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Sixteen-year-old kid in Missouri is lying under a freeway overpass with a broken back after a fall, mumbling incoherently. Cops taser him 19 times because he won’t comply with their orders. What were they saying? Get up?

Pregnant woman in Ohio comes into a police station to hand over her baby because she’s having problems with the baby’s father and is forced to the ground and tasered by cops when she changes her mind and decides to leave with the baby.

Newlyweds in Michigan tasered because cops are called in by the person who rented them the facility when their reception gets too wild (“broken glasses and spilled drinks”) and they refuse to leave.

Eleven-year-old girl with emotional and learning problems in Florida tasered at school after punching a deputy in the nose.

Blind woman with cancer in Ohio pulled off her couch onto the floor, handcuffed and tasered when cops enter her house “looking for a suspect.”

Autistic man in Virginia tasered for “arguing” when trying to return a purchased item in a mall.

College student in Florida tasered for asking hard questions at John Kerry Q&A session. Crowd of fellow students watches placidly, smiling, blasé… Kerry proves himself to be a wuss.

I’ll stop now, but not because I couldn’t find a hundred more of these. Maybe you’re beginning to get the picture.

Meanwhile, the Taser company is offering pink and leopard-print tasers for the stylishly sadistic, er, self-defending public and suing anyone, including medical examiners, who says that tasers cause death.

Do you have even the tiniest problem with handing out these weapons to a police force that is already feeling its oats in a big way, bolstered by the current fascist climate in the US?

Why am I not hearing about a nationwide outcry against these things? Why aren’t the Obama-leaning types in the US insisting they be taken off the streets?

I’ll tell you why. It’s one of the main reasons why there’s no nationwide outcry against anything in the US these days. Vincent, with his exceptionally keen bi-cultural insight, has made this crystal clear to me over time, although I denied it at first. It’s because you, America, are really OK with your police state. You’re scared and you’ve let yourself be convinced that you need protection and so have handed your freedom to a system of “protectors” while turning a blind eye to the methods they employ.

Shame on you.

Amnesty International cares about the taser problem. If there are any of you who care, you have the option (for the moment, at least) to launch a popular initiative. (You know, those things where they stand around in front of the Target and try to get your signature on their petition so they can get their pet issue on the ballot.)

If you want to act on this issue (or any of the myriad others you have to choose from), and you don’t know where to start, contact the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

Here’s their mission statement:

The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) was launched six years ago to reinvigorate the initiative process among state and national progressive organizations by providing education, training, and research so that a wide range of ideologically progressive groups can use the process more effectively to fight for social, environmental, and economic justice. BISC Foundation, the organization’s 501c3 educational arm, tracks ballot measure developments, contributions to ballot measure campaigns and trains people to work on ballot initiatives.

Good luck.

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