( – promoted by GMD)
(cross-posted to Vermont Watch, here)
If you have not already come across the news yet, former Governor Madeleine Kunin has signed the online petition calling for a moratorium on the use of Tasers within Vermont (no title, just her name; petition main page, here):
86. madeleine Kunin Jul 12, 2012 burlington, VT
Six paragraphs concerning these matters are found within the top of the Vermont Press Bureau’s Notes from the Trail political news column and also features a photo of Madeleine Kunin speaking out front of the Vermont State House (most likely earlier this year), which also includes other political news as well, within today’s Times Argus and Rutland Herald newspapers.
A couple of key excerpts (via Times Argus, here; behind paywall):
[…]
Former Gov. Madeleine Kunin added her name to an online petition that urges Gov. Peter Shumlin to call for an immediate moratorium on the use of Tasers by the Vermont State Police as better policies are developed.
[…]
“I think that with careful law enforcement training there are better ways to diffuse a dangerous situation,” Kunin wrote in her email. “Because Tasers have become widely available, the temptation to use them is great. We need to assure that proper training in their use is always available.”
[…]
Thank you if you have already signed onto the petition. It is greatly appreciated!
If you have not already signed it yet, how about adding your name along with that of former Governor Madeleine Kunin and also some other names you might recognize as well (here)?
Take time to wade through the signatures posted thus far and find them for yourself.
By the way, as of this moment, there are 820 signatures.
Please help us reach and exceed our current (automatically set) goal of 1000 and then beyond.
Thank you in advance.
It is kind of disturbing the VSP overtime scandal seems to be getting more attention than this taser topic.
how Consuelo Bailey weighs in before I decide how I feel about tasers.
At the tail end of its final local news broadcast just prior to next CBS show featured at 9:00 AM this morning, I managed to catch the WCAX — Channel 3 TV — News segment concerning the online petition as well as about how former Governor Madeleine Kunin signed onto it. Right now only a brief text version is available online, however hopefully sometime later this morning or this afternoon a video clip of the segment will be posted, which features much more, including providing a screenshot of the petition and also a portion of an interview with Madeleine Kunin. If one has not always viewed it this morning, the clip is worth viewing:
http://www.wcax.com/story/1904…
By the way, during the Mark Johnson Show aired on WDEV Radio today, the second topic Mark Johnson brought up with Governor Shumlin during his interview was about the Taser moratorium question as well as about the online petition, etc. Governor Shumlin is still very much sticking to his (Taser) guns and using pretty much the same arguments as well as spinning everything his way as before, no surprise of course.
Archived audio of such interviews are often posted either later in the day or the following day at:
http://blog.markjohnsonshow.net/
Additional news coverage, fyi:
Burlington Free Press:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress…
vtdigger:
http://vtdigger.org/2012/07/16…
In addition, at 11:30 AM today, Governor Shumlin will be holding his regular weekly news conference. If I am able to do so, I might try to attend the press conference with digital video cam in tow, just in case there is anything that comes up in relation to the Taser moratorium being sought.
Either way, if there is something related that comes up during the press conference today, particularly given that tomorrow marks four weeks to the day that Macadam Mason was tased by Vermont State Police and died shortly thereafter, there might possibly be news coverage both tonight and tomorrow to stay tuned for.
Once again the Taser moratorium online petition is available at (via SignOn.org):
http://signon.org/sign/call-fo…
So I have never heard this question asked or answered in any discussion of the use of Taser-type weapons:
Why are they primed to deliver 50,000 volts? Surely most people are plenty incapacitated by, say, 220 volt household current. Or 500 volts or 1,000. Why has no one considered whether a lower voltage defensive weapon might be nearly as effective with the potential (research needed) for fewer deaths?
Sure, I’ll grant that it doesn’t sound, er, quite as macho to say, “My weapon discharges 220 volts!” compared to “My weapon discharges 50 thousand volts!”
BTW, despite Taser International’s claim to have issued an advisory about not Tasing people in the chest, when you look here you can see a repeating string of video clips where, yup, nearly every single person being Tased, including law enforcement officers during apparent demonstrations of the weapon, is being shot in the chest.
NanuqFC
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on. ~ Robert F. Kennedy