10/17/09 Why Wont The Greenwich Police Department And The Greenwich Public Schools Release The Video Tape For All To See ?

Charges dismissed against Tasered Greenwich teen

STAMFORD -- The controversial case of a Greenwich High School student who was Tasered by town police in 2008 was dismissed Friday in state Superior Court.....

....."You are free to go, Mr. Londono," said Wenzel.

The dismissal means the charges of breach of peace and interfering with an officer are thrown out and Londono is no longer subject to prosecution.

Londono was Tasered three times on May 13, 2008, after police said the high school senior became combative and repeatedly refused to report to the assistant headmaster's office.....
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COMMENT:

The use of a taser weapon in Greenwich High School was caught on video, but the tape was supposedly turned over as evidence to prosecutors who have denied requests by citizens, bloggers and a local news paper to view it and post a copy online.

Seventeen months later Hearst Newspaper editors do not have the journalistic balls to get and post a copy of this Greenwich High School video that is a public document.

Greenwich Time Editor David McCumber is irrelevant, because he is too complacent.

Cowardly Greenwich Time editor David McCumber is no better than the four previous Greenwich Time editors that were replaced in 2008.

In 17 months the Greenwich Time has went through five editors and the newspaper is just as complacent today as it was when this 140 pound boy was tased in 2008.

Greenwich Time editors payed a Hearst Newspaper lawyer last November to launch a failed attempt to silence Greenwich Roundup's critisms of the paper.

But the Greenwich Time wont pay a Hearst Newspaper lawyer to get a public document that shows a minority student being repeatedly tased by three Greenwich Police Officers and two High School security guards.

The Greenwich Time is a failed complacent newspaper, because Hearst Newspaper Editor David McCumber is weak and ineffective administrator who needs to grow a pair of journalistic balls.

DAVID McCUMBER

WHERE"S THE VIDEO ?????

WHY ISN'T IT ON

THE "SO-CALLED"

GREENWICH TIME NEWS SITE ?????

05/20/08 - Caught On Tape - Police Officer Franco Giving 140 Pound Boy Up To 50,000 Volts Three Different Times

HEADLINE:

Why Won't The Greenwich Police Department And The Greenwich Public Schools Release The Video Of Police use of a Taser on a Greenwich High School student?

QUOTE:

"If you had a video of three officers subduing him it wouldn't look good either," said Greenwich Police Captain Micheael Pacewicz who's legal mess is costing the single family home owners of Greenwich over 1 Million Dollars. "None of it looks good."

STORY:

Taser incident shocks students
By Martin B. CassidyGreenwich Time - Staff Writer

05/21/08 - Greenwich Police Departments Repeated Use Of A Taser On A High School Student Has Struck A Nerve - Concerned Parents Want To See The Video

Let Us See The Video !!!!

People Are Continuing To Talk About The Taser Incident As They Wait For Greenwich High School And The Greenwich Police Department To Release The Surveillance Videos.

Born In Greenwich says:

Blue wall of silence. If you resist then you are shot or taserd? Makes sense.Greenwich Police Officers have a very very difficult time with authority, more so the the taxpayers.Just read all their internal issues over the last few years.

Please don't use my name says

What they did was show a school full of kids how much violence three cops can inflict on one unarmed kid in a school when they act out of proportion to the situation and without the necessary self control we expect of people we allow to walk around our schools with dangerous weapons.

I'm sure these kids feel perfectly safe now - NOT!

Some cops think a badge gives them the authority to act with impunity. If you don't think there are bad cops out there, many of them, then you are not paying very much attention to the frequent news stories that report it.

Unfortunately, you can't just assume a cop is right, they often aren't.

Let's see a quick release of the tape of the incident to see how much resistence this one kid was putting up against three cops.No lame excuses or coverups, just show us what happened.

ANON says:

Tough Sh*t kids....do as you're told by the police and this won't happen.

If you knew anything about use of force procedure that is taught at the police academy, you'd know that you are taught to use a taser before empty handle struggle.

STUDY AFTER STUDY shows the taser causes less injuries to cops AND suspects.

It also reduces the cost to taxpayers when a cop goes out on comp for an injury and his/her slot needs to be filled with ovetime.

Taxpayer says:

Wait until a police officers kid is taserd or a politician, then there may be changs.

See how a officer handles his kid getting taserd.

How in the world did they survive before the tasers?

Huh says:

There were three cops and they couldn't deal with ONE teenager without using weapons?

Let's go to the videotape on this one.

School "resource" officer? Resource for what?

Sounds more like a Rambo wannabe.

If they decide to sue, then fine.Just look at all the cops with their "hypertension disability" claims.

What's good for the goose..

Jenny says:

The police use these tasers a little too quickly. Its intention was to be used instead of a gun - so ask yourself, should the police have SHOT this kid? Over water balloons? The answer would be NO. He shouldn't have been shot, he shouldn't have been tasered.

BS says:

If a parent tasers their kid, the probably would get arrested. Lets see what happens when a officers son or daughter gets taserd. How have the tasers the taxpayers paid for helped the taxpayers?

Connecticut Sam says:

Arrest the cop. He is a bully.

MIKE says:

Thats right, believe everything you read in the paper, you'll always get the whole story.

Greenwich student says

it's not alright that he goes and say bye to friends where he needed to walk by them anyways to leave the school. 3 cops and 2 more security guards didn't take him down? but the need to taser him was in no doubt at all. He should've listened instead of arguing no doubt, but to take it as far as MORE than 3 tasers, no way, the paper might say 3, but i know for a fact its more.

Angie says:

A school full of teachers, psychologists and guidance counselors, and a student is tasered for pulling a prank on SERIOR PRANK DAY!!!Super Nanny could have handled it in 30 seconds.Where were the educational professionals? Get the police OUT OF GREENWICH HIGH SCHOOL!

Samantha says:

there were students in the greenwich high school that protested by wearing t-shirts that said "Don't Taze Me!" on them with victor londono's name and the date that he was zapped

Jack says:

Would a white kid from backcountry have gotten tased? Probably not. This is was an insane over reaction by the officer.

Alisa says:

I feel as if people are forgetting that he threw some balloons.

Kids have let mice loose in Greenwich High School and people were stepping on them. Many of the were killed. I remember one year kids were going around stabbing random people with needles.

No action was taken with the other pranks.

This is a good kid.

I am a girl that attended Greenwich High school.

Its easy to listen to what the police say and judge victor but anyone who knows him knows this is messed up.

Yes he reacted in a way that he "shouldn't have".

He stopped to say goodbye to his friends. I could write pages on how I feel about this issue but I wont waste your time

What's not being reported says:

Greenwich is the 5th safest town of its size in all of America. It's crime rate since 1992 has fallen by well over 50%. It's rate of violent crime is negligible.

And the rate of out of school suspensions and expulsions place it among the safest in the state of Connecticut, far better than the average for its socio-economic grouping.

Yet last year the police arrested 54 students on campus alone, a figure equivalent to 2% of the entire student body.

GHS Mother says:

Here's a little snippet from the newest article about this tasering incident:

"I don't have the money to hire a lawyer," Gonzales [the mother] said."

05/21/08 - Wednesday's News Links From The Greenwich Time

Police defend Taser actions

Police yesterday defended the tasering of an unruly Greenwich High School student on campus, arguing police couldn't stand by after the teenager kicked cafeteria chairs....

PLEASE SEE:

05/22/08 - Nine Days Later - Greenwich Post Comes Out Of It's Self Induced Coma And Finally Reports On The High School Tasing Incident?

The Greenwich Post Decides To Drop The Press Releases And Report The News

The Greenwich Citizen Is Still Lost In Cyber Space

Today, the Greenwich Post decided to leave the stop printing puff pieces and entered the brave new world of hard journalism.It is not easy for a free weekly newspaper whose website depends heavily on reprinting summaries of police reports to question police actions.

Nor has the Greenwich Post had a record of investigative reporting in town.Often, the Greenwich Post readers are left in the dark about many members of Greenwich Society, especially when it comes to teenagers, the poor and minorities.

Unfortunately, the Greenwich Post's website is a major contributor to the biased image that everyone is a spoiled rich snob in Greenwich.

Often, the pages of the Greenwich Post are covered with press releases about society balls, galas and yachting events with an occasional press release about a polo match.

The Greenwich Post was too frightened of the police and the powers that be to report the story, even though students have protested by sitting in the student center and not going to class and by wearing T-shirts with the infamous phrase “Don’t Tase me bro” on them. (By the way, none of the other mainstream media has been courageous enough to cover this fact. Greenwich parents have had to learn about this from internet posts.)

Even, when the Greenwich Board Of Education sent a press release out two days after the incident, the Greenwich Post's response was to join stick it's head even deeper in the sand. (By the way, the Greenwich Public Schools did not put this press release up on their website and share this press release with parents. I guess the Greenwich Public Schools do not want parents to know that a weapon was used three times in the student center,)

It actually, takes a bit of public shaming to get this free weekly chain newspaper like the Greenwich Post to cover real news in Greenwich......

05/23/08 - Last Wednesday Bill Clark "The Scribe Of Greenwich" added his comments about the Greenwich High School Taser Incident

Shocking Developments at Greenwich High School

Your scribe has followed with interest the top local news story of the past several days, namely the use of a police taser gun on an 18-year-old senior at the high school.

The student, Victor Hugo Londono, was under a one-week suspension for throwing water balloons as a senior prank. Wow. Pretty serious stuff. Certainly a worthy reason to suspend the malefactor for a full week less than a month from graduation.

When your scribe was in high school, water balloons were an inescapable part of the rites of spring. Walk out a doorway, get doused from above. Swallow your chagrin, put on a smile, and deal with it. And then turn the tables on your oppressor. Faculty members knew better than to get involved with such pranks, just as students knew full well there was no point in running to them for assistance.

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and water-balloon training was just another part of the educational experience provided to all students in those halcyon days.

And so, upon reflection, your scribe finds himself faulting the school for issuing such a harsh punishment for such a trivial event.

Does the unspeakable Betty Sternberg's code of student conduct now criminalize water balloons? Kinda makes one yearn for the old days, when some right-thinking student might have concocted an indelible-ink balloon and lobbed it in the direction of a particularly unpopular faculty member or administrator. Now that might have called for some form of punishment, not to mention economic reparations; but the lobber would have become an instant hero, and a legend in his or her own time.

Mr. Londono, however, was punished for tossing garden-variety water balloons. The "damage" probably dried within 30 minutes, after which it was basically a case of no harm, no foul.

But no - he was publically humiliated and disciplined by the high school administration.

Would that it had all ended there. Alas, it did not. Mr. Londono, in a scene straight out of his namesake's great novel of social injustice, Les Miserables, had the temerity to kick a chair. And that led directly to his being tasered by the "school resource officer", a bureaucratic euphemism for the Greenwich cop who has been assigned to the school full-time since last year.

Tasered in front of his friends. Tasered in front of a crowd of fellow students. Tasered not once, not twice, but three times - in the shoulder, the abdomen, and the thigh. A burly cop against a 140-lb. teenager - was the use of a taser necessary? The cop says yes. Common sense says no.......

PLEASE ALSO SEE:

05/19/08 - 3 Greenwich Cops Give 140 Pound Boy 50,000 Volts And A $50,000 Bail For not Going To A School Office Over Water Ballon Incident: (Updated)

A Shocking Incident At Greenwich High SchoolGreenwich High School

Boy Is Juiced Three Times By Cops

Headline:

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:

GHS student tased

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...

05/19/08 - Even More Comments About Greenwich High School Taser Incident (updated #3)

DiSgUiStEd says:

Okay. So what did Londono do? Was it just water balloons or was he being suspended for some injustice, some unsafe criminal activity? Tasers at GHS, oh, my God!!!!!!!!!!

Do I send my kids, really, get a grip Dr. Sternberg, the Board and all you Greenwich Parents. Do you want this to happen to your son or daughter?

Google a Taser, its a fricken gun that electrocutes you, hello?

As a lifetime Greenwich Citizen raising two small children in this fabulous town alway in the news do I as a taxpayer really want to deal with this crap!

NO, NO, NO MAYBE YOU ALL WANT TO PAY FOR MY CHILDREN TO GO TO PRIVATE SCHOOL TOO!

Why couldn't the parents just come to the student center and get there son?

They were there anyway, did any bumble head "cynical" cop think to do the right thing before having to "WIN" Win What?

It crazy that by throwing water balloons and then the punishment is being TASERED!!!!!!!!!!

Not once, but three wonderful, exceptional ever memorable times

More Comments About Greenwich Student Getting Tased Three Times In The Greenwich Cafeteria (Update #6)

GHS Grad says:

All I could think while reading the article was, well the kid must have been big, and therefore the officers probably needed a little help to subdue him.(I also assume there were at least three officers, since the article stated that "additional officers arrived".)

The end of the article stunned me: the kid is 140 pounds. Three officers can't arrest a 140-pound kid without using a weapon that was designed to replace firearms?

concerned citizen says:

Kicked a chair? Verbally abusive? 140 pounds?

This boy had to be tased?

Three grown men couldn't subdue him?

Why didn't they just let him leave the building..?

$50,000 bond? Did I miss something?

Rabbe Ekholm says:

Seems rather immature and irresponsible on the part of the school to allow a silly balloon-throwing incident to escalate out of control like this:

What do tasers, arrests, and court appearances have to do with educating our children?

Reader Submited Comments About Weapon Being Fired At Greenwich High School - What Was the Crime? (Enhanced With Video) Updated

Reader Submitted Comments:

"This entire incident was precipitated by the student\'s willful violation(s) of law."

What law did this student break that required the use of lethal force? Can all violators of the law in Greenwich expect to be handled with lethal force?

Which law?

Or was it a school rule?

Signed,"Don't Tase Me, Bro"

This anonymous email was sent using Send Anonymous Email -
http://www.sendanonymousemail.net/

05/20/08 - School Resource Officer Carlos Franco Says Greenwich Police Department Is Racist. SRO Carlos Franco May Not Be A Happy Camper At GHS

In Late May Of 2006 The Very Unhappy School Resource Officer Carlos Franco Filed A Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Against The Greenwich Police Department

The lawsuit consisted of 40 page of allegations going back nearly two decades.

The Federal civil rights lawsuit's chief complaint is that the Greenwich Police Department has "systematically and continuously discriminated" against members of racial and ethnic minorities in its hiring and promotional practices in ways that hurt him and others professionally and created a hostile work environment.

School Resource Officer Franco's lawsuit contended that a Greenwich Police Detective had disrespected a black female police officer for referring to her as "Buckwheat," after the Little Rascals character.

Franco's lawsuit said a Greenwich Police Lieutenant used a racial epithet for blacks that we wont reprint here.PO Franco's lawsuit accussed the Greenwich Police Department of racial profiling.

Officer Franco's lawsuit charged that the department disproportionately detained and arrested members of minorities and cites other examples of what the plaintiffs consider questionable conduct, including the use of highly offensive language to refer to racial minorities and a tendency to "mock African-American complainants, witnesses and arrestees, imitating their speech and mannerisms.

"The suit alleged that civilian minority group members, whether arrested or simply looking for help, have been belittled and mistreated by white officers regularly.

PO Franco's lawsuit contended that a Greenwich Police Detective had disrespected a black female police officer for referring to her as "Buckwheat," after the Little Rascals character.

Franco's lawsuit said a Greenwich Police Lieutenant used a racial epithet for blacks that we wont reprint here. PO Franco's lawsuit accussed the Greenwich Police Department of racial profiling.....

...."Is Franco An Unhappy Officer With A Taser?"

In fact, the unhappy Police Officer Franco's lawsuit was amended in December of 2006 to added new charges that police brass retaliated with discipline against the plaintiffs because of the suit.

It Looks Like You Have A Greenwich Police Officer That Assigned To Greenwich High School And Is Unhappy With His Work Environment.....

.....The numbers speak for themselves

Last year the police arrested 54 students on campus alone, a figure equivalent to 2% of the entire student body. Over the first two months of the year, students were arrested at a rate of three a month. If that held up, there would have been 27 more students arrested up to this point.......

05/20/08 - Former Greenwich School Administrator And Others Speak Out About Greenwich Police Use Of A Taser On A Greenwich High School Student

David Alberts says:

I can't Believe what I am reading about Greenwich.As a former public school administrator with the Greenwich Public Schools,

I am both saddened and horrified that the EXCELLENT standards that were once the trumpeted hallmark of excellence that all of the public schools presented to the world have been so badly compromised by ALL OF THE "ADULTS" involved in this situation.

The Adults committed the crime here by even allowing the student/staff/administration/ school board/parent rapport to be so badly compromised that a moment like this could be handled so inappropriately.

Whomever agreed to tasers on campus, for any reason at all, is the first criminal to be held responsible.

The user of the taser obviously did not know about or care to investigate the student's health history. Applying this use of force could have resulted in the death of a student.

I cannot believe this "scene" is representative of the Greenwich community. I had a number of standards as an administrator that were never to be compromised. Two of these come to mind immediately upon reading this....

#1 NEVER DISCIPLINE, INTENTIONALLY EMBARASS OR DERIDE A STUDENT IN ANY WAY IN FRONT OF ANY OTHERS......THIS IS A VERY PRIVATE TIME !!!

#2 ALWAYS LET THE STUDENT KNOW THAT YOU CAN HELP HIM/HER WITH WHATEVER THE PROBLEM IS.

I would simply lean over, nearing an ear of the student, and whisper "please come with me........we can talk this over PRIVATELY !!!

Works every time.

The staff, administrators, school board members, parents....and especially the "School Resource Officers" [what a silly acronym] need to change course, try "genuinely caring about each and every student" and letting them know that you will never give up on any of them for any reason.

Put your tasers back in the hands of the evil minds that invented and sell these weapons.

Otherwise, what's next?

David Alberts, former principal of Hamilton Avenue School, summer term principal at the high school for two years, and a teacher/teacher-leader at North Street & Julian Curtis elementaries.

05/20/08 - Greenwich Citizen & Greenwich Post Are A Sleep At The Switch: A Police Officer Used A Weapon A Greenwich High School And They Know Nothing



05/26/08 - The Grenwich Time Editors Opines On The Use Of A Weapon At Greenwich High School

Shining light on the Taser incident

With regard to the use of a Taser at Greenwich High School on May 13, arguments can be made on two sides of the issue:

Either a school resource officer overreacted by using an electrical device on a student that is designed to subdue individuals physically resisting police.

Or use of the device was justified in order to safely take into custody a student who was resisting a proper arrest and posing a danger.

That makes it vital for police and school officials to provide townspeople with all details possible regarding the incident, as well as background on the training of officers in use of Tasers and on the rules or polices regarding when they should be used, particularly in a school environment.

The relationship between the public and police is a two-way street. The community entrusts officers with the authority to physically protect it, with lethal force if necessary. But the police in turn are accountable to the community for the way they use that power.....

05/23/08 - Greenwich Citizen Still Refuses To Cover The Fact That A Weapon Used At Greenwich High School. What Is The Editor Afraid Of? (Updated)

Does The Greenwich Citizen Publisher Support Using A Taser In Public Schools As A Behaviour Management Tool?

Why do Greenwich Citizen Readers have to get the Greenwich Post and Greenwich Time to learn what is really going on in Greenwich.

Is the Greenwich citizen audience unable to appreciate quality journalism?

There, there. Have the "so-called" journalists at the Greenwich Citizen failed the people?

At the Greenwich Citizen, "news stories" are often press released-centred explanations of what is going on in town, and these establishment press releases are the tail that wags the dog.

All too often, the Greenwich Citizen over looks the disenfranchised, poorer, weaker, and younger members of Greenwich Society, because they don't send out press releases.

Some people in town are wondering why the police use of a taser on a mouthy - water - balloon - throwing Greenwich High School teenager, who weighed just 140 pounds, was not newsworthy at the Greenwich Citizen.

Others in town wonder if the Greenwich Citizen would find it news worthy if the Greenwich Police Department went into Eastern Middle School and tased a hyper 85 pound seventh grader.

Still others in town wonder if the Greenwich Citizen would find it newsworthy if the Greenwich Police Department went into Julian Curtiss Elementary School and tased a bad little 55 pound fourth grader.Would the Greenwich Citizen even notice if the Greenwich Police went into a nursery school and tasered an unruly pre-schooler?

Maybe, the Greenwich Citizen might cover one of these news stories if the students would write the story up and fax it in as a press release.

Does any one remember the Greenwich Citizen ever doing an investigative report?....

05/22/08 - Lost In Cyber Space: Greenwich Citizen Ignores GHS Tasing Controversey For Nine Days. Greenwich Citizen Readers Don't Know What's Going On...

05/19/08 - Beat The Press - The Greenwich Citizen has it's head in the sand

MORE INFORMATION:

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.

ALSO:

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......

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