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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

55th Floridian Dies After Being Tased, Should They Be Banned? Tasers, That Is.

Derrick Humbert, 38, became the 55th Floridian to die from a Taser. He was riding his bicycle and officers asked him to stop. Instead, he rode around the corner and fled through a yard. The officers in pursuit tased him as he tried to scramble over a fence, shooting 50,000 volts of electricity into his body. 28 minutes later, he was in a coma in the ambulance, and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

um, maybe he shouldn't have fled?

Anonymous said...

shoulds tasers be banned? NO! criminals should be banned. quit disobeying the police, quit getting into trouble, quit being stupid and you wont be tased. pretty simple actually.

Anonymous said...

9:10, couldnt have said it better!

Bryan Fykes said...

yes, ban them. then the officers will have shoot them with *gasp* bullets. bullets are less dangerous, right? barring that they could resort to harsh language. But with the media's call lately to curb "inflammatory" terminology, they might not be able to- so they should just shoot them.

Bryan Fykes said...

just thought of something else- some of the posters on the site you pointed to decry the use of tasers by cops as easy and used frivolously. Im not sure about Florida, but I do know that in order for a police officer in Maryland to use/carry a taser, they must first go through a training course, AND BE TASED THEMSELVES. they know that it hurts, and how crippling it can be. My cousin is a Deputy sheriff in Calvert County and had to go through this. he said it hurt like hell. I'm sure that he is reluctant to use it because of this. if a person complied with the law and law enforcement officers, they wouldn't have to worry about getting tased.

joealbero said...

Good point Bryan. I know of an Officer who has to be one of the biggest humans I know who was tased on video and "screamed like a little girl." No disrespect towards the Officer, (he's too big to pick on, even for me) but I would have to agree. If they're going to use one they should be subjected to its power, even if its not turned up that high.

Anonymous said...

As others have said, the guy should not have run. If he would have listened he would be alive.

Anonymous said...

10:42 he was probably an illegal at least we don't have pay for medical care and other democratic demanded entitlements

Anonymous said...

We live in a police state. Obey or else!

Giovanni Jones said...

Taken directly from from the article:
"The Department of Defense and Amnesty International has investigated some the deaths and found that a number of the victims had underlying heart issues and/or drug use."
There have been plenty of reports of "older" civilians that have been hit with the Taser and did not die, even people with pacemakers that have survived with no lasting effects. I think the majority of the Taser deaths have been linked to drug use/abuse by the suspect. I know plenty of people that have gone through the training and were Tased as part of training. They all survived, but then again they weren't illegal drug users. Once again, some people want to take away a very effective tool used by Police Officers. I suppose the officers should ask the suspects if they have been using any type of CDS prior to Taser deployment.