On March 13, 2010, Justin Lee Bentley left a bar, got into his automobile and started to drive. Entirely too drunk, he got out of the car and began walking. An Orland, Glenn County police officer, Kyle Cessna, saw him, and called him over to his vehicle. According to Cessna’s statements in testimony of a year ago, Bentley was compliant, but clearly drunk. Bentley, in fact, was so intoxicated he can’t remember anything.

After checking Bentley’s identification, Cessna said he began patting Bentley down for weapons. From there on out, life turned into a 13 month nightmare for Bentley. It seems clear that Officer Cessna pulled out his taser and tased Bentley, and attempted to put handcuffs on him. Bentley did not want the handcuffs or the taser, and for reasons that continue to be unclear, Cessna claims he had a sharp pain in his knee and fell to the ground with Bentley going down with him. Even that is unclear. At times Cessna says Bentley went down with him, and at other times he says Bentley was 8 or 10 feet away. Cessna says he felt a sharp pain, and at other times that Bentley kicked him.

Medical study will look at Taser research gaps to better understand stun guns

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press – Mon, 14 Feb, 2011

OTTAWA - Gaps in the research on how Taser stun guns affect people will be one focus of a federal program aimed at better understanding the powerful weapons used for years by Canadian police.

A judge has released video that shows a police officer threatening to taser two suspects, one in the neck, the other in the genitals. Constable Christopher Hominuk has pleaded guilty to one count of threatening bodily harm. (Feb, 8, 2011)

Video: Officer threatens taser use

Peter Small Courts Bureau

Videos showing a Toronto cop threatening to Taser two suspects demonstrate the need to record virtually all police interactions with the public, a prominent lawyer says.

“It shows the tremendous value of insisting that police-citizen encounters, and especially police-detainee encounters, are video and audio recorded,” Paul Burstein, president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, said Tuesday.

There is no reason to believe police mistreatment of suspects is rampant, he added.

“Whether it’s rampant or rare … The only way to guard against it is to ensure that these encounters are video and audio recorded.”

We are publishing this letter with permission of the writer.

Dear Redwood Curtain Cop Watch,

I just spent four hours in the Willows, CA Court house and am watching the assembly-line of sending people off to prison. I could see the bulk of them are getting sent away because they don't have enough money for anything but a bad public defender.

New Taser Packs Triple The Stun (TV news video in link)

Local Police Department Buys New Semi-Automatic Taser

January 27, 2011 TAVARES, Fla. -- A Central Florida police department is putting a new Taser on the streets that packs not one, but three electrifying shots.

Tavares police believe the powerful tool will let them subdue suspects before they harm officers or themselves.

The new model is called the X3. It can be fired three times in rapid succession without the officer having to reload. That means up to three suspects can be stunned, or one especially unruly suspect can be stunned more than once.

SLIDESHOW: 23 Raw Taser Cam Videos

"If they're moving around, and you don't get both probes into the person, or into the party, then they just keep doing what they're doing because it doesn't affect them," said Capt. Danny Felicia with Tavares police.

Acceptable Use of Torture in the US    June 23, 2009

The use of electric shock as a method of torture was first documented in Nazi, Germany, but today it is still used as an acceptable use of torture in the United States.

In Gwinnett County, Georgia, an un-edited police videotape shows 31-year-old Deacon Frederick Williams being struck with a TASER five times in 43 seconds, just 4 minutes after being led into the jail. He was handcuffed behind his back and in leg restraints, following an epileptic seizure at his home; an ambulance was called by his wife and son, but the police arrived first. His last words were: "Don't kill me, man. Don't kill me."
[click on title "VIDEO of Taser Torture Death of Deacon Frederick Williams After Epileptic Seizure Ambulance Call"to watch video]

 In the December 17, 2010 Santa Rosa Press Democrat there was a very predictable story titled: JUDGE: SANTA ROSA POLICE JUSTIFIED IN 2008 KILLING. Wish we had a nickel everytime some version of that headline has been printed in our local press. Below is a statement (also sent as a letter to the Editor) from Jesse’s mom Valerie Barber. I’ve worked with Val for the past two years since her son’s death and she has been very generous with her time and energy reaching out to other families in similar situations. She went through the laborious process of finding an attorney and putting in the hundreds of hours it takes to build a case—a process that the local Leday and Sullivan families are now going through. Even getting the names of the officers who commit these killings is difficult and the deck is stacked big time against any sort of justice... for families left suddenly and unnecessarily without a loved one.

Police must have reasonable grounds for using Tasers, 9th Circuit rules

The court found that a Coronado police officer used excessive force when he used a stun gun on an unarmed motorist in 2005. The ruling could have implications for use-of-force policies across the West.

Lancaster County Man Dies After Police Use Taser On Him 

 Watch Television News VIDEO

WARNING: Some May Find Certain Images Disturbing -- Lancaster County Taser Death Scene Slideshow

State Police Investigating Death

Robert Neill Jr., 61, died after he become unresponsive after police used a Taser on him twice and sprayed him with Mace, state police said.  The incident happened at about 4 a.m. Saturday at Neill's home in the 300 block of Marietta Avenue in Mount Joy [at a senior apartment complex]. Several police departments assisted, including Mount Joy Borough police, Susquehanna Regional police and state police from Ephrata.

Johannes Mehserle pulverized on the witness stand

l spoke to Daniel (tasered man)'s Mom.  She said when the cops arrived Daniel was outside, calm at the time... The cops said something and Daniel said "Leave me alone," and backed away from the cops saying "Leave me alone, I am scared."

Lenda,
Please encourage the family to request an independent autopsy and for the body to be PRESERVED. 

When the system tells a grieving family that they have 'this' many days to cremate or bury, the grieving family usually does it quick and has to rally together the money to pay for it.  PLEASE tell them that they are entitled, if they request and notice the coroner, to an independent forensics testing (not sure how to pay for it, but it would be a forensic pathologist that the family chooses) and that should halt the "destruction" of Daniel's body. 

Also, they should work on not allowing the body to be destroyed so that if or when they sue , there is a body to examine.  OFTEN, the coroner's reports (including toxicology) do NOT match up with 1) the injuries that parents have seen on their dead children's bodies and 2) the substances that persons had in them prior to death (i.e. nicotine, marijuana)

Del Norte man dies in Taser incident

The Times-Standard  June 23, 2010   1:15:10 AM PDT

A Del Norte County man who assaulted two sheriff's deputies [we can always count on the Times Standard to be the immediately decided judge and jury for an execution by cop] Tuesday morning died after he was shot with a Taser and began having trouble breathing, the Del Norte County Sheriff's Office reported.

Lots of PHOTOS AT THIS LINK:  http://blogs.wsj.com/photojournal/2010/06/09/conflicting-reports-over-border-death/

Anastasio Hernandez Rojas was shocked to death by U.S. Border Patrol Agents in San Diego.  He was 42 years old.

Sergio Adrian Hernández, 14 years old, was shot on the Mexican Side of the border (El Paso Texas) by U.S. Border Patrol Agents
...

http://www.workers.org/2010/us/border_patrol_0617/

With fatal beating of Mexican

March 19, 2010
ALBERT POLENCIA, 31 YEAR OLD MENTALLY ILL MAN, WAS TAZED TO DEATH BY
DOWNEY POLICE

CHASED from Downey to South Gate

KILLED in FRONT OF HIS HOME

Check out the Redwood Curtain CopWatch Taser file (a resource in process) We need volunteer help with this important database.

Below is a letter that I wrote to editor concerning the state of affairs with law enforcement. and replying to a letter. City and County did away with the taser evidence from when the cops tried to kill my son. There were three tasers deployed. They said one taser was broken, and my son had to pay for it to be repaired. Now all the evidence has disappeared. I filed and administrative law suit with in 6 months of the incident. His belongings that he was booked with  also disappeared. These items probably contained evidence of the brutality that happened that night.

link to article HERE

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A 15-year old boy died Sunday [March 22, 2009] in Michigan after police used a Taser stun gun to subdue him, police said Monday.

An investigation was opened and an autopsy ordered with police saying it was not clear whether Brett Elder's death was directly linked to the Taser incident.

Police said the trouble began when three police officers were summoned to quell a fight between two males at an apartment in Bay City, Michigan.

California cops tasered a distraught son whose father was drowning after he and his brother complained that police were not doing enough to rescue their dad, while authorities revented the two sons from making any kind of rescue effort themselves.The latest example of police brutality unfolded in Mendocino Country California.