Taser Gun Abuse In Portland Or.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/02/279918.shtml

"At 3 am on May 3, 2003, three weeks before Officer Ollenbrook subdued the suicidal man in a dramatic standoff, several cops responded to a more mundane call at Southwest 3rd Avenue and Stark Street: a drunk using a shovel to liberate his keys from a parking-lot kiosk. As officers took him into custody, a nearby line of clubgoers had formed at Chinto's Burritos cart. Among them was Dontae Marks, a 20-year-old amateur bodybuilder who had been out at the Red Sea club with his friend.

To Marks and his friend, the way the officers dealt with the man looked like brutality. The friend went closer, cursed at the cops, then returned to the burrito line.

A short time later, two officers approached the friend and cuffed him, saying he was drunk and headed to detox. As they escorted him to a squad car, Marks protested to an officer on the outskirts of the scene that his pal wasn't drunk. The officer told him to leave. Marks refused. Another cop, Jason Lile, repeated the order and drew his taser, positioning the red dot of its laser sight on Marks' chest.

Scared, Marks backed away about 10 feet and turned his back to Lile. "I thought if I turned my back he wouldn't shoot me," he told WW. Marks says he shouted that he had a right to stand there.

Mark says he got one warning; Lile's account says it was a half-dozen. Regardless, the report acknowledges the precipitating moment came when Marks looked over his shoulder and called back, "Go ahead and shoot me, you fucking pussy."

Lile pulled the trigger and the darts flew into Marks' back, automatically triggering a five-second cycle of shocks and a noise sounding like a muted string of firecrackers: KAK-KAK-KAK-KAK.

Marks was tased even though, according to the police report, he had his back turned to the officer. "The darts appeared to hit him in the back but had no effect as he walked away," wrote Officer Lile in the incident report.

Marks says he felt the charge but was able to keep walking. He walked 10 feet further away, said the report, then stopped to pull the taser probes out of his clothes. Lile approached from behind and attempted to tase Marks again in the neck, using the weapon's touch-stun mode.

Marks, the police report says, brushed Lile off, assumed a "fighting stance," and soon found himself under a pile of six cops. Lile's report says that even while face down on his stomach, Marks "continued to resist." While cops punched him, pepper-sprayed him and clubbed him with an telescoping baton, Lile touch-stunned him with at least 10 more five-second cycles--KAK-KAK-KAK."

my say: Mr. Marks was leaving the scene of the arrest. 12 taser hits was UNWARRENTED. These cops should be fired without compensation. Swearing at an officer does NOT warrent this. Marks was walking away and he has a right to protest the cops actions.