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UN Says Tasers Are a Form of Torture

Posted by kdawson on from the just-don't-bro dept.

The use of Tasers "causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture," the UN's Committee Against Torture said. "In certain cases, they can even cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life events." Three men — all in their early 20s — died from after tasering in the United States this week, days after a Polish man died at Vancouver airport after being tasered by Canadian police. There have been 17 deaths in Canada following the use of Tasers since they were approved for use, and 275 deaths in the US. "According to Amnesty International, coroners have listed the Taser jolt as a contributing factor in more than 30 of those deaths."

11 of 816 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Fortunately... by gfxguy · · Score: 0, Troll

    Since when does the U.N. need reason when bashing the U.S.?

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    Stupid sexy Flanders.
  2. 275 by iminplaya · · Score: 0, Troll

    That's pretty impressive. Well.. at least the Americans are number one at something.

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    What?
  3. Re:Fortunately... by DigiShaman · · Score: 0, Troll

    I've always viewed the U.N as a corrupt orginization and an enemy of the US. I'm sure many agree.

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    Life is not for the lazy.
  4. Back to the basics: Bullets by mschuyler · · Score: 0, Troll

    That's right: tasering is painful and should be outlawed. That way police can go back to bullets. There's absolutely nothing a taser can do that an assault rifle can't. After all, if they shoot you correctly (head, heart, done), you won't feel a thing. No pain: You're dead, ergo no torture. There will be no more accidental taser deaths; the deaths will be on purpose.

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    How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
  5. The US will ignore by bogaboga · · Score: 0, Troll

    No matter what the UN does in relation to this taser file, I am pretty sure the US will ignore it, just like it ignored the UN and the world when it went to war in Iraq...a war the has cost more lives than 9/11. Just like what a bigot would do.

  6. Re:Fortunately... by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1, Troll

    It's customary when trying to build an argument to cite links from more than one fringe website. It's ridiculous to post link after link after link from that same site.

  7. The UN by nurb432 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Needs to keep their noses out of a sovereign nation's business. This move towards a one world government is really scary, and offensive.

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    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  8. Re:Fortunately... by MightyMartian · · Score: 0, Troll

    Well there are still the issues stemming from the long-term abuse on many reserves by churches, who were given the keys by a lazy, disinterested government, and being good churches, somehow managed to put pedophiles and psychopaths in charge of children.

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    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  9. Re:So remember... by niiler · · Score: 0, Troll
    I want to reinforce your opinion. I would think that tasers would be used in place of guns as the less lethal alternative. Where one would have the right to fire a gun, one could also, in theory use a taser. All the uses I've read about lately most certainly do not fall under this heading. As for the parent to your post:

    How many lives have been saved by the use of Tasers? For instance, without a taser it may indeed be much more likely for cops to have to resort to guns and/or other less predictable violent means to protect themselves.
    You know, if tasers had been around for more than about 10 years, I might be inclined to take this argument seriously. Besides in some of these cases, the tasers were used after the "perpetrator" had already been subdued and handcuffed. The use was sort of like a "take that for resisting" motive. Can you imagine police in the US or Canada shooting a perp after having handcuffed them?
  10. Re:So remember... by niiler · · Score: 0, Troll

    OK, so fifteen years instead of ten. Wow! What a difference! In either case, this is not a heck of a lot of time to compile statistics on effectiveness. And for that matter, how exactly DO you quantify how many lives were saved by using tasers when from TFAs it's fairly clear that the tasers are not being used only in life threatening situations. (In short, you can't make the assumption that a gun would actually have been used in place of a taser had tasers not been invented.) Perhaps you can explain to me exactly how tasing someone in handcuffs preserves lives?

  11. Re:if its been said once, its been said 1000 times by ScrewMaster · · Score: 0, Troll

    It does to some people. Oddly enough, most of them seem to be gun control advocates.

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    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.