HOW TO STOP TASER ABUSE IN YOUR TOWN! Organizing a Campaign to End or Curb Taser UseIAbuse Why do we organize? We organize not because of problems, but because of solutions! Bitch, moan and complain about the problem, but do so with goals at the forefront of your efforts AND messaging. Educaieyourselfon the issue. Put it in the larger context and make a local difference. --Find out: does your community already have tasers or are they due to get them soon? Timing is key. --Tasers are a "hotbutton" issue that sheds light on larger, more nebulous, less publicly-digestible police issues of brutality, profiling and disciplinelaccountability.. .which are local effects ofthe larger military industrial complex, homeland securityiFBIICIA oppressive structure that is our current state of affairs (the ties are beyond philosophical, i.e., Bernard Kerik, tied to the mob, while a frontrunner for homeland security chief, was on the boardla major stockholder for Taser, Int.). Not to be downplayed in this fight is the corporate corruption angle. Taser, Int. is right up there with DynCorp, Halliburton, Enron, Blackwater, Corrections Corporation of America, Lockheed, etc. on the "profit-beforepeople" greed scale. --Resources: until www.stoptasers.org is up and running, check out: www.saveourcivilliberties.org , search the Arizona Republic (Taser, Int. is based in AZ: this outlet has been on the forefront of critical coverage), Texas' Fort Worth Weekly, the 2004 Amnesty International report and subsequent write ups and area ACLUs for any work they've done and search the news in your statetarea to make regional comparisons. Find aUies - outreach and educate them too: the hardest stump to get past is getting people past the "but I'd rather be tasered than shot" mindset ... maybe, but no one should be subject to a potentially lethal weapon unjustifiably. Look to the "likelies" (civil rights groups) and the "unlikelies" (neighborhood groups, churches, etc.). Form agroup, coalition, ad-hoc committee or subcommittee of an existing group - decide whether your entity wants to ban tasers, either by not allowing your government to purchase them, or getting rid of existing tasers (difficult to achieve especially if already in hand, hard to get public buy-in) or wants to curb their use by seeking a more restrictive-use policy. In your group, identify who has what skill-set, what connections, what time to dedicate and plan accordingly. Open recork are yourfriend! Seek out the policies for use, the formal complaints filed on abuse, injury rates, names of officers that use tasers on more than one occasion, those recurring-use officers' disciplinruy records, etc. by filing open records requests (cite the language from the appropriate chapter of your state Public Information Act it in your letter). They have 10 days to respond (which might mean they take longer to get you the information). Keep at them, then catalogue and document results. Reports legitimiieyou! Cull pertinent information to make the case for abuse via charts and graphs and spreadsheets, oh my! Show how few officers use the weapon the most in the department, pointing to those larger issues at work. Become a local clearinghouse of information, and assistance to those who have been subject to taser abuse. Educate lawyers to help the abused seek legal remedy. Outreach to the public to promote your willingness to assist. One idea: set up a hotline number for people to call (anonymously if they wish, many are afraid of coming forward), and document who's calling (if not by name, type of caller) and the incidents and their long-term health effects to help bolster your case. Assure all you will not release anyone's private information without consent (and mean it!). Print stickers with the hotline number and get them ALL over town! BefiendAM) be the media! Get your star community leaders to write (or sign off on ones you've written!) op-eds and submit them, alongside requesting a meeting with the editorial hoard of your local daily (to get buy-in). Share information in concise format with reporters that cover police beats.. .seek feature stories on abuse cases, etc. Generate letters to the editors and mobilize others to do the same. Write your own stories and post them on blogs, indymedia, etc. Seek meetings wzYh governmentalleaders. Depending on your views and the political climate, seek a meeting with the police chief to pursue immediate policy change; if no go, appeal to counciWmayor andlor manager depending. If they won't meet with you, you can use that to gain sympathy with medialpublic. It may be harder to achieve your goals without the public support that this step will bring, but you might feel better about the process with lesser results in hand having not "met with the enemy." Some might offer though, that there are "friends" in strange places and if nothing else, this might be a time-saving step if you do happen upon an insider "hero" that will publicly decry Taser uselabuse.