Witnesses report Bermuda Police threatened, "Shut up or I'll tase you!"

Four (!!) people approached The Royal Gazette this week to say they believed they witnessed Police putting the stun guns to use on a man they thought to be a vagrant. According to the eyewitnesses, the man began swearing loudly after the officers questioned him about a court appearance near the new Power House building on Par-la-Ville Road. "The Police officers then became more aggressive toward the man and asked him another question, which then led to a fight between the vagrant and the [male] Policeman," said a woman who didn't want to be identified. "At this point, the woman Police officer got involved and they managed to pin the guy down on the ground." The woman said the male officer threatened to use the taser on the man if he didn't keep quiet. "I believe the words were 'shut up or I'll tase you! Shut up or I'll tase you!'," the woman said. "The man did not be quiet and was still fighting back with the officers. This is the point that the Police officer put the taser up to him and he let out a yell. If the taser gun actually went off or not is unbeknown to me, but the man certainly reacted as though it did." [LINK]

"Shut up or I'll tase you!" is pain compliance pure and simple.

Be quiet or we will electro-torture you.

Why not use the glowing end of a lit cigarette to accomplish the exact same thing? 

Nobody, but nobody, has ever offered a solution to The 'glowing cigarette' taser challenge.

See [LINK].

Nobody...

Why no response? Because there are no legal, moral, and ethical differences between burning-cigarette torture and fancy-pants electro-torture. Nothing. Both are exactly the same in all respects.



According to a [Bermuda Police] spokesman ... Every time [the taser] is used tiny confetti-like identification numbers are deployed that can be recovered so as to identify the specific taser that was used. [ibid]

Not when it is used in Touch Torture (Drive Stun) mode. This non-dart mode is often used to make them shut up (inexplicably, causing them to scream out in pain exactly as if they were being electro-tortured... hmmm...).


Me thinks that the Bermuda Police Service might want to review their Taser Use Policies AND associated training to exclude taser deployments, ...threatened or actual..., so that they can't be accused of using tasers to torture people to make them shut up.