Home office figures released today show Taser use is up as the police trials continue, which is to be expected as they get used to using them (stats here).
The third quarter statistics from a 12-month trial, which extended the use of Tasers to specially trained units in the fight against crime, reveal the devices were used 159 times and discharged 26 times in the last three months. Overall Tasers have been used 411 times and discharged 57 times since the trial began in September 2007.
Figures also published today include a breakdown of all Taser use across England and Wales since it was first introduced in April 2004. Statistics revealed a total of 2,662 uses and 834 discharges.
However the experience in the US and Canada is that Tasers actually create a whole new category of police-public interaction where before no weapons would be used they are now casually using Tasers to force compliance on people. It is also becoming apparent that deaths due to their repeated use are increasing and the instances where they are used as an implement to torture, often subdued and contained persons, is also increasing. What this means is they are not a magic stun gun but a weapon that can be both lethal and used to torture suspects. Police are still allowed after an incident to get together to agree their story before the investigators can question them. Also Taser Inc. aggressively use the law to stifle medical examiners who find Tasers were a cause or contributory to a death, they also release scientific reports funded by themselves claiming Tasers are harmless. They work closely in partnership with state and security forces to avoid scrutiny and accountability, our government is so far not showing much independence from this state corporatism that is bringing Tasers in to our standard police arsenal. And should the paramilitary drift of US police be a guide for where our police see themselves? Certainly as inequality rises and the recession bites social control of the masses is a priority for the state, corporations and the ruling class. As such arming police under the guise of ‘non-lethal’ stun guns is less about public safety and more about ensuring the established order have the tools to maintain their position. A heavily armed police is a disincentive to tackle the real roots of crime. America and the prison industrial complex shows us that. Leftwing Criminologist covered the fascinating history of the Police Union, which illuminates how our security forces were stripped of any progressive elements part 1 & part 2-
However, on 24th February 1919, after the board refused to accept one of Macready’s orders he moved against the union and drew up plans for elected three different boards each representing a different ranks of the police force, constables, sergeants and inspectors individually. Union activists were dismissed and the Home Secretary in support of Macready that any policemen who retained membership of the Union would lose their jobs, and on 8th July 1919 starting bring forth a bill to ban police from being members of a trade union. Crucially, however, the government combined repression with concessions that vastly increased pay and used the new three-tier representative structure to establish the Police Federation, a kind of company union that still exists today.
The Police Federation as it was established and still exists today is a vehicle for suppressing police militancy. Constables, who are the lowest rank in the police, were the most militant section of the police both before and during the strike. Thus the new representative structures that the Federation embodied minimised their role. This was done by splitting the structure by rank with constables, sergeants and inspectors each electing their own representatives, where each rank made up a third each of a joint negotiating body. Given that there are many more constables than sergeants, and many more sergeants than inspectors, this was a deliberate weighting to suppress the more militant ranks.
And the prison officers union here who of late are getting active again and as Stroppyblog says-
And should anyone fear that such strikes would be illegal, just stop and ask yourself … Who exactly is going to lock us all up?!
