“Police fired a 50,000-volt Taser into the head of a 45-year-old company director who later proved to be unarmed and innocent. Daniel Sylvester, the owner of an east London security firm employing 65 staff to guard council offices, pubs and nightclubs, was driving home on October 20 when he was stopped by armed police because of “firearms related intelligence”.According to Sylvester, he got out of his car and was surrounded by officers, at least two of whom were carrying automatic weapons. Without warning, one officer fired a Taser into the back of his head which made him drop to his knees, he said. A second shock caused him to fall on his face, breaking a front tooth. A further six shocks made him wet himself and left him lying in the road in pain while the officers and sniffer dogs searched the car and found nothing.” (Link)

It is amazing to see how these stories continue to surface. Something needs to be done on a global scale to limit the use of these deadly weapons. When someone describes their experience with a ‘less than lethal’ weapon as “torture”, there is a problem. This is a clear case where the police officers jumped the gun and acted without realizing that they were in the wrong.

“According to guidelines set by the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers, Tasers should be deployed “where officers are facing violence or threats of violence of such severity that they would need to use force to protect the public, themselves and/or the subject(s) of their action”. Tasers have been used 47 times in London this year, with black people accounting for almost two-thirds of those stunned.”

In this situation, the victim was comply with the officers orders, and was in the process of exiting his vehicle. There was a chance that he had a weapon in his vehicle, but in this case it seems like the victim was comply with the police officers in every manner possible. There is no reason why this could not have been handled without the use of tasers.

-Justin