
* Wednesday January 9 2008
Deborah Kerr in The King and I recommended whistling a happy tune when afraid, but now fearful Americans can sing along to their favourite tracks while shooting anyone who causes them consternation with a 50,000-volt electric charge.
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, which is expected to receive more than 140,000 visitors this week, is no stranger to bizarre gadgets but the iTaser - as it has been dubbed - must rank as one of the oddest. It combines a Taser stun gun, used by 12,000 law enforcement and security forces, including the Metropolitan police, with an MP3 player and earphones.
As to which tracks anyone toting such a device might download on to the 1GB player that is integrated into the gun's holster, anything by Sparks or Frank Zappa must be fairly high on the list.
Arizona-based Taser International sells the handheld stun guns under the rather hyperbolic banner of "Changing the World and Protecting Lives". It maintains that the iTaser "allows for both personal protection and personal music for people on the go".
According to Rick Smith, founder of the company, "personal protection can be both fashionable and functionable".
The company says the new device is particularly aimed at women - with red, pink and even leopard print designs intended to make carrying a stun gun fashionable. A spokesman in Las Vegas said the inclusion of a music player would encourage purchases by women who want a form of self defence while out jogging, but would otherwise choose to take an iPod or other MP3 player with them instead of a weapon.
"A lot of women aren't going to go into a gun store and feel comfortable enough buying a Taser, so now we have some outdoor companies and dealers - some cellphone places are starting to carry them and hang them next to phones," he said.
Half a million Tasers are already in use globally despite warnings from Amnesty International that they have been linked to more than 70 deaths in the US. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation a further 18 people have died after being stunned by a Taser in Canada.
Taser International, however, maintains that the devices merely stun people and, with proper training, are otherwise harmless. The guns shoot two small probes, at speeds of more than 48 metres a second, which are connected to the device by insulated wire. Those probes deliver an electric charge that causes instant neuro-muscular incapacitation, causing the victim to crumple to the floor. They also lose the ability to move for a few seconds.
The gun generates a staggering 50,000 volts but the actual ampage - which is potentially very dangerous to life - is a mere 0.0021 amps, while a household plug carries 13 amps. The ampage is so low that the Taser's two lithium camera batteries can stun 100,000 people, but used in a digital camera they would provide just 100 photo flashes.
Being hit by a stun gun is, however, a deeply unpleasant experience. Last month a 45-year-old company director, who later proved to be unarmed and innocent, claimed he had been "Tasered" in north London. The first shock caused him to drop to his knees, while a second left him flat on his face with a broken tooth and a further six shocks made him wet himself. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has started an investigation into the incident.
Daniel Sylvester, the owner of an east London security firm employing 65 staff to guard council offices, pubs and nightclubs, described the sensation as "like being tortured".
Ten police forces in England and Wales are using Tasers. Forces from Devon and Cornwall to north Wales and Northumbria have issued the stun guns to previously unarmed officers.
The Met, for instance, started handing out the devices in early December to members of its territorial support group after training at a specialist centre in Gravesend, Kent. It has pledged that only six officers will be carrying them at any one time in the capital.
Asked whether they will be allowed to listen to their favourite tunes while on the beat, or perhaps download the latest police training manuals into their holsters and plug in, a Met spokesman was derisory: "I can honestly say no, we won't be using it. Do you think that would be a good use of public money?"
The British public are banned from using Tasers but they are legal in 43 US states where Taser International has already sold 160,000 to private citizens. The American government does not consider Tasers to be firearms.
The system does include some safeguards to try to prevent unlawful use, including owner registration and a trace of tiny, uniquely identifiable computer chips left at the scene of a shooting.
Shock rock: iTaser playlist
· You Shook Me All Night Long AC/DC
· Shakin' All Over Johnny Kidd and the Pirates
· Danger High Voltage Electric Six
· Electric Boogie Marcia Griffiths
· Jumpin' Jack Flash The Rolling Stones
· King of Pain The Police
· Electric Avenue Eddy Grant
· State of Shock The Jacksons
· A Big Surprise Sparks
... and anything by Frank Zappa
Guardian _________________ The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Marketing Tactic Jolting Sales of Self-Defense Item
by Chris Kahn
GILBERT, Ariz. - Before she lets them shoot her little pink stun gun, Dana Shafman ushers her new friends to the living room sofa for a serious chat about the fears she believes they all share.
“The worst nightmare for me is, while I’m sleeping, someone coming in my home,” Shafman says, drawing a few solemn nods from the gathered women. Shafman, 34, of Phoenix, says she knows how they feel. She says she used to stash knives under her pillow for protection.
Welcome, she says, to the Taser party.
On the coffee table, Shafman spreads out Taser’s C2 “personal protector” weapons that the company is marketing to the public. It doesn’t take long before the women are lined up in the hallway, whooping as they take turns blasting at a metallic target.
“C’mon!” she says. “Give it a shot.”
Shafman isn’t an employee of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International. She’s an independent entrepreneur who’s been selling Tasers the way her mother’s generation sold plastic food storage containers.
As a single woman who lives alone, Shafman says she’s the perfect pitchwoman for Taser as it makes a renewed push to sell weapons to families.
The company agrees. Taser officials like Shafman’s homespun sales tactics so much that they plan to build a living room set at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and have Shafman hold a Taser party for buyers and dealers. The show, which runs Jan. 7-10, is one of the world’s largest tech trade shows.
Taser doesn’t expect its dealers to start imitating Shafman. But Steve Tuttle, a Taser spokesman, says company officials think people can learn from her approach.
“When I talk about Taser, I come across as a salesman,” Tuttle says. “When you see her it comes across as very real.”
Shafman, a freelance construction consultant, says she always had a natural interest in self-defense products. She loved the idea of the Taser, which would allow her to stop an attacker from across the room without getting physical.
She tried moonlighting as a door-to-door Taser saleswoman. But years of negative press about Taser made it tough.
So the Taser party was born.
Shafman says she’s sold about 30 guns per month at $349.99 since her first Taser party on Oct. 15. She doesn’t get a commission from Taser. Instead, Shafman says she gets a discounted dealer rate for the units and keeps the difference.
Taser has been growing on Wall Street two years after the Securities and Exchange Commission concluded its investigation into the company’s safety claims and business practices. Its stock more than doubled in 2007 from a low of $7.44 to a high of $19.36 a share.
Company officials say that they’re now selling Tasers in 43 countries and that more than 12,500 police agencies in the United States are either using or testing their weapons.
It launched the C2 in August. Though it packs the same electric punch, the C2 is smaller than the bulky personal stun guns Taser developed years ago, and its sleek exterior makes it look more like an electric razor than a weapon. They’re legal in every state except New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C.
Amnesty International, which has criticized Taser’s assertion that its weapons are nonlethal, objects to any attempt to spread the use of stun guns. Officials with the human rights organization say the weapons are frequently used in excess by trained police, and they’re likely to be abused by the public as well.
Shafman says that if she had a choice between getting shocked or being attacked with a knife, a gun, or something else, “I’d much rather be assaulted by a Taser.”
And unlike other weapons, she says, Taser forces its customers to submit to a criminal background check before giving them a code to turn on their weapons.
Source _________________ The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 179 Location: Manchester
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:21 pm Post subject:
Louise wrote:
I'm not saying that there isn't SCUM at the top zoomer, i know there is, just as there are SCUM that walk the streets seeking to destroy and do whatever harm they can.
Both sets of SCUM should be dealt with just as decisively.
The government is ment to be our representatives zoomer not our leaders/dictators they are supposed to do what we want them to do and be open, honest and truthfull.
But remember you can't please everybody, no matter what you do you'll always get some people moaning about it.
If the government of this country was to give everybody £5,000 you'd get some people moaning because it wasn't £10,000.
But at the moment you have got all these corrupt people in these positions.
I have watched the youtube video that you told me to.
But you will agree zoomer that there must be some basic laws don't you agree?.
The alternative is anachy and noone would be safe in their own homes or beds if that came about.
I suggest that first we SEE clearly that it is INNOCENT people who are being tasered AND killed by police!
And that then these same police get away with murder!
Now what kind of soceity is this?
Where police go round murdering innocent people and get away with it?
Which means system is corrupt, right?
is this behaviour by the State somehow going to role model how we should be with each other in the community? Is it hell! It is complete injustice.
We need to keep in mind all the time who the real criminals are. And not arm them with torture weapons.
here in the UK cops have been told they can use tasers on children!!
I repeat, Tasers are torture devices. If this is way you want things to go, I am not on your side. _________________ keep asking questions!
I suggest that first we SEE clearly that it is INNOCENT people who are being tasered AND killed by police!
And that then these same police get away with murder!
Now what kind of soceity is this?
Where police go round murdering innocent people and get away with it?
Whilst I am not in any way agreeing with the use of such devices - your use of the word 'murder' is incorrect.
To qualify as 'murder' there has to be premeditation, in other words, it must have been your intention to end life prior to carrying out the act.
However, possibly you believe that police officers are now actively setting out to take life / kill people by electrocution, which does meet the legislative definition of murder. I see no basis though to believe that is what is happening though.
You can argue that there are no comebacks and they can electrocute with total impunity - but who exactly benefits from this? I remember watching someone get hit in the head with a truncheon back in the 70's who suffered a fractured skull - things haven't really changed much at all.
Having been a serving police officer, what many here tend not to acknowledge, is that the police are merely regular people wearing a uniform. They are not brainwashed or indoctrinated into any secret society, they are just a bunch of herberts who have sat in a classroom and are doing a job. The recruitment process does not include in-depth psych analysis either.
There are idiots in every job, it is just that those in the police have a higher profile and their actions make headlines when it goes pear-shaped. So do you believe that there is more to this than just the odd vindictive person in a uniform squeezing a trigger who enjoys watching someone in pain? _________________ I completely challenge the official version of events - I AM NOT A 9/11 TRUTH CRITIC - I AM NOT A 9/11 TRUTH CRITIC - I AM NOT A 9/11 TRUTH CRITIC - I AM NOT A 9/11 TRUTH CRITIC -I AM NOT A 9/11 TRUTH CRITIC - I AM NOT A 9/11 TRUTH CRITIC - I AM NOT A 9/11 TRUTH CRITIC
If innocent people are being killed by tazers (and i belive that they are) then that is obviously wrong and police should not be allowed to get away with murder (like that guy that was murdered at stockwell underground station).
And yes, the continued use of these devices should be termiinated, i'm sure that they were never designed with the intention to kill in the first place but the fact of the matter is that they do.
So a suitable alternative must be found.
But you have to admit some toerags do things so dispicable that once found guilty i feel that they should lose all their rights to be treated like a civilised human being.
By the way where did you hear about the police being allowed to use tazers on children?, i haven't heard a thing about that.
If that is true then that is definately not right. _________________ One sure way for evil to prevail, is for the good to do nothing.
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