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wow.
And sadly you can't make this up either:
Police accused of firing Taser into head of innocent man
Robert Booth
Tuesday December 18, 2007
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 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. |
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