Digby has a post up this morning linking to a horrific Raw Story article, and I thought it was worth highlighting here. I know many of us have been concerned with the fact that police seem to be using the Taser as a tool to force a recalcitrant suspect to comply with law enforcement. This one really takes the cake, however.
Apparently, Niagara judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza has ruled that the cops can collect DNA with a Taser:
A judge in Niagara County, New York, ruled Thursday that DNA evidence, obtained only after police applied a Taser to a suspect who refused to provide evidence against himself, may be used by the prosecution because the electric shock was not administered with malice.
Got that? As long as the police officer knows in his or her heart of hearts that he or she is not "acting with malice," then everything is just swell.
The Niagara Gazette quotes the defense attorney, who sums up the situation thus:
Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza, with this 17-page decision, becomes “the first judge in western civilization to say you can use a Taser to enforce a court order,” defense attorney Patrick Balkin said, according to The Niagara Gazette.
And the Buffalo News highlights this quote:
“They have now given the Niagara Falls police discretion to Taser anybody anytime they think it’s reasonable,” Smith’s [the defendant's ed.] attorney said, according to a separate report in The Buffalo News. “Her decision says you can enforce a court order by force. If you extrapolate that, we no longer have to have child support hearings; you can just Taser the parent.”
Or, better yet, why not collect DNA samples with bullets? Seems reasonable enough to me, as long as the cop doing the shooting is thinking pleasant thoughts, that is.
Here's a link to Sperrazza's 17-page decision (PDF), if anyone is interested in reading it.
Cue the Lee Greenwood.
(Similar diary cross-posted at The Albany Project)