While taping the IVAW Tower Guard, I witnessed this altercation between police and a homeless man over the arrests made earlier for a fight in Acacia park, Saturday July 12, 2008 in which he was not involved.
Now, his trial will finally take place (Nov 12) and the video will be used as evidence by his lawyers to show NO resistance or interference with EMTs, which is what he is charged with. This is some of the evidence provided his attorney, and additional slow motion video of his behavior:
Story
By: Mark Hanrahan
Source: KOAA
A
local man capture Colorado Springs Police officers using a taser to subdue
a suspect and he posted the video online in hopes of starting a dialogue on
taser use. Mark Lewis with the local anti-war group csaction.org captured
the incident on home video. He says, “Its not that they shouldn’t
use the tasers, it’s just that they have to have a policy.”
The taser incident happened Saturday at Acacia Park in downtown Colorado Springs.
The home video shows a man struggling with police. After a few seconds police
resort to shooting the man with a taser after it appears that he refuses to
comply with the officers.
Lewis agrees that the man was resisting arrest, (I
said no such thing and posted this video because I think he was NOT resisting)
he also says he not against taser use. He just thinks people should know about
their police’s policy when it comes to using them. To make his point,
Lewis posted the video on Youtube.com. News First asked Lewis what he hoped
to gain by posting the video online.
He says, “Well, because I think people need to understand that in their
community, and there’s a lot of communities that have banned tasers,
in their community they need to understand…to address this issue in
terms of what is going to be departmental policy in terms of their use.”
Colorado Springs Police spokesman, Sgt. Creighton Brandt, says the department’s
policy has always been clear. He says, “Our policy is that if an officer
is in contact with someone and resists arrest or detention and other alternatives
to control have failed, then our officers are allowed to use tasers.”
Sgt. Brandt went on to say that they officers in the video appeared to have
taken appropriate action. He also says that since the department started using
tasers in 2004 they’ve had excellent results.
Sgt. Brandt says, “During that time period, the injury to police officers
has gone down, the injury to suspects has gone down and also civil liability
claims have also gone down.”
http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x506195136/local-man-wants-dialogue-on-taser-use
Amnesty International
Since June 2001, more than 290 individuals in the United States have died after being struck by police TASERs. Amnesty International is concerned that TASERs are being used as tools of routine force—rather than as weapons of last resort. Rigorous, independent, impartial study of their use and effects is urgently needed.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/Domestic_Human_Rights/TASER_Abuse/page.do?id=1021202&n1=3&n2=850&n3=220
TASERs on Video
Viewer discretion is advised.