Sunday, 21 October 2012

Quoted in the Guardian 21 October 2012

The lovely Helen Carter's excellent article on tasers. Also the first quote on the Police Action Centre by a national newspaper.
 
Sophie Khan, a solicitor advocate at McMillan Williams, who set up the legal action group Police Action Centre to challenge the widespread use of stun guns, cites a case in which a mentally ill man on a roof was hit with a Taser by police and the muscle spasms led to him falling off the roof. She said she was also aware of a case in Birmingham of a disabled man who was Tasered after he was physically incapable of leaving his mobility vehicle as demanded by police.
"Their use is too wide and too loose," she said. "There needs to be more control and restraint; training needs to be looked at, otherwise we are in a situation where police are breaching article 3 of the Human Rights Act and the state is responsible for such breaches."
Before 2008, the use of Tasers was restricted to firearms officers, but their use has increased in recent years as more frontline officers have access to them.
Khan said ordinary people were being Tasered in circumstances where it was not warranted. She describes the Farmer case as "probably the worst example. It's a bit obvious that he had no weapon and is an elderly man and there's no threat to the public or the police."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/21/campaigners-concerns-increased-taser-use-police?CMP=twt_gu

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