A 14-year old teenaged girl was tasered by a police officer in Allentown, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania suburb, after school afternoon classes ended because school officials claimed they were having problems with students being “disorderly.” As you can see from the video, which was just released as evidence as part of a trial, and which officials acknowledge is edited, the 14-year old girl, Keshana Wilson, appears to raise her hands in response to the police officer, Jason Ammary, yet he shoots his taser gun at her anyway. This is yet one more example of rampant and unacceptable police violence against American citizens.
Via The Huffington Post:
Attorney Richard J. Orloski has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the girl’s mother claiming excessive force, but police told The Morning Call that Ammary was right to use the taser due to the “use-of-force continuum.”
NBC Philadelphia summarizes the video before the tasing, but notes there is one minute and 40 seconds missing from the tape:
“The video then abruptly cuts to Allentown Police Officer Jason Ammary struggling with Wilson on the side of a parked car. Ammary appears to be shoving Wilson against the car. She then appears to push her left forearm against his face. Ammary then steps back and fires his Taser at Wilson’s groin, causing her to collapse to the ground. Several security officers then arrive. One can be seen leading a teen boy away in handcuffs.”Wilson was taken to the hospital to have the probes removed from her leg. The girl’s mother, Victoria Geist, told WFMZ-TV that her daughter did nothing to provoke the officer, and that she believes the attack was racially motivated.
To be clear, the 14-year old girl was unarmed, not violent, leaving school at the end of the day, a minor, was just physically touched by the police officer so he was probably very aware she was unarmed, in clear view of the police officer, not suspected of any prior criminal activity.
What the hell is going on, America?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/video/embed
Wikipedia notes:
A report from a meeting of the United Nations Committee Against Torture states that “The Committee was worried that the use of Taser X26 weapons, provoking extreme pain, constituted a form of torture, and that in certain cases it could also cause death, as shown by several reliable studies and by certain cases that had happened after practical use.”Amnesty International have also raised extensive concerns about the use of other electro-shock devices by American police and in American prisons, as they can be (and according to Amnesty International, sometimes are) used to inflict cruel pain on individuals. For example, Eric Hammock of Texas died in April 2005 after receiving more than 20 Taser shocks by Fort Worth police officers. Maurice Cunningham of South Carolina, while an inmate at the Lancaster County Detention Center, was subjected to continuous shock for 2 minutes 49 seconds, which a medical examiner said caused cardiac arrhythmia and his subsequent death. He was 29 years old and had no alcohol or drugs in his system