On Dec. 28, the Ninth Circuit federal court of appeals in California issued a decision limiting the authority of police officers to use Tasers. The decision is the first of its kind to set a legal rule on the use of Tasers by law enforcement.
The plaintiff was Carl Bryan, a young man who, in 2005 at the age of 21 years, was Tasered by
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Officer Brian McPherson during an early-morning routine traffic stop. Bryan was driving stretches of southern California in search of his keys, which had been mistakenly taken by a friend.
Bryan had been pulled over for speeding earlier. Bryan, upset and agitated, waited anxiously outside his car as the officer wrote up the ticket. When the officer assaulted Bryan with the Taser, Bryan stood 15 to 25 feet away, facing the opposite direction, with his back toward the officer. Bryan was only wearing boxer shorts and tennis shoes.
Bryan fell to the ground and broke four teeth. He suffered temporary paralysis and extreme pain. He required hospital treatment to remove one electrode from the Taser that lodged in his left upper arm.
After the attack, Bryan was charged with resisting arrest and opposing an officer. These charges were eventually dropped.
Bryan sued the city of Coronado, the Coronado Police Department, and Officer McPherson himself. Despite the compelling facts of Bryan’s case, the court dismissed the suits against the city and the police department, finding them immune from liability for the attack. The Court of Appeals, however, allowed the lawsuit to continue against the officer, holding that he used excessive and unreasonable force.
According to common department regulations, police officers are allowed to use Tasers where there is an immediate threat to the officer or the public. However, the reality is quite different. Police routinely use Tasers to harass and intimidate people—with no accountability.
Tasers are widely used by police departments and other law enforcement agencies. A University of South Carolina study showed that Tasers and other electrical weapons are used by more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Complaints of excessive force stemming from police Taser attacks have continued to mount since the 1990s. Since 2000, more than 300 people have died in the United States after being attacked with Tasers or stun guns.
Tasers are just another tool in the arsenals of racist police to be used against poor and working-class people. Stories of Taser attacks abound on city streets, where officers are quick to use physical violence most freely in oppressed communities. Police violence against civilians shows the role that police play as a repressive force. Working people must band together against policy brutality in all forms.
