Police taser innocent Auckland teenager

Yesterday at 2pm a fight involving several people broke out in West
Auckland. According to eye witnesses a youth intervened to try and
stop the fighting. The youth was then hit with a car. Police arrived
on the scene and guess who they decided to take on? Police swarmed
around the peace making young man and then tasered him, even though he
had four cops on him and was on the ground. This was all despite the
fact bystanders were yelling out “it wasn't him!”. However some other
witnesses claim the young man was involved with the fight. The Police
claimed he was kicking them to resist arrest. However, from the facts
that have come out so far it seems a bit of a disproportionate use of
force to have tasered him. It's hard to know what exactly happened and
I doubt we will find out the truth. If it wasn’t for one bystander
taking cellphone footage and speaking out to the media it is likely
this incident would have gone under the radar screen â€" like so many
others.

Last year Campaign Against the Taser Trial (CATT) and other concerned
citizens pointed out that this type of thing (well from one set of
witnesses' point view) would happen. That the Police would abuse their
new weapon and the threshold for taser use would get lower and lower.

Campaign Against the Taser Trial

Police taser innocent Auckland teenager
The Police said tasers were just for violent criminals and would only
be used in situations where they would most likely otherwise use a
firearm. In this incident the taser use seems very suspicious. People
have good reasons to be suspicious of the Police because they act as
if they are the law onto themselves.

Police can often commit violence with impunity because if someone
claims there has been Police wrong doing other Policemen and women
investigate the incidents. Police usually don't want to stop one of
their own. This is why the the recent Police rape trials took so long
to happen because when the survivors had gone to the Police at the
time of the incident their claims were rubbished. There needs to be an
independent Police Complaints Authority that can investigate all
allegations of Police brutality. I believe it also needs to have the
ability to lay criminal charges against the Police. The Police would
be less likely to use unneccessary violence if they knew they would be
likely to face legal sanction.


http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/72781/index.php

http://www.tv3.co.nz/Home/Video/Display/tabid/266/articleID/23749