By Eddie Griffin (BASG)
Saturday, August 29, 2009
CLOSURE
We now have closure in the Fort Worth Police Department’s taser death case of a 24-year old man, who had been diagnosed with mental illnesses. We have closure insofar as the Tarrant County Medical Examiner ruled the death of Michael Jacobs Jr. as a “homicide caused by the officer’s use of the Taser”. We have closure insofar as the officer admits administering two jolts of 50,000 volts to Jacobs’ body longer than the 5-second limitation. A 49-second jolt, followed by a 5-second jolt, caused a “sudden death during neuromuscular incapacitation due to application of a conducted energy device”, i.e. Taser.
Tarrant County ME Dr. Nizam Peerwani also ruled: “Repeat postmortem toxicology studies were negative for all drugs including psychomotor stimulant drugs and ethanol.” In other words, here was an innocent 24-year old African-American man with no drugs in his system at all. He was clean as a baby and healthy. And yet, in less than a minute, he is dead after being shocked with a taser.
A healthy man shocked to death in less than a minute says something of the lethality of the weapon used, i.e. Taser.
We now have closure in the cause of death: Homicide. But was it negligent homicide, by not taking the preliminary and necessary precautions as required?
Cpl. Stephanie A. Phillips claims that she “unknowingly kept the Taser trigger engaged for an unknown amount of time when she first applied the Taser, thus increasing the pre-programmed shock duration cycle of five seconds.” In other words, she over-road the pre-programmed limit for shock duration.
The objective of the Taser X26 is to incapacitate. A five second during may not be lethal. Beyond that, the Taser is obviously lethal, as proven by over 500 deaths since 2001. To override the non-lethal level of deployment, an officer runs the risk of summary punishment by electrical execution. An officer should not override the product safety guidelines. To “unknowingly” override the product safety limit, Officer Phillips went beyond the purpose of incapacitating the subject Michael Jacobs.
The officer was negligent in the deployment of lethal force. Tasers can kill.
I believe that Cpl. Phillips and the entire Fort Worth Police Department are not convinced of the lethality of Tasers. They are too quick and easy to use, and officers have a willy-nilly attitude about using them. It makes their job easier. But, by the same token, it endangers the public.
If there had been a single trace of drugs in Michael Jacobs’ body, the Medical Examiner would have ruled like other medical examiners. It has been easy to attribute the cause of taser deaths to drugs inside the subject’s system, but not in this case. It is not the victim’s fault that he died in less than a minute after being tased. It was the Taser that killed him, albeit the officer may have thought it less lethal.
RESOLUTION
I attended the funeral of Michael Jacobs Jr. and delivered a Resolution on behalf the thousands of the church and Internet community of readers and supporters. In the Resolution or Michael Jacobs Jr., I wrote:
We also know that Michael did not have to die like this because we have been warning police departments all across the United States for years that Tasers Kill. These devices send out a 50,000-volt charge. If one of us shocked ourselves on an electrical outlet at home, we would get jolted with only 120 volts, and all of us know how that feels. This was 50,000 volts, not 120 or 240. Even when the state of Texas executed men on death row by electric chair, “Old Sparky” could only generate 20,000 volts.
TASER International, Inc. insists that it is not the voltage but the amperage, yet we know so little about the body’s own neurological electrical system. Dr. Peerwani was specific in determining the cause of death: “neuromuscular incapacitation”. In other words, the electrical signals from the brain to the muscles in the body completely shut down, including the heart muscle.
It is a fact that people in highly agitated states should not be tasered. Maybe it is because the neurological activities in the brain are more susceptible to increasing the amperage of the electrical shock. Some survive. Some die. Everybody’s neurological system is different.
Taser International continues to deny the inherent risk of death from tasers, and yet they have quietly reduced the output of their latest model by about 40%.
ReplyDeleteTheir denials are not surprising. They're caught in a web of hubris and deception. They playing the ultimate double-or-nothing game, trading off their ill-gotten fortunes against the lives of those, like Micheal, that have been killed by a taser.
Taser International now says the chest area is off limits... potential cardiac arrest. Slowly but surely, the company is conceding that what we say is true: Tasers Kill!
ReplyDeleteSo many people don't care about global warming. They disregard the need for conservation and instead drive SUVs. They don't care about the Federal deficit/debt (outside of partisanship) and they don't care earning $400k for an $80,000/year job will eventually bankrupt the country. They have awarded themselves $400k pay and retirement packages, loading up their friends on the payroll during the boom 90s through the real estate bust while all services which the program were intended to fund now get cut to pay for it.
ReplyDeleteThey think they are going sometime during/at the end of this life, and disregard the poor souls who are left behind.
Sounds like the Italians who were used to plan World War II and the Holocaust, and not by accident.
These are the people who will be here in the United States when bankruptcy is declared and society deteriorates into chaos. And they will deserve the anarchy which ensues.
The gods used the Italians to ruin life in the 20th century.
The gods used the Italians to ruin life in A.D. with The Church.
The Church controlled Western Civilization. As the largest land owner in Europe they controlled the monarchies. They were responsbile for slavery, revenge for African invasion and rape of Italy. They created religious discontent, ultimately leading to the disfavored dumping ground known as the United States.
And each generation of these Italians were sold on "earning", only to be reincarnated as a lesser life form subsequently, punishment for their evil.
"The West Bank, where the end of the world will begin." With xtianity.
And they were reincarnated into the ghetto to be punished as crack babies and in drive-by shootings, both intentionally inflicted on the black community and poetic justice for inflicting these horrors on their hated enemies.
On their brothers.
The gods are the commensurate rapist pathology, focussed on control.
It is appropriate the picked the Italians for the downfall of man. The perception offered is exactly how the gods are. Unfortunate for the Italians, they were deliberately altered to match this pathology so the god's behavior could be justified in the context of their positioning.
I will forever regret and resent being picked for this event.
I may not have learned as much as I have but I WOULD have gotten more done and made more progress, and at the end of this life that's all that matters. We are all reincarnated and must re-learn about the gods and their methodology.
This is the worst possible senario in my life.
Despite your attempts to force your positioning, "protection" and their fulfillment of the promise I am t have a "real chance" in a future life, I will take my hatred forward to the next life.
The empty promise is I will have a real chance of going, and if I retain this experience there is no way in damngod motherfuckers that would ever be possible. Secret is they have the freedom to remind me of this life, "executive priveledge" retained, sabotaging all progress up to that point. And they WILL utilize this tactic.
This is a lost cause. They are degenerate filth who positioned in a guarentee to fail, ensuring the are not to blame for their failed promise.
The upside down star is my symbol. There is of course no Satan. That's just the gods with different clothes on.
Another feature which the Gods offer as a clue is very foreboading and ominous. Mt. Zion is a mountain to the north of Diablo (the eye of The Beast) and one which has a working quarry at its base. Consistant with the decay we experience in society, Mt. Zion is being eaten away, slowly stripped of its resources, until one day paradise will be gone forever.