All of these tactics of intimidation–the show of force by heavily armed police, the security drills by fighter planes and surveillance drones, even the arrests of protesters–were done with one goal in mind: to deter and subdue any would-be protesters. Yet what many Americans fail to realize, caught up as they are in the partisan-charged rhetoric being pumped out by politicians and the media, is that the government does not discriminate when it comes to clamping down on dissent. We are all the enemy. Thus it doesn't matter what the content of the speech might be, whether it's coming from protesters speaking out against corrupt government practices or peace activists attempting to advance an antiwar message. In the face of the government's growing power, we are all lumped into the same category: potential nuisances and rabble-rousers who must be surveilled, silenced, and, if necessary, shut down.
Case in point: in anticipation of the 2012 Democratic and Republican National Conventions that took place in Charlotte and Tampa, government agencies in conjunction with the militarized police prepared to head off any protests by refusing to issue permits, cordoning off city blocks, creating "free speech" zones and passing a litany of laws banning everything from protesters wearing masks to carrying string. The few protesters who managed to take to the streets were faced with an array of non-lethal weapons meant to incapacitate them.
"Subduing" Protesters in Seattle (Steve Kaiser)
"Non-Lethal" Weapons
Americans would do well to remember that modern police weaponry was introduced with a government guarantee of safety for the public. "Non-lethal" weapons such as tasers, stun guns, rubber pellets, and the like, were adopted by police departments across the country purportedly because they would help restrain violent individuals. Unfortunately, the "non-lethal" label has resulted in police using these dangerous weapons more often and with less restraint–even against women and children– and in some instances, even causing death. For instance, a 9-year-old Arizona runaway was tasered as she sat in the back seat of a police car with her hands cuffed behind her back.410 In Texas, a 72-year-old great-grandmother was tasered after refusing to sign a speeding ticket.411 Equally troubling is law enforcement's use of these weapons to intimidate and silence protesters.
Unfortunately, advances in crowd control technology are providing police with ever-greater weapons of compliance. For example, Intelligent Optics Systems, Inc. has developed a handheld, flashlight-like device that uses light emitting diodes "to emit super-bright pulses of light at rapidly changing wavelengths, causing disorientation, nausea and even vomiting in whomever it's pointed at."412 Raytheon has developed a "pain ray"413 which shoots an electromagnetic beam composed of high frequency radio waves, causing a burning sensation on the target's skin. In December 2011, the Telegraph reported that police in the UK were equipped with a shoulder-mounted laser that temporarily blinds protesters and rioters.414
Sound cannons are used by both military and police to emit high-pitched tones of 153 decibels,415 well beyond the threshold for causing hearing damage and auditory pain,416 with the potential to damage eardrums and cause fatal aneurysms.417 The Pittsburgh police used a sound cannon to subdue protesters during the G20 Summit in 2009, their first use on American citizens.418
Drones, outfitted with the latest in high-definition cameras419 and crowd control technology such as impact rounds, chemical munitions rounds, and tasers420 will eventually be star players in the government's efforts to clamp down on protest activities and keep track of protesters. The Shadowhawk drone, which is already being sold to law enforcement agencies throughout the country, is outfitted with lethal weapons, including a grenade launcher or a shotgun, and weapons of compliance, such as tear gas421 and rubber buckshot.422
Languishing
Does the way protesters are treated in major cities across America really have any bearing on how law-abiding citizens are treated in small-town America? Of course it does. The militarization of the police, the use of sophisticated weaponry against Americans, and the government's increasing tendency to clamp down on dissent have colored our very understanding of freedom, justice, and democracy. The end result is a people cowed into submission by an atmosphere of intimidation. And as this militarization spreads to small-town America, just the whispered threat of police action can be a powerfully intimidating force.
This may explain why some people who are tyrannized by violent regimes languish under oppression with little resistance. As early as 1776, Thomas Jefferson noted in the Declaration of Independence that "all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." Proving Jefferson's point, the Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn noted how the Russian people would kneel inside the door of their apartments, pressing their ears to listen when the KGB (the secret police) came at midnight to arrest a neighbor. He commented that if all the people had come out and driven off the officers, sheer public opinion would have demoralized the effort to subdue what should have been a free people. But the people hid and trembled.
CHAPTER 19
Tasering Us into Compliance
'When the government ... begins to stamp out the freedom of dissent that is the hallmark of a democratic society, can there be any turning back?"423–DANIEL KURTZMAN
Dorli Rainey (Hearst Newspapers, LLC/Seattle P-I/Joshua Trujillo)
As we have seen, in appearance, weapons, and attitude, local police agencies are increasingly being transformed into civilian branches of the military. However, one clear distinction between local police and military forces used to be the kinds of weapons at their disposal. With the advent of modern police weaponry, such as tasers, that is no longer the case.
Indeed, compliance weapons such as tasers, pepper spray, and sound cannons have become increasingly popular with police agencies around the world. On paper, these weapons seem like a welcome alternative to bloodshed, especially if it means protecting law enforcement officials from dangerous criminals and minimizing civilian casualties. Yet the dangers posed by these so-called "non-lethal" weapons, especially to defenseless non-criminals, cannot be lightly dismissed. And as technology makes possible the widespread availability and acceptance of these weapons, their impact on police tactics and the exercise of civil liberties is far-reaching.
"Chilling" Free Speech
Examples abound. For instance, in a September 2011 incident, the New York police responded to Occupy Wall Street protesters by throwing people to the ground and using pepper spray on nonviolent protesters trapped behind a barricade.424 Then the police became savvier. Rather than using brute force to discourage the protests, they resorted to freezing out the protesters by confiscating their electric generators and the fuel that runs them.425
Police in Oakland used tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, sound cannons, and flashbang grenades to disperse the Occupy Oakland protest. An Iraq War veteran, 24-year-old Scott Olsen, who was taking part in the protest, was struck in the head with a police projectile. His skull was fractured and he was listed in critical condition due to his brain swelling. When protesters came to his aid, they were driven back by a flashbang grenade.426
Police in Atlanta rounded up more than fifty protesters who had been camped out in a city park as part of Occupy Atlanta, while police in Philadelphia arrested fifteen individuals engaged in a sit-in in protest of police brutality as part of Occupy Philadelphia. San Diego Police arrested forty-four protesters at Occupy San Diego, confiscating all personal belongings and all supplies and food that had been donated.427
Mind you, the compliance weapons described above and their use was aimed at nonviolent protesters such as 84-year-old Dorli Rainey. Rainey was pepper sprayed in the face and forced into compliance by the Seattle police.428
Of course, the great concern with compliance weapons is their chilling effect on free speech. Do they discourage citizens from peaceably assembling and petitioning their government for a redress of grievances–a right guarante
ed by the First Amendment? Indeed, if one is liable to be pepper sprayed, tasered, tear gassed, or stunned with rubber bullets, why bother showing up at all? In such instances, the right to free speech–which is the core of our democracy–is rendered null and void.
Tasers
Tasers are now used by nearly all of the law enforcement agencies in the United States. Electroshock weapons designed to cause instant incapacitation by delivering a 50,000-volt shock, "tasers" are handheld electronic stun guns that fire barbed darts. The darts, which usually remain attached to the gun by wires, deliver the high voltage shock and can penetrate up to two inches of clothing or skin. The darts can strike the subject from a distance, or the taser can be applied directly to the skin. Although a taser shot is capable of jamming the central nervous system for up to 30 seconds, it can disable its victim for even longer. And because tasers can be aimed anywhere on the body, they can immobilize someone more easily than pepper spray, which must be sprayed in the face.
In some cases, the use of tasers can be lethal. In virtually all cases, they cause a significant degree of pain. Cops who have been shocked in the course of their training have described being tased as "the most profound pain," and "like getting punched 100 times in a row."429
Taser manufacturers and law enforcement agencies argue that tasers are a safer alternative to many conventional weapons typically used to restrain dangerous individuals. However, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests otherwise. A study recently published by the American Heart Association has determined that taser shocks applied to the chest can lead to cardiac arrest. According to cardiologist Byron Lee, "This is no longer arguable. This is a scientific fact."430 In fact, since 2001, over 500 people have died after being stunned with tasers.431 Also, in a 2008 report, Amnesty International reviewed hundreds of deaths following taser use and found that 90 percent of those who died after being struck with a taser were unarmed.432
Moreover, the potential for government abuse of this so-called "non-lethal" weapon is great, especially in the hands of domestic law enforcement who routinely use tasers as a substitute for low-level force weapons such as pepper spray or chemical spray. They have become a prevalent force tool, most often employed against individuals who do not pose a serious danger to themselves, the officers, or others, but who fail to immediately comply with officers' commands. In fact, a 2005 study compiled by Amnesty International reports that in instances where tasers are used, 80 percent of the time they are fired at unarmed suspects. In 36 percent of the cases, they are employed for verbal noncompliance, but only three percent of the time for cases involving "deadly assault."433
Tasering Women and Children
Sadly, the courts have essentially given police carte blanche authority when it comes to using tasers against American citizens. This is especially concerning in light of a growing trend in which police officers use tasers to force individuals into compliance in relatively non-threatening situations. In fact, rowdy schoolchildren, the elderly, and mentally ill individuals are increasingly finding themselves on the receiving end of these sometimes lethal electroshock devices.
Indeed, police looking for absolute deference to their authority are quick to utilize tasers. For example, there have been a number of incidents where suspects of minor crimes and even completely innocent people were electroshocked into compliance by cops. In Florida a 15-year-old girl was tasered and pepper sprayed after being taken off of a bus following a disturbance.434 In Arizona, a run-away 9-year-old girl was tasered as she sat in the back seat of a police car with her hands cuffed behind her back.435 In Oregon police tasered a blind and partially deaf 71-year-old multiple times in her own front yard.436 In another instance a Florida woman, 12-weeks pregnant, was tasered after refusing to submit to a strip search at a jail. She spontaneously miscarried seven days later.437 In Texas a 72-year-old great-grandmother was tasered after refusing to sign a speeding ticket.438
In Florida a 14-year-old schoolgirl was tasered for arguing with police officers after she and other students were put off a bus during a disturbance. She was stunned directly to the chest and then stunned twice from a distance before she was handcuffed. In Oregon a newspaper reported that officers used tasers on noncompliant people "after stopping them for nonviolent offenses, such as littering and jaywalking."439 In Arizona a 13-year-old girl was tasered in a public library after she threw a book.440 In Missouri an unarmed 66-year-old woman was tasered twice as she resisted being issued a ticket for honking her horn at a police car.441 In another instance, an officer used a taser on a 9-year-old girl who had run away from a residential home for severely emotionally disturbed children. The child, who was already handcuffed and sitting in the back of a police car, was tasered for allegedly struggling as the officer attempted to put leg restraints on her.442
Margaret Kimbrell, a 75-year-old woman who suffers from arthritis and had six broken ribs, was given a 50,000-volt shock from a police taser and was forced to spend three hours behind bars. Her crime? Margaret had refused to leave a nursing home before she had the opportunity to visit a friend whose well-being she was concerned about. According to the police, Margaret posed a threat because she was waving her arms and threatening the staff. This was news to Margaret. "As weak as I am, how could I do that?" she asked.443 Describing the pain of being tasered, this resident of Rock Hill, South Carolina, responded, "It was the worst pain. It felt like something going through my body. I thought I was dying. I said, 'Lord, let it be over."'
Common sense and good judgment certainly seemed to be in short supply when a police run-in with 71-year-old Eunice Crowder resulted in the blind woman being pepper sprayed and tasered. City employees had shown up at Crowder's home to remove unsightly shrubs and trash from the handicapped woman's yard. However, shortly after city workers began taking her belongings from her yard, Crowder became concerned that a 90-year-old wagon had been placed in the truck to be hauled away with her other belongings. After voicing her concern about the wagon, which was a family heirloom, Crowder asked to be allowed to enter the truck to search for it. Despite the workers' refusal, the elderly woman insisted on searching the truck. The situation worsened when the police showed up to find Crowder with one foot on the curb and the other on the bumper of the trailer. When one of the officers stepped on her foot, Crowder, being blind, asked who it was. Moments later, one of the officers struck her on the head–which dislodged her prosthetic eye–kicked her in the back, and pepper-sprayed her in the face.444
While law enforcement advocates may suggest otherwise, these incongruous and excessive uses of force by the police are quickly becoming the rule, not the exception. A 2011 New York Civil Liberties Union report showed that of the eight police departments surveyed across the state, over 85 percent of taser uses occurred in cases where suspects were not armed. Incredibly, 40 percent of taser uses were aimed at the elderly, children, the mentally ill, or the severely intoxicated.445 And despite claims thattasers de-escalate tense situations, a Michigan State University study shows that suspects are more likely to be injured in incidences where police use stun guns (41% of the time), rather than when no stun gun is used (29% of the time).446
"I am pregnant!"
Then there is Malaika Brooks. Brooks, 33 years old and seven months pregnant, was driving her 11-year-old son to school on a November morning in 2004, when she was pulled over for driving 32 mph in a 20 mph school zone. Instructing her son to walk the rest of the way to school, Malaika handed over her driver's license to Officer Juan Órnelas for processing.447 However, when instructed to sign the speeding ticket– which the government inexplicably requires, Malaika declared that she wished to contest the charge, insisting that she had not done anything wrong and fearing that signing the ticket would signify an admission of guilt.448
What happened next is a cautionary tale for anyone who still thinks that they can defy a police officer, even if it's simply to disagree about a speeding ticket. Rather than issuing a verbal warning to the clearly pregnan
t (and understandably emotional) woman, Officer Órnelas called for backup. Officer Donald Jones subsequently arrived and told Brooks to sign the ticket. Again she refused. The conversation became heated. The cops called in more backup. The next to arrive was Sergeant Steven Daman, who directed Brooks to sign the ticket, pointing out that if she failed to do so, she would be arrested and taken to jail. Again, she refused.
On orders from Sgt. Daman, Órnelas ordered the distraught Brooks to get out of the car, telling her she was "going to jail." She again refused, and the second cop, Jones, responded by pulling out his taser electro-shock weapon, asking her if she knew what it was and warning her it would be used on her if she continued to resist.449 Brooks told him "No," and then said, "I have to go to the bathroom, I am pregnant, I'm less than sixty days from having my baby."
Jones and Órnelas then proceeded to discuss how best to taser the pregnant woman and forcibly remove her from the car. One officer said, "Well, don't do it in her stomach; do it in her thigh." Opening the car door, Órnelas twisted Malaika Brook's arm behind her back. Desperate, Brooks held on tightly to the steering wheel, while Jones cycled the taser as a demonstration of its capacity to cause pain.
Taser Shotgun (Taser International)
With the taser in a "drive-stun" mode, Officer Jones then pressed the taser against Brooks' thigh while Órnelas held her hand behind her back. Brooks, in obvious pain, began to cry and honk her car horn–hoping someone would help. Thirty-six seconds later, Órnelas pressed it into her left arm. Six seconds later, he again stunned her, this time on the neck. After being tasered numerous times, Brooks' pregnant body eventually gave way. As Malaika fell over and out of the car, the officers dragged her onto the street, placing the pregnant woman face down on the pavement, handcuffing her and transporting her to jail.
A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State Page 14
