isja and other social justice groups will be holding a protest rally against the use of police tasers after they tasered an 84 year old man who was suffering a psychotic episode.
the article below, again clearly shows the absolute lack of proper training by the nsw police when attempting to deal with a mentally ill person. such events, as we know only too well, have indeed led to the death of the victim involved by police killing that person and then other police attempting to cover it up by police investigating police.
this 84 year old man, though tasered twice, did not die but surely other methods of control could have been used to quieten him down. sadly, the nsw police do not have a special unit, as other countries do, of being properly trained to deal with such issues.
that police rely too much on their weaponry in such cases merely reflects their attitude that they are the enforcers and they can do no wrong. this attitude, this police culture must be stopped immediately and the police be informed, in no uncertain terms, that we, the public, will no longer accept such police brutality against us and, especially, the young and aged among us.
join us on thursday, 30 august, 2012. The action will be in front of the Kogarah Railway Station, corner of Railway Parade and Montgomery street at 12.30.(Station side of Railway parade) on Thursday 30 August 2012.
this action continues our call to the barry o’farrell government, greg smith, nsw attorney-general and police minister, mike gallacher that tasers be withdrawn from inexperienced and untrained police officers and that all forms of police brutality cease immediately.
we will be holding our long promised forum on these issues in november. more information later.
IN AN “OLYMPIC YEAR’ NSW POLICE SET A NEW RECORD
An 84-year-old man with a history of dementia was repeatedly shot with a Taser and pepper sprayed by police in an incident that prompted a review of treatment of “elderly, infirm, immobile persons”. The Bexley man was the oldest person to be hit by a stun gun in NSW since April 2011 and a 16-year-old boy was the youngest person on whom Tasers were used, documents released under freedom of information laws show.
The information release comes months after the government refused to answer questions, put to the police minister in parliament, about Taser use. In the Bexley case, police made a 3am (AEST) call to the 84-year-old man’s home in February after his wife – fearing for her life – barricaded herself in a bedroom.
Officers arrived to find the man with a Stanley knife in hand, and deployed the stun gun for a second time when he failed to follow directions to get on the ground. They said the man had experienced worsening dementia for 11 years.
“(His wife) locks herself in her bedroom of a night-time for her safety. She feels she can no longer control him,” they wrote in their report of the incident. The wife was taken to hospital immediately after the incident for a suspected heart attack.
The incident was examined by NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch, who found the officers’ response was, as usual, “reasonable”.
The youngest person stunned with a Taser was a 16-year-old who had threatened his father with a wooden plank and attempted to strike police.
NSW Labor MP Walt Secord made the information request after the government refused to answer a question about Taser use in parliament. He was told the information was not readily available, and providing it would be an “unreasonable diversion of resources from frontline policing”. Mr Secord said more information should be available about Taser use.
“I think there is a responsibility that comes with it, and the community has a right to know where they are being used, why they are being used and whom they are being used on,” he said
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/police-tasered-mentally-ill-man-84-20120816-249il.html#ixzz24N5CImFW
As part of the campaign against the use of Tasers and police brutality, the Indigenous Social Justice Association, Deaths in Custody Campaign and Justice for TJ are calling for a demonstration near of the St George police station, base of the LAC. The action will be in front of the Kogarah Railway Station, corner of Railway Parade and Montgomery street at 12.30.(Station side of Railway parade) on Thursday 30 August 2012.
More information call Ray Jackson 0450651063 or Raul Bassi 0403037376