Dan's Papers - June 20, 2008 - Another Man Is Tasered And Dies Here

In February of 2004, a Southampton man died after being hit with electric shocks fired from a Taser on North Main Street in Southampton. His name was David Glowczenski, and he was 35 years old and living at home with his mother just two blocks away at the time.

Glowczenski suffered from mental illness - he was bipolar - and on the day of his death he had become agitated and wild, shouting and breaking things and then heading down the street, mumbling to himself. This had happened before. After David did not come back and after neighbors up the street asked that his mother come get him, she called the police and they responded, as they had done before.

But this time, when they were unable to subdue him - he weighed over 200 pounds - they used their Taser guns on him. And when he didn't respond to being hit, they fired again and again, four times in total, according to the police report. And he soon died.

A great scandal ensued about the use of Taser guns. But nothing came of it, except that the Glowczenski family filed a $550 million lawsuit against the Village of Southampton, and a $400 million lawsuit against Taser International of Scottsdale, Arizona.

Now, a second man in Southampton has been hit by electric shots from a Taser and died. He was Tony Bradway, 26, of Brooklyn, and he was hit with Tasers in a home in Shinnecock Hills on Monday afternoon. He was then taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, where he was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m.

There have been four deaths by Taser guns on Long Island since the police first started using them. The first was Glowczenski. The second was John Cox, 39, killed by Suffolk County police officers in Ronkonkoma in 2005. The third was Terrence Thomas, 35, killed by Nassau County police officers in Hempstead, also in 2005. Now, there is the case of Bradway, here in 2008.

In every one of these cases, the county medical officers did an autopsy, which resulted in their declaring that the victim did not die of a Taser shot. All declared that the cause of death was a sudden stoppage of the heart. But all attributed it to other things. In the case of Glowczenski, it was attributed to "excited delirium." In each of the other three cases, it was attributed to either cocaine or alcohol.

The reason for the failure of the coroners to acknowledge the lethal effects of the Taser is because of faulty testing information. Taser International had hired several labs to conduct Taser effects on the human heart. The labs used pigs for the tests, because the human heart and the pig heart are very similar to one another. The level of the shock is 200,000 volts per split second, and is less than any level that could be shown to cause a pig heart attack.

However, recent studies using the same voltage give a different story. Pigs have chest muscles that are six times the thickness of the muscles protecting the human heart. When pigs have 5/6 of these muscles removed, the Taser shot is lethal if fired within three inches of the heart, research now shows.

In any case, all police officers are trained in the correct use of Tasers. And they are even offered the opportunity to be a victim of a Taser shot.

Tasers are supposed to be fired in excess of five feet from a victim. They are fired at legs and arms, but never at the chest or head. When the trigger is pulled, a dart is fired that trails behind it a thin electric wire that connects back up to the barrel of the gun. Pulling the trigger releases the blast of electricity one half-second after the dart leaves the gun and hits the target. It travels up the wire to the dart. And it fells a man. If it doesn't, the police are authorized to fire again, up to three more times for a total of four.

Seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it?

In both cases involving the Southampton Police, one the Village, the other the Town, it seems the Taser gun was used in another way.

In the case of David Glowczenski, a separate, private autopsy was done at the request of the family. Glowczenski was not shot just four times by Taser darts, as the police report said. The second autopsy showed nine Taser marks. Also, a broken rib, severe bruises and even a shattered testicle. It seems the police were grappling with him. And so none of the nine Taser marks were the result of a Taser being fired from a distance. Indeed no darts were even involved. There were no dart marks. It was concluded by this private coroner that these were the result of the Tasers being fired in a secondary mode. A lever on the Taser switches it to "stun." Press it directly against the clothing of a person, and when it fires, it fires directly through the clothing and into the person, leaving a very different kind of bruise. The autopsy of Glowczenski showed nine stun marks, several on the chest. It had been up close and personal.

Furthermore, after the second autopsy report revealed the true nature of Glowczenski's injuries, it was reported by some people that the papers involving this police action had gone missing.

It was rumored that the sergeant on the scene had taken it upon his own initiative to order that the Tasers be used in stun mode, something that he was required to do.

According to the police report involving Tony Bradway's death on Tuesday, police there in this private apartment on another matter, noticed a plastic bag with white powder in it sticking out of Bradway's pocket. When Bradway saw the police had seen this, he quickly put it in his mouth, and the police rushed him. As some grappled to get the bag out of his mouth before he could swallow it - they would use it as evidence - others Tasered Bradway twice, knocking him unconscious. Police originally said the bag, which Bradway eventually spit out, contained two to four ounces of cocaine. "He spit out torn up plastic and white paste," the report says.

At the hospital, Bradway told doctors that the bag contained five or six grams, the report says. How much he spit out and how much was ingested is not known. But soon after, Bradway died. It seems apparent from the report that the Tasers were on "stun."

I think that police should go back to using grappling nets for people who are out of control. And they never should use Tasers as stun guns when they are grappling at close quarters. It's too easy to stun somebody in the wrong place.

The company that makes Tasers, however, thinks the use of Tasers should be expanded, not reduced. Indeed, just a year ago, they persuaded the government to expand the list of who can use Taser guns and who can't, and as a result of that, after the cheering subsided inside the factory, offered up special new Tasers for the general public. Now you can go to a department store and get a Taser gun of your very own. There is a "test" to pass to be allowed to buy it, but the test can be administered by the clerk at the checkout counter. It's just a few questions.

The Taser C2 comes in leopard trim, and is being marketed with the slogan, "For those who want fashion with a bite." You can also get it in pink and in red-hot red. The cost is about $300, and you keep the Taser in your bag.

For another hundred dollars, however, you can get the Taser MPH. This model, still available in the three fashion colors described above, comes with a leather Taser holster that you strap on. But for the hundred extra bucks, it's not just a regular weapon holster. It's a one-gig MP3 player. Plug in your earbuds, press play and you're practically invincible. Think X-Men, Spiderman or the Hulk. And if anybody bothers you as you strut along listening to the theme from a James Bond movie, just let them have it.

Of course, always issue a warning first. It's right there in the manual. And then no more than four.