Mentally Disturbed? Taser coming right up!

Thank you, Sputnic!  I am so glad you pointed out the fact that lots of women suffer from a temporary condition - post partum depression - for months after giving birth. 

IS IT AGAINST THE LAW TO BE DEPRESSED AROUND HERE???

I tell you, if it is, then there are a lot of us facing Tasering and arrest soon with the economy like it is, Sputnic.  Maybe some of those who presently feel insulated from the issues that face other people might find themselves in similar circumstances some day.  And if that day comes, I hope they find compassion, although they are slow to deal compassionately and to DEMAND COMPASSION for others like this young mother and the man on the NY balcony. 

Stop with the apathy, people!  Get involved in the quest to decriminalize mental illness and discontinue the overuse of Tasers, please.  People are being abused and killed all around you.  It is 3:00 a.m. for these fellow human beings.  The phone call is for YOU!

Mary

Thanks, Mikasi.  I remain amazed at man's inhumanity to man.

Some people are insisting that Tasers be banned, and they have launched the following petition:     http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ban-tasers-from-police

Thanks for your comments.

Mary

Thanks for your comments, Gayla. 

You are very generous in your assessment by saying, "They just don't get it!"  The truth is that police DO GET IT.  Police recognize when they are dealing with a mental patient or someone who may not have a history of mental illness, but the subject is acting very irrationally and may need special method of arrest. 

The problem, Gayla, is that for police, Tasering is the METHOD OF CHOICE when dealing with any people who are mentally dysfunctional for any reason, even a teen mother suffering post partum depressing.  The Tasering continues despite the fact that a dozen people experiencing delirium were reportedly arrested without injury in Tennessee this year when police used a tranquilizer rather than Taser.

PLEASE look at the videos at the links on this page.  Police are Tasering old people, children, and even animals are not exempt.  Look at the videos and watch some people die, some go into convulsions, and hear the fear and pain as they respond to their Tasering.  See the sad family members as they deal with the fact that sometimes, police are called to help with a mentally dysfunctional person, and police Taser the person. 

Sometimes, mental patients are still shot to death during lunacy arrests, although Tasers were available to officers.  If Tasers had been used in the arrest on the video below, just perhaps the patient might have lived (although over 230 people have died after Tasering).  The grieving woman on filmcalled police to difuse a situation with her mentally ill brother, and he was shot to death by police.   (See video on right of screen that opens):

  http://www.wapt. com/news/ 16240513/ detail.html

Thanks for the flag and comments, Amy.  This story has been front page at Care2, where I sent a link!  Most of the people there agree with those of us here at NowPublic, that Tasers are used too much and in situations where other solutions would work just as well. 

If I were the supervisor in such a situation as the officers say they faced with an irrational 16-year-old girl holding her infant son, I would likely have just told two officers to go subdue the girl with their superior strength and get the baby.  What they did actually endangered both mom and son, because a one-month-old who falls on its head could be in the same shape as the Tasered New Yorker on Tuesday -- dead!  She could have dropped the baby plus rolled on it, crushing the babe with her weight as she went into muscular spasms.  Some people have them when Tasered, and police did not know that this teen mom would not have them.

Tasers put mental patients at risk.  In this case, Canadian police also risked the wellbeing of an infant.

Sad.

Mary