Greenwich High School Boy Is
Juiced Three Times By Cops
One Greenwich High School Stubent's Taser Tale:
Were Greenwich Police Officers Too Quick On The Draw. High School Student Charged With Single Counts Of Breach Of Peace And Interfering With An Officer
Quote:
"I was walking toward the exit and they stopped me," Greenwich High School Student Victor Londono said. "He said he was going to arrest me and I said, 'What does it matter, I'm leaving anyway.' "
Story:
By Martin B. Cassidy
Greenwich Time - Staff Writer
...Victor Hugo Londono was tasered three times Tuesday afternoon in the Student Center, the first use of the weapon to subdue a teen on school grounds, according to police. At 12:25 p.m., Londono was shocked by School Resource Officer Carlos Francousing an M-26 Taser stun gun when Londono resisted arrest after repeatedly refusing to report to the assistant headmaster's office....
...The gun's dart cartridge can be removed to shock a person at close range, as police said was done in Londono's case...
...Additional officers arrived, and Londono resisted being handcuffed and arrested for breach of peace, which prompted Franco to use the Taser in "drive stun" mode, applying the prongs directly against Londono's neck, Greenwich Police Chief David Ridberg said.
During the tasing, Londono allegedly tried to punch Franco, but eventually complied and was arrested, according to police.
Londono said he did not try to strike Franco. He said his original suspension was for one week for throwing water balloons as part of a senior prank....
...Removing the gun's dart cartridge to shock Londono at close range was a decision meant to limit the potential harm to Londono, discharging a lesser shock than if the officer had fired the weapon's darts at him from a distance.......Londono questioned police shocking him with the weapon, saying the three officers could have restrained him easily.
"Tasing me was probably uncalled for," said Londono, who weighs 140 pounds and is 5 foot 10 inches tall. "I was going to leave the school before they stopped me."
Police said it is school policy that suspended students be picked up at the school by a parent or guardian. School spokeswoman Kim Eves said she had no information on the policy. Greenwich High School Headmaster Alan Capasso and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Betty Sternberg did not return calls for comment...
COMMENTS:
As Usual The Greenwich Time Is Afraid To Question Authority In The Town Of Greenwich
If a reporter learns that three hulking guys with police powers comes into a high school and grabs a 140 pound kid and puts 50,000 volts of electricity through his body over a Senior prank involving water balloons, then this reporter should start asking authorities some hard and direct questions.
Many times I have heard Greenwich High School students complain of school security officers of being arrogant and condescending. Usually this ends up in a situation being unnecessarily escalated at Greenwich High School.
While the police claim that there was a school policy that Victor Londono had to go and wait for his parents in the assistant school administrators office, no school administrators seems to know about this policy. Nor does the school superintendent or headmaster want to talk about this supposed policy.
In fact, if this policy does exist, Conneticut State Statutes says that it would not apply to Mr. Londono who had recently turned 18.
Technically, under Connecticut laws Mr. Londono could drop out of Greenwich High School and truant officers or his parents legally could not do a darn thing about it.
Being 18, Mr. Londono could even legally sign a military contract up to go to Iraq without any parental involvement what so ever.
Mr. Londono, could in fact under Federal and Connecticut State privacy laws prevent the school from sharing any of his educational information with his parents.
Could you imagine the lawsuits that would result if an 18 year old college freshman wanted to leave a college campus, but school security personnel physically detain and manhandled in a deans office until his parents came to get him.
Legally Greenwich security personnel only had the right to tell Mr. Londono that he had to leave the campus, because he had been suspended over the Senior prank involving water balloons.
Mr. Londono, had a legal right to refuse to be physically detained by Greenwich security personnel in the assistant superintendents office. In fact, it appears that Greenwich security personnel unnecessarily escalated the situation by refusing to allow Mr. Londono to leave the Greenwich High School campus.
The whole disturbance was caused by poorly trained Greenwich High School Security Officers refusing to let an 18 year old leave the campus on his own after being suspended for a water balloon prank.
The Greenwich High School security officers clearly violated Mr. Londono's rights by illegally attempting to detain him, thus causing a disturbance in the school cafeteria.
The Greenwich Police officer should have informed the school security officers that they did not have a legal right restrict Mr. Londono's or detain him over. The Greenwich Police Officer then should have advised Mr. Londono to do what he wanted to do all along - Leave The High School Grounds.
Instead, Mr. Londono was zapped by the Greenwich Police Department with 50,000 volts while trying to exercise his legal right to leave the Greenwich High School grounds.
Mr. Londono was only electrified and arrested when he refused to be illegally detained by Greenwich security personnel and attempted to leave the school grounds.
If Mr. Londono had submitted to being illegally detained in the assistant headmaster office by Greenwich High School security personnel, then he would not have gotten 50,000 volts and a $50,000 bail.
No wonder, Greenwich High School Headmaster Alan Capasso and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Betty Sternberg did not return calls for comment.
Right now, Capasso, Sternberg and their security officers are probably praying that Londono doesn't go out and hire an out of Town civil rights attorney.===========================================
Here Are A Few Facts The Greenwich Time Should Have Reported To The Parents Of Greenwich High School Over The Brutal Taser Incident
By comparison, electrical outlets in Greenwich Homes delivers 120 volts of electricity.
It's possible to suffer a fatal shock from a household electrical socket, at just 120 volts, if enough current passes through the body.
Some Taser models, particularly those used by the Greenwich Police Department , also have a "Drive Stun" capability, where the Taser is held against the target without firing the projectiles, and is intended to cause pain without incapacitating the target.
"Drive Stun" was used on Victor Londono As Two Other Officers Held Him Down
Taser defines "Drive Stun" as "the process of using the Taser as a pain compliance technique. This is done by activating the Taser and placing it against an individual’s body. This can be done without an air cartridge in place or after an air cartridge has been deployed."
Like other forms of non-lethal non-lethal force, such pain compliance strategies are not perfect and may be abused as a form of torture, with plausible deniability. For this reason the use of pain compliance is often subject to explicit rules of engagement designed to prevent abuse and avoid conflict escalation.
More generally, "plausible deniability" can also apply to any act that leaves little or no evidence of wrongdoing or abuse. Examples of this are the use of electricity or pain compliance holds as a means of torture or punishment, leaving little or no tangible signs that the abuse ever took place.
According to the analysis of the first 900 police Taser incidents by the Houston Chronicle Special Report Entitled "The Taser Effect" (See The Videos), no crime was being committed and no person was charged in 350 of those cases. In addition, it has been reported that the Houston Police Department has "shot, wounded, and killed as many people as before the widespread use of the stun guns" and has used Tasers in situations that would not warrant lethal or violent force, such as "traffic stops, disturbance and nuisance complaints, and reports of suspicious people."
Taser International claims that Tasers are safe, but critics disagree, citing the number of deaths occurring after Taser use.
For years, Tasers have been criticized by many who say the devices are more deadly than alternatives such as beanbag guns and pepper spray, and should be avoided until definitive research has been completed.
As of now, no independent, national study has been done on the deadly risks of Tasers.
The head of the U.S. southern regional office of Amnesty International, Jared Feuer, reported that 277 people have died after being shocked by a Taser between June 2001 and October 2007. He also noted that about 80% of those, on whom a Taser was used by U.S. police, were unarmed.
"Tasers interfere with a basic equation, which is that force must always be proportional to the threat," Feuer said. "They are being used in a situation where a firearm or even a baton would never be justified."
The Taser International says there are none. Critics argue that there hasn't been enough research into the safety of stun guns. They point to the deaths since 2001 of more than 50 people in North America after Taser shocks
The organization refers to them as "Taser-related," meaning a Taser had been used in the course of a person dying - but was not necessarily the cause of death.Amnesty International is not "anti-Taser," but the group does have concerns.
There's just not enough information out there for Greenwich Police Officers to be using these weapons on a 140 pound boy in trouble over water balloons at Greenwich High School.
The research that has been done is not independent or impartial enough to warrant the use on minor children in the Greenwich High School Cafeteria.
There is not yet enough information about how Tasers affect certain people, such as juveniles, the elderly, pregnant women, and those with pre-existing heart conditions. An officer does not know a person's medical history before they decide to use a Taser on them, and often have to make a split decision whether to use the device.
Although tests on police and military volunteers have shown tasers to function appropriately on a healthy, calm individual in a relaxed and controlled environment, the real-life target of a taser is, if not mentally or physically unsound, in a state of high stress and in the midst of a confrontation
In 1989, a Canadian study found that stun guns induced heart attacks in pigs with pacemakers. Ten years later, an American study concluded that weapons delivering a jolt weaker than Tasers increased the risk of cardiac arrest in people with heart conditions.
Police officers in at least five US states have filed lawsuits against TASER International claiming they suffered serious injuries after being shocked with the device during training classes.
Obviously the Greenwich Police Department should be using non-lethal alternatives, but those non-lethal alternatives should be fully investigated before being used on students involved with water balloons at Greenwich High School.
Recent University Stun Gun Incidents
On , November 14, 2006 Mostafa Tabatabainejad, an Iranian-American UCLAstunned multiple times with a Taser by campus police, for allegedly refusing to be escorted out of the College Library Instructional Computing Commons (CLICC Lab) at Powell Library. The police had been called after Tabatabainejad had refused to provide his BruinCard (student ID) to a UCLA CSO during a routine check. Part of the incident was recorded on video by a camera phone. student, was
Tabatabainejad has said through his lawyers that he refused to identify himself because he believed himself a victim of racial profiling, and that the Tasing was an instance of police brutality.
Tabatabainejad has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the officers used excessive force and that they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. His attorney has said that a February 2008 court date has been set. As of May 2008, the court date is still pending.
At approximately 11:30 p.m. on, Community Service Officers were conducting routine checks of students' BruinCard IDs in Powell Library. UCPD Assistant Chief of Police Jeff Young said the checks are a standard procedure in the 24-hour library after 11:00 p.m., when use of the library is restricted to staff, faculty and students
And:
On September 17, 2007, at 12:00 p.m. U.S. Senator John Kerry addressed a Constitution Day forum at the University of Florida in Gainesville, which was organized by the ACCENT Speaker's Bureau, an agency of the university's student government. Toward the end of the question and answer period, University police forcibly removed Andrew Meyer, a 21-year-old fourth-year undergraduate telecommunications student, from the forum, restraining him through direct force and drive stunning him with a Taser.
Several videos of the episode were then posted on the Internet. The video shot with Meyer's camera had 2.6 million views by October 19, 2007 and was considered a viral video. The New Oxford American Dictionary listed "tase/taze" as one of the words of the year for 2007, popularized by the widespread use of "Don't tase me, bro!" The Yale Book of Quotations designated the same quote as the most memorable quote of 2007. Mick Jones, former guitarist for The Clash, wrote and published a song inspired from the event, "Don't Tase Me, Bro."According to eyewitness and police reports, the widely circulated video of the confrontation captured on Meyer's camera was not the first interaction between police and Meyer at the event that day. According to reports, Meyer was in line for access to the microphone, when it was announced by former Ambassador Dennis Jett, a University of Florida political science instructor and the forum's moderator, that one more question would be taken from the microphone on the right as seen from the stage.
Meyer then grabbed the second microphone, on the left, which had been shut off, and loudly demanded he be allowed to ask a question. Meyer reportedly yelled, "Why don't you answer my questions, I have been waiting and listening to you speak in circles for the last two hours." "These officers are going to arrest me", "You will take my question because I have been listening to your crap for two hours".
When an officer intervened, attempted to cut Meyer off, and attempted to escort Meyer out of the hall, Meyer then broke away and continued to shout. Kerry then intervened and requested that Meyer be allowed to ask a question. Meyer was then brought back to the microphone with police officers on either side of him.
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Gone Wild !!!!
Watch The Video: Maplewood Middle School student tasered by school resource ...
Apr 14, 2008
St. Louis, MO (KMOV) - A middle school resource officer is being reassigned after he tasered a 7th grade girl.
It happened at Maplewood Middle School earlier this month
Watch The Video - Sixth Grader Tasered At Middle School - News Story - WSB Atlanta
JONESBORO -- Officials at Jonesboro Middle School say police tasered an 11-year-old student Wednesday as a last resort. The incident immediately prompted an internal police investigation.Channel 2 was told the incident began after something happened at lunch to spark a verbal argument between two 6th graders...
Watch The Video - Teen with autism tassered at Carmel Middle School - Indianapolis
Parents say police officers tasered their 14-year-old autistic son at a Carmel Middle School. Fox 59's Kara Brooks has the exclusive details. ...========================================
Now check out this videotape
Just released by the Denver police. Three cops are walking a handcuffed suspect, Kenneth Rodriguez, into a cell. They tell him to sit down. When he hesitates, Officer Randall Krouse whips out the stun gun.
"Understando Taser?" he says. "'Cause this is gonna hurt you like a son of a bitch."
That's no life-saving maneuver. It's abuse, plain and simple.
Why Tasers Should Be Banned
A Middle School Presentation
Kansas Students Speak Out Against Tasers in Schools - The NewStandard
Where grade-school hallways are patrolled by cops, some officers tote controversial electro-shock weapons that have left kids terrified and, in one town, saying enough is enough.
Apr. 6, 2006 – Even before a police officer shocked a 15-year-old special-education student with a Taser in the assistant principal?s office last month, youth at Witchita high schools were organizing against the controversial weapons.The police officers who act as security guards in Wichita?s middle and high schools began carrying Tasers ? gun-shaped electro-shock weapons ? at the beginning of this school year.
Student activists from across the district say they are angry the weapons were introduced without their input and scared because of news reports about people dying after police shocked them with Tasers.
"We didn?t know about it until we started seeing them on officers? hips," 18-year-old Wichita West High School student Louis Goseland told The NewStandard.
This February, local student groups Hope Street Youth Development and Students United decided to address their concerns. In early March, students at Wichita West High School hand-delivered letters to the school safety director, their principal and the police department outlining questions and demands about Taser use in the school district. They got no response.
Just a few days later, on March 16, a police officer shocked 15-year-old Jarrett McConnell after the special-ed. student refused to go to in-school detention. Students and the media didn?t find out about it for more than a week.
Student activists from across the district say they are angry the weapons were introduced without their input.
Tasers can fire darts attached to wires that penetrate clothing and skin and deliver sustained electric shocks at up to 50,000 volts, causing muscle spasms, temporarily immobilizing the target and usually triggering musculoskeletal collapse. Police can also use them at close range without the darts as stun guns. This is how the Taser used on McConnell was deployed.
"There was a lot of secrecy around it," said Goseland. "They tried to cover it up."
The two student activist groups continued their campaign. They have collected more than 250 signatures on petitions demanding the police and school district provide students with information about Taser usage. The students want to know how long Tasers have been present in the schools, what range and voltage they?re set for, under what circumstances they have already been used, and what if any safety protocols are in place. They are demanding the school district either remove Tasers completely from their schools, or develop a clear usage policy and reclassify them as "potentially lethal weapons."
"The fact that they haven?t been able to answer these questions in two weeks is suspect," said 27-year-old Hope Street organizer Jake Lowen.
In late March an administrator confiscated petitions from Goseland and other students, and was reported for it on the local television news by a journalist who had come to cover the Taser issue. An editorial in the local paper, the Wichita Eagle, reprimanded the school district and the police department for their lack of disclosure.
The Wichita students? campaign comes amidst national controversy over the use of Tasers as a law enforcement tool.
The students held a press conference on Tasers the same afternoon McConnell was scheduled to face an expulsion hearing, but the district quietly withdrew its attempt to discharge him at that time. Goseland said that should give the public even more reason to question whether shocking McConnell was justified.
"This student was obviously not considered a grave enough threat to be kicked out for the rest of the year, but he was considered a grave enough threat to use a potentially lethal weapon on," he said.
McConnell?s family retained an attorney, who said a lawsuit against the school is possible.
"I think it?s a big problem that they don?t have any policy on this," attorney Lawrence Williamson told TNS. "If you have something that can cause harm to someone, you need to have a policy in place to guide individuals in when and how that type of force should be used."
Susan Arensman, spokesperson for the Wichita school district, said the police "are the ones who set the policy" on Taser use, and she said they did inform community members in several meetings before officers began carrying Tasers in the schools, though she could not say which meetings.
"We don?t tell [the police] how to discipline, and they don?t tell us how to teach," she said.
Arensman said students were threatened with Tasers, but not actually shocked, in two other incidences in the district. In one of them, she said three middle school girls "were beating the crap out of a police officer."
"Lo and behold," she said, "when he turned the Taser on they stopped."
The Wichita Police Department did not return a call for this story and TNS could not confirm Arensman?s allegations.
The Wichita students? campaign comes amidst national controversy over the use of Tasers as a law enforcement tool. Currently they are not classified as a potentially lethal weapon, meaning the threshold of reason for officers to use them is low. Activists have called for the weapons to be re-classified as potentially lethal, which would force officers to prove a much more serious situation exists before using them.
According to a recently released Amnesty International report, about 39 percent of law enforcement agencies in the US use Tasers as a regular part of their arsenal. Police officers patrolling schools in other states, including Minnesota and Florida, are also armed with the weapons. In Miami-Dade County, parents of a 6-year-old who was shocked by a Taser wielding police officer have sued the police department in federal court.
Amnesty International also found that more than 150 people in the US have died after being shocked by police officers since June 2001. The official causes of death following Taser shock were usually cardiac or respiratory arrest, according to the report.
People who are under the influence of drugs or certain medications and people who have heart conditions, mental illness or other health problems are especially susceptible to death or other complications if shocked with the weapons. The latest person to die after Taser shock was 46-year-old Timothy Grant in Portland, who police shocked in March for causing a traffic disturbance. He had cocaine in his system.
Wichita students said there is no way for police officers to know whether their victim has a health condition or is taking medication that could put them at risk.
"It?s not like they?re going to ask if you have a heart condition before they Taser you," said Wichita West high school student Ashley Currant, 15.
"Being teenagers, we probably have no idea whether we have heart problems or issues that could be affected by Tasers," added Wichita West student Jackie Thompson, 18. "I don?t want to die that way!"
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