ACLU of Louisiana Sues NOPD Over Use of Tasers

From our friends at the ACLU of Louisiana:
Combat veteran was hit with Taser while seeking emotional support; ACLU seeks remedy in federal court

Today the ACLU of Louisiana assumed representation of Geoffrey Clayton, a resident of the state of Washington and a combat veteran of the Iraq war. During a May 2009 visit to New Orleans, Mr. Clayton suffered an episode brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition that has plagued him since his military service. While in the French Quarter talking on the phone with his former Army Sergeant, Mr. Clayton flagged down a passing police car to ask for help. In return, he was Tasered by Officer David Zullo, who had asked him to put his phone down. As a result of the Tasering, Mr. Clayton fell to the ground and suffered serious and lasting head injuries that left him unable to perform his military duties and forced him to resign from service.

“This is the second lawsuit brought by the ACLU over NOPD Taser practices since 2007,” said Marjorie R. Esman, ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director. “Last year, the City of New Orleans paid monetary damages to Steven Elloie, who in 2006 was Tasered by police officers while tending to his family-owned business in Central City. While that case was pending, the officer in this case misused a dangerous weapon against an innocent combat veteran who did nothing more than ask the police for help. It’s clear that the New Orleans Police Department hadn’t changed its practices, and the reward to Mr. Clayton for seeking help was grave personal injury instead of the assistance that he sought and needed.”

The lawsuit, Clayton v. City of New Orleans, was filed last year. Today the ACLU of Louisiana assumed representation of Mr. Clayton to ensure that his rights are fully protected. “Tasers are dangerous weapons that can inflict serious, even fatal injury,” Esman continued. “Tasers should not be used on someone who poses no threat. Using one on a combat veteran in distress, who simply needed assistance from a police officer, shows flagrant disregard for the rights of the public and of the intended use of this dangerous device. It's past time for the New Orleans Police Department to ensure the safety of the public it is sworn to serve, and to stop using dangerous weapons on people who pose no threat.”

The case is pending in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

A copy of the lawsuit is available here.

Taser Incident Raises Questions of Student Treatment at Jackson High School

By Titus Lin and Pat Bryant
The police tasing of 17 year old black male Timothy Mack inside his classroom has tensions rising in the sleepy southern town of Jackson, Louisiana, fifteen minutes north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s capitol.

On August 12, 2010, Jackson Deputy Marshall Robert Sanders was called to Jackson High School as a result of a heated verbal exchange between Mack and school principal Bobby Washington, also black. The argument centered on whether or not Mack had been smoking on school grounds, and Mack’s refusal to go to the principal’s office to be disciplined.

Upon arriving at the school, Sanders, a fifty or so white male, ordered Mack to come outside of the classroom, and said that he was taking the student to jail. When Mack refused to cooperate and turned to reenter the classroom, Sanders deployed his taser on Mack in full view of the other students. Mack was rendered unconscious and transported by emergency medics to a hospital, treated, and had taser probes removed from his body. He was then jailed.

The tasing policy for the Jackson Police Department states a taser may be used by an officer "to defend him or herself from what is reasonably believed an immediate threat of physical injury or death, to prevent suicide or self injury or to deter vicious animals." According to eyewitness accounts as well as Sanders’ police report, Sanders’ taser struck the teen in the back, as he was reentering his classroom. Despite this, no apology has been issued to Mack for the excessive force used in his arrest. Instead, he has been charged with resisting arrest and disturbing the peace and has been expelled from school.

The preliminary court hearing for Mack’s case will be on October 10. He will be represented by lawyer Winston DeCuir of the Baton Rouge firm DeCuir and Adams. In addition, Timothy Mack’s family is considering seeking a public hearing to appeal his expulsion, and allege that the school has thus far failed to follow proper expulsion procedure.

The tasering incident has drawn criticism and concern from civil rights organizations and local community members alike. Both the Louisiana NAACP and the Feliciana Chapter of the NAACP are monitoring the matter. Otis Bee, Mack’s father, stated that the police were “absolutely wrong shooting a student in school when no one was in danger.” Bee also claims that the incident began from “false accusations by Mr. Washington and his way of “railroading students from the school to Jackson’s alternative school.” Bee also says his son’s expulsion is unfair.

The use of tasers by police has had a controversial past. Although considered a ‘nonlethal’ weapon, their use has been linked with numerous incidents of serious injury and death; According to Amnesty International, over 350 taser-related deaths have occurred since 2001. In 2007, the U.N. Committee Against Torture issued a statement saying that the use tasers results in acute pain or death, can constitute a form of torture, and can even cause death. In a tragic incident last year, a 15 year old boy in Michigan died after being stunned by a taser by police.