Os “taser” (TASER é o acrónimo de “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”) son armas de electrochoque usadas en moitos Estados polos corpos de policía para reducir a persoas violentas. Os fabricantes destas armas din que salvan vidas, porque evitan o uso de armas de fogo. Pero Amnistía Internacional documenta casos como os recentemente ocorridos en Canadá, onde morren persoas ás que, xa reducidas ou desarmadas, seguen a aplicarlles estes electrochoques.
A noticia máis recente está na nota de prensa “Canada: Amnesty International reiterates call to suspend police use of tasers following airport death”, na que se fala da morte de Robert Dziekanski. Este suceso tivo lugar no aeroporto de Vancouver, o pasado 14 de outubro.
Hai un informe de AI, publicado no mes de maio, onde se documentan outros casos similares: “Canada: Inappropriate and excessive use of tasers”. Copio e pego un extracto da introducción:
[...] Six people died after being shot with tasers in 2005 and 2006 in Canada. All were subjected to multiple cycles of the taser, with one man in Niagara receiving 12 shocks in three minutes. This is despite warnings in a report commissioned by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in 2005 that “police officers need to be aware of the adverse effects of multiple, consecutive cycles” of a “Conductive Energy Device” (CED).
Amnesty International acknowledges that it is important that police departments extend their use of non-lethal weapons in order to avoid deaths or injury from more lethal force; an increasing number of police departments in Canada now have tasers in their arsenals. However, the use of tasers raises a number of concerns regarding their safety and potential for abuse. This report updates Amnesty International’s November 2004 report which first highlighted the organization’s concerns regarding police use of tasers in Canada.
While all weapons have the capacity to be abused when not strictly controlled, Amnesty International believes electro-shock weapons are particularly easy to abuse as they are portable, simple to deploy and have the capacity to inflict severe pain at the push of a button, often without leaving marks. The cases included in this report indicate that tasers are being used too readily by law enforcement officers where less force was necessary.
International standards, including the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials prohibit torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. They also require that force be used only as a last resort and that the amount of force be proportionate to the threat encountered and designed to minimize damage and injury. [...]
