the last 3 or 4 weeks have been very busy ones mostly related to the police use and criminal misuse of tasers.
the coronial inquest with nsw state coroner ms. mary jerram presiding ran for 10 days and the actions of the police during the inquest left much to be desired. the counsel assisting the coroner, sc jeremy gormly, in his examination of the many police witnesses perhaps the family may have been heartened that the hard questioning he done was aimed at finding the facts of roberto's death and of finding the guilty parties among the 11 police officers involved. i, however, clearly remembered the equally strong questioning of the redfern police by (now) justice elizabeth fullerton during the inquest into the death of tj hickey back in 2004 where the police were exonerated by the then state coroner, john abernethy.
in both inquests it was more than obvious that there had been collusion between the officers involved to all tell the same story. both inquests showed quite clearly that making sworn statements on oath means nothing when police are being threatened with a malicious and/or criminal act prior to the death of the victim.
sc peter hamill relentlessly questioned the police involved in the chase, pepper-spraying using about 2 1/2 cans, tasering/drive-stunning roberto at least 14 times and physically holding him down with hands, batons, feet to a point where it was described that roberto had some 1/2 ton of police on top of him.
then senior sergeant greg cooper, who was the senior officer at that time of the event, (he has now been promoted to the rank of inspector. same as s/s chris hurley after he killed mulrunji doomadgee on palm island in 2004. why such promotions are given after the death of a victim of police brutality i will leave to your thinking.), he had his knee firmly embedded into roberto's abdomen thus restricting his breathing. this is the favoured 'restraint' used by police when they have the person of interest on the ground.
greg cooper claimed in evidence that he had ordered the junior officers present to put their tasers away as he considered roberto to be under control. this direction was ignored by most officers present. constable lim tasered roberto once more whilst a probationary constable, fresh out of the police academy, drive-stunned roberto at least 5 times. one police officer is seen in the taser-cam to have his hand around the throat of roberto whilst another unidentified officer had what i described in a previous post as a sleeper-hold that can kill but this was explained away as the officer looking for a pulse. the taser-cam shows that roberto is screaming in pain from being tasered and/or drive-stunned yet this officer is looking for a pulse?
all officers claimed they could not identify other officers as they came from three different stations. they could not hear roberto screaming in agony and knew nothing about the tasering/drive-stunning.
the court involved itself in the surreal investigation of the trauma known as excited delirium that taser inc. has been using as an excuse to whitewash the fact that tasers kill over many years. we then were informed that whilst police are involved in a chase and an arrest they then suffer from perceptual problems that allow them to emulate the three wise monkeys. one of many harrowing moments was the playing of the taser-cam as roberto is tasered and drive-stunned. his screams of pain and calling for help was dreadful to hear but those who did hear something attempted to explain it away by stating that roberto was 'keening' not because of pain or anguish but because of the lsd he'd taken. i have been to funereals here and in png and have observed and heard keening, a pitiful lament for the dead. what i heard coming from the taser-cam was a very much alive pain. a pain caused by those police involved in his torture.
the coroner, along with gormley and hamill, were scathing in the evidence of the police witnesses involved in the death of roberto and several times expressed their frustration at the answers to questions put to them. identical to the tj hickey inquest.
an interesting discussion occurred between the above named three and a police trainer of senior sergeant rank. during a long discussion it was stated that whilst officers involved with the roberto event may have heard the direction of officer cooper, or may not, the point is that each individual officer is given the right not to follow such orders as may be given if they personally judge that to do so may lead to them possibly being injured or the possible injury of their fellow officers. this understanding leaves enough wriggle-room to drive a fleet of trucks through. it was to be assumed that the senior officer may not have a full view and full knowledge of the circumstances. whether greg cooper even made the order is questionable.
sadly the family of roberto learnt first-hand that this is what is called justice in this country. on the 10th day after receiving both written and verbal submissions the coroner made it known that no police officer would be referred to the director of public prosecutions as it was not factually known how roberto had died. unbelievable! all officers involved had not only trashed the orders within the police standard operating procedures manual but had clearly, collectively, been involved in the death of roberto. again the police have shown that the bar of justice is extremely high, if it exists at all, when it looks at the guilt of police officers.
the reasoning of ms. mary jerram was posited on the evidence given by medical and technical experts that the death of roberto could not be blamed on the tasers alone, nor the over-use of pepper-spray or the normal restraint methods of restricting the breathing of those they become involved with. pressure points aside, surely after the physical and mental exertion that roberto had put himself through the last thing he would want is to have his breathing restricted. that was evidenced by him attempting to lay on his side so that he could breathe more easily but every time he tried to do so he was pepper-sprayed or drive-stunned and then forced onto his back again until he was finally rolled over onto his stomach and his hands cuffed behind him. but by then he'd stopped breathing.
excited delirium indeed.
it was horrible and stressful to sit through this inquest of roberto but for the family it was incredibly distressing. to sit through the taser-cams, to see the police lying through their teeth, to hear men of legal training attempt to back up the lies of the police and so water down the justice that is allegedly being sought is always extremely onerous for the families involved. to be in a court room with many armed police is most intimidating and coroners and judges should, no, must order the police to come unarmed into their courts. this over-the-top support method for their own is used by the police and must cease forthwith.
coroner mary jerram will hand down her findings at the glebe coroners court at 9am on 14 november, 2012. the death will be put down to misadventure, no police will be charged although some may, and i stress may, be recommended for some form of discipline perhaps and/or retraining in the standard operating procedures and the use of tasers and semantics into the procedures manual.
the laudisio family wanted roberto's death to at least change the system to make it safer for others who get involved in police actions. that has been the fervent prayer and wish of all death in custody families that have lost a loved one due to the complete lack of duty of care towards their victims or their failure to accept that even peoples of interest have human rights also. but as long as police are assisted by our legal and government systems to have a much higher accountability level than others the deaths will never end. police are not untouchable but that is an intrinsic part of their training, it is known as the 'police culture'.
today the nsw ombudsman, bruce barbour, released his 200-odd page report titled 'how are taser weapons used by the nsw police force'. i have yet to read the full report but a browse through the report and its 46 recommendations gives me, and i would suggest many others, no satisfaction or hope of change in the ranks of the police. he points out that the recommendations he made in his 2008 report had not all been implemented or had been ignored. if that is the yard-stick by which these 2012 recommendations are to be judged then we could very well be requiring another ombudsman's report in 2016 but how many will die by the use of the taser, in combination or alone, is as yet unknown.
the killing of roberto is not a part of this report. i firmly believe it should have been. the ombudsman's office should have been represented during his inquest so he could be made aware of the nefarious actions of the police, both on the day and in the coroners court. perhaps there may have been some obscure legal reason why it could not happen. perhaps he already knows?
that people have died as a result of taser use is not denied but bruce has been timid in his report. he knows full well that to change the culture of the police force one needs to firstly remove the practice of police investigating other police and the tactics and actions of those other police. the report calls for the taser executive committee to monitor the frequency of taser use and evaluate the impact of changes to the threshold for use of a taser. rec 8. recs 22 and 23 call on the taser review panel to also make certain specified investigations and evaluations on taser use. recs 24 to 29 requires that the panel is also charged to change their operating procedures, forms and investigations to include oversight of every taser use.
such recommendations are valuable but not when they remain under the control of internal police units. by law the ombudsman's office has oversight of police investigations, why could it not be recommended that someone in the police investigation unit of the ombudsman's office be given this important role? everyone knows that you cannot trust police to investigate other police, so why continue to leave these investigations with them. if bruce really wants change then he must make real change. he hasn't done it.
recommended changes to the standard operating procedures include semantic changes, procedural changes to taser use and calling an ambulance as soon as a taser is used. all good thoughts but all too easily ignored during police operations when only their own safety is uppermost in their minds.
there are no recommendations that tasers be withdrawn from service for a two year review period as in the 2008 report, nor that probationary constables, at least, not be issued with tasers or glocks. this was raised in the roberto inquest but police and their legals argued it was not operationally practical to do so. we need to remember that it was a pc that drive-stunned roberto 5 times in quick succession and saw nothing wrong in doing that.
bruce, i'll give you an e for effort for your comprehensive report but i doubt that there will be any major change in police practices. as long as they can hide behind the deaths being caused by extreme delirium and the systems agree, then there is no hope in my mind.
i remind all that isja will be holding a forum - taser! taser! taser! - on 16 november 2012 at the tom mann theatre in chalmers street, near central railway, beginnining at 6.30pm.
confirmed speakers are dr thalia anthony, senior lecturer faculty of law at university of technology sydney and dr carl hughes, independant forensic consultant.
more to be advised. some media reports follow.
NSW Ombudsman calls for Taser overhaul
Date: October 23 2012
Vincent Morello, Police Reporter
NSW police need to overhaul their use of Tasers after numerous incidents
of brutality, misuse and two deaths involving the weapons in the past
two years, an ombudsman's report says.
NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour tabled his report - How are Taser weapons
used by the NSW Police Force? - in state parliament on Tuesday.
The report reviewed 556 incidents between June 2010 and November 2010
and found the devices were used inappropriately on 80 occasions.
In 27 cases, police were not under serious threat and should not have
fired the weapon at all.
Police tasered people who were handcuffed or fleeing, and in some cases
victims were tasered repeatedly - actions that Mr Barbour said should be
outlawed.
The report makes 46 recommendations about how police should use a Taser
and how they should improve Taser training for general duties officers.
"(Taser) can present significant safety and medical risks, and there is
a justifiable public concern about the potential for unsafe and
inappropriate use," Mr Barbour states in the report.
A recent coronial inquest into the death of Brazilian student Roberto
Laudisio Curti, which was not considered in the ombudsman's report,
heard the young Brazilian struggled with 11 officers who fired their
Tasers up to 14 times.
Some of those instances were drive-stuns, a practice Mr Barbour also
condemned.
Such usage involves applying the Taser directly to the skin, as opposed
to discharging the barbs from a distance.
NSW Greens MP and justice spokesman David Shoebridge said it was
"remarkable" the ombudsman's report had failed to consider the evidence
given at the Curti inquest, which wrapped up hearings on Friday.
"One of the clear options for limiting Taser use by police is to
withdraw them from general duties officers and limit them to specially
trained squads," Mr Shoebridge said in a statement.
Mr Curti's family issued a statement in response to the ombudsman's report.
"The family said many of the recommendations related to the way in which
Taser (sic) was used on the night Roberto died," Mr Curti's
brother-in-law Michael Reynolds said.
"The family feels that several of the ombudsman's recommendations are a
step in the right direction."
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said the report highlighted areas
where officers could "improve" their use of Tasers.
"We say quite clearly, these devices cannot and will not be used as a
compliance device," Mr Scipione said at a media conference on Tuesday.
He said the proper use of Tasers was "drilled" into the minds of police
officers, who lost their Taser accreditation if they used the device
inappropriately.
Police Minister Michael Gallacher said the recommendations would enhance
the work of NSW police.
The Police Association of NSW (PANSW) said assaults and injuries to
officers had plummeted since the introduction of Tasers.
"In most instances, an officer simply drawing their Taser is enough to
defuse a situation," PANSW president Scott Weber said in a statement.
The ombudsman has asked the government to respond to the report's
recommendations within three months.
NSW Coroner Mary Jerram will hand down her findings on Mr Curti on
November 14.
The second Taser-related death canvassed in the report is that of Ba
Thinh Le in October 2010.
Two police officers fired a Taser at Mr Le during an investigation into
an alleged sexual assault at Sefton, in Sydney's west.
As the stun gun probes hit him, he fell forward onto a road, lost
consciousness and could not be revived.
The NSW State Coroner in November 2011 ruled that the cause of Mr Le's
death was undetermined.
An inquest into his death heard evidence that Mr Le was Hepatitis C
positive, had drugs in his system and a high concentration of alcohol in
his blood when he was tasered.
This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying
or mirroring is prohibited.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/nsw-ombudsman-calls-for-ta...
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'Inappropriate' taser use footage released
Barbara Miller reported this story on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 18:26:00
BRENDAN TREMBATH: The New South Wales ombudsman has published a series
of confronting videos shot from taser cameras, which he says show the
weapon being used inappropriately.
Some of the footage shows people being tasered in situations where they
are not behaving in a threatening manner.
The videos are included in a report released by the ombudsman
recommending significant changes to police training and accountability
processes to try to reduce incidence of taser misuse.
Barbara Miller compiled this report.
(sound of person being tasered)
BARBARA MILLER: A man in police custody tries to hang himself with his
clothing.
Police rush in and taser him.
He falls back onto a hard surface.
When he won't turn over police taser him again.
(sound of man being tasered)
They then cuff his hands behind his back, and leave him naked and face
down on the cell floor, bolting the door on their way out.
In another video shot by a taser camera and included in the ombudsman's
report, a police officer tries to get an alleged traffic offender to go
down on his knees.
The man argues back, but does not threaten the officer.
The officer uses his taser in drive stun mode, where it's applied
directly to the skin.
POLICE OFFICER: On the ground, on the ground, on the ground now!
(sound of man being tasered)
Internal police reviews of both these incidents found taser use was
justified.
Only when the ombudsman Bruce Barbour asked police to go back and look
at the evidence again, did that opinion change.
The ombudsman found 27 cases in a roughly six-month period where tasers
were used inappropriately.
BRUCE BARBOUR: You cannot have effectively one person per week being a
victim of a taser shooting when they do not deserve to be.
BARBARA MILLER: Bruce Barbour is recommending significant changes to
training and review procedures.
DAVID SHOEBRIDGE: These recommendations are very weak from the ombudsman.
BARBARA MILLER: Greens MP David Shoebridge.
DAVID SHOEBRIDGE: The ombudsman in this case has ticked off on internal
reviews of tasers, even though he's found instance after instance where
an internal police review has vindicated police, when any independent
scrutiny of it would suggest that taser use was deeply inappropriate.
BARBARA MILLER: But the Police Minister is focusing on different
elements of the report.
Mike Gallacher is heartened by findings that of just over 550 taser
deployments reviewed, 476 were found to be in line with the criteria for
use.
MIKE GALLACHER: I think it's fairly self evident that we are best served
by the New South Wales approach. It is appropriate to thank the
Ombudsman for the work that he has done by giving that confidence to
police but also giving that confidence to the public in terms of the
utilisation of this equipment.
BARBARA MILLER: The ombudsman won't comment directly on a case before
the coroner of the death of a young Brazilian man, Roberto Laudisio
Curti, was who tasered multiple times shortly before his death in March
this year.
BRUCE BARBOUR: What I can say is that we believe, and I have made
recommendations to this effect, that police should not use tasers on
someone fleeing. They should not use tasers on somebody who is
handcuffed. They should not use tasers in drive stun mode unless in each
of those cases there is exceptional circumstances.
What I've also recommended is that at no time should it be acceptable to
taser somebody for more than 15 seconds.
BARBARA MILLER: All those factors were relevant in the Curti case. He
was fleeing when first tasered, handcuffed when tasered a second time,
still handcuffed and being restrained when drive stunning was used seven
times on him, and tasers were used on him for about one minute in total.
David Shoebridge.
DAVID SHOEBRIDGE: Well it's inexplicable why the ombudsman didn't either
wait for the findings from the coronial or put his recommendations
before the coronial. One of the reasons may well be that the evidence
and the potential abuse of taser use in that Roberto Curti case are so
damning that they would force the ombudsman to put in place far tougher
recommendations than we've seen in this report.
BARBARA MILLER: The family of Roberto Laudisio Curti has released a
short statement in response to the ombudsman's report.
The statement says the family feels that "several of the ombudsman's
recommendations are a step in the right direction".
The statement goes on to say that the family "strongly believes" that
without "individual accountability.... any policies, guidelines and
training are likely to be significantly less effective".
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Barbara Miller.
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3616983.htm
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Ombudsman highlights Taser misuse
Barbara Miller reported this story on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 12:10:00
ELEANOR HALL: A report by the New South Wales Ombudsman has found that
police officers are using Tasers inappropriately once a week on average.
The Ombudsman Bruce Barbour says that's not acceptable and is
recommending significant changes to Taser operating procedures, training
and accountability measures.
One of the recommendations is that the stun guns are only applied to any
one individual for a total of 15 seconds.
Bruce Barbour is speaking here to Barbara Miller.
BRUCE BARBOUR: We identified a number of misuses when we reviewed a
large sample of Taser use by police. Those misuses ranged from
non-compliance with the operating procedures through to what was
potentially behaviour which was unlawful in the circumstances because
there was excessive rather than reasonable force used on those
circumstances.
BARBARA MILLER: Those incidents where you deemed that the Taser was used
inappropriately, you identified 27 of them in a six-month period. That's
about one a week. Isn't that far too many?
BRUCE BARBOUR: That is far too many and that's exactly what we've said.
So on the one hand our review of Taser incidents has demonstrated that
in most cases, police are operating reasonably and they are following
the procedures the way they should.
However, you cannot have effectively one person per week being a victim
of a Taser shooting when they do not deserve to be so and that shooting
is outside of the permitted purposes for which Tasers are supposed to be
used.
The operating procedures are not clear. They need to be much clearer,
they need to be rewritten, they need to be better ordered and they also
need to set out where use is restricted and also where use is prohibited.
BARBARA MILLER: If it's that strong, that the operating procedures need
to be rewritten, shouldn't Taser use be halted in the meantime?
BRUCE BARBOUR: No I don't think that's necessary because the results of
our investigation demonstrate that in the vast majority of cases, police
are using them effectively and they're using them in circumstances where
they are warranted.
So I'm not calling for Tasers to be stopped altogether at this stage,
but these recommendations I'm making will go a long way to ensuring that
the community can have trust in the way in which police are using Tasers.
BARBARA MILLER: Can you just give me one of the examples where you
deemed that the use of a Taser was inappropriate?
BRUCE BARBOUR: Well a number of the examples included cases where
somebody was being compliant with the police officer's instructions. One
of the examples we use was a man who was kneeling, he had no shirt on,
he had his hands behind his back, and because he was not obeying an
instruction to get down on the ground, the police Tasered him.
BARBARA MILLER: Now you've recommended that a Taser should never be
applied to any one individual for more than 15 seconds in total and that
it shouldn't be used in the drive stunning mode, that's when you press
it directly into the skin if someone is in handcuffs.
Both those situations apply to the case of Roberto Laudisio Curti, the
young Brazilian who died earlier this year. He was Tasered for a total
of around a minute and many times in drive stun mode. What can we read
about your thinking on that case from those recommendations?
BRUCE BARBOUR: Well I'm not in a position to speak directly about that
case because the matter is still before the coroner and she's yet to
hand down her findings and independently to her, we are oversighting the
police investigation of that matter.
What I can say is that we believe and I have made recommendations to
this effect, that police should not use Tasers on someone fleeing, they
should not use Tasers on somebody who is handcuffed and they should not
use Tasers in drive stun mode unless, in each of those cases, there is
exceptional circumstances.
What I've also recommended is that at no time should it be acceptable to
Taser somebody for more than 15 seconds. A single Taser cycle is 5
seconds, which means that if a person is Tasered more than three times
or for more than 15 seconds continuously, that should be an automatic
breach of the SOPS (standard operating procedures) and it should be
acted upon against that officer.
BARBARA MILLER: If Roberto Laudisio Curti then was Tasered for around
one minute in total, you would expect that disciplinary action would be
taken.
BRUCE BARBOUR: Well as I said I'm not going to be discussing that case,
we'll be reporting on that publicly after the coroner's findings.
BARBARA MILLER: But if you say only 15 seconds is acceptable, then you
would have to agree that one minute is completely unacceptable.
BRUCE BARBOUR: As I said I'm not going to comment on that case.
ELEANOR HALL: That's the New South Wales Ombudsman Bruce Barbour,
speaking to Barbara Miller.
The New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has welcomed the
Ombudsman's report.
Commissioner Scipione says police have already made a number of
improvements to the way Tasers are used as a direct consequence of
consultation with the Ombudsman.
The commissioner says the police force will respond formally to the 46
recommendations in the Ombudsman's report in two months.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2012/s3616574.htm
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Tasers misused once in every seven cases: Ombudsman
By police reporter Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop
Updated 53 minutes ago
A report by the New South Wales Ombudsman has called for a significant
overhaul to the way the police force uses Tasers.
The Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, has analysed Taser use between 2008 and 2010.
"We identified a number of misuses when we reviewed a large sample of
Taser use by police," he said.
"One of the examples we use was a man who was kneeling, he had no shirt
on, he had his hands behind his back and because he was not obeying an
instruction to get down on the ground, the police tasered him."
In one six-month period, Mr Barbour says he found police misused the
weapons one in seven times.
He says 27 people were tasered inappropriately within that period.
"That is far too many," he said.
"On the one hand, our review of Taser incidents has demonstrated that in
most cases police are operating reasonably and they are following the
procedures the way they should.
"However, you cannot have effectively one person per week being a victim
of a Taser shooting when they do not deserve to be so."
Mr Barbour also found Tasers were fired at people's chests in around
one-third of cases, despite the manufacturer warning against the practice.
The report also noted that the police internal review process had failed
to identify most cases of misuse and that it lacked transparency.
Mr Barbour makes 46 recommendations in total, including better training
for police and an overhaul of Taser use guidelines.
He says police should ban the use of Tasers on people who are compliant,
passive, handcuffed or fleeing officers.
He also recommends Tasers should only be fired when officers are at
serious risk of harm and for no longer than 15 seconds.
Drive stunning
The report also calls for an end to drive stunning, which is when the
Taser is pressed directly onto a person's skin.
Drive stunning was the method used repeatedly on Brazilian student
Roberto Laudisio Curti, who died earlier this year.
But Mr Barbour stopped short of saying Tasers should be banned until new
police operating procedures are written.
"I don't think that's necessary because the results of our investigation
demonstrate that in the vast majority of cases, police are using them
effectively and they're using them in circumstances where they are
warranted," he said.
"So I'm not calling for Tasers to be stopped altogether at this stage,
but these recommendations I'm making will go a long way to ensuring that
the community can have trust in the way in which police are using Tasers."
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has welcomed the Ombudsman's report.
Mr Scipione says police have already made a number of improvements to
the way Tasers are used as a direct consequence of consultation with the
Ombudsman.
The Commissioner says the police force will respond formally to the 46
recommendations in two months' time.
Police Minister Mike Gallacher has defended the use of Tasers.
"In the main I think it's a fairly significant report for police in
terms of giving them the confidence, but also giving the public the
confidence that the utilisation by Taser in this state is by far in
advance of any other state, and arguably any other nation around the
world," he said.
The report is the second investigation by the Ombudsman into the use of
Tasers by NSW police.
The first in 2008 was conducted when Tasers were only issued to officers
within specialist units of the police force.
The decision to conduct the second report was made in 2010 after Tasers
had been rolled out to general duty officers across the state.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-23/ombudsman-calls-for-changes-to-tas...
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fkj
ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association
isja01@internode.on.net
(m) 0450 651 063
(p) 02 9318 0947
address 1303/200 pitt street waterloo 2017
we live and work on the stolen lands of the gadigal people.
sovereignty treaty social justice