Police chief, NAACP leader share Taser experience

Seattle/King County NAACP president Carl Mack and Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske experienced first-hand what it feels like to get jolted with by police tasers last week. Mack and Kerlikowske both agreed to be tasered after many meetings regarding alleged excessive use of tasers by police officers. “The NAACP started receiving many phone calls regarding tasers,” explained Mack. “My personal reason for wanting to be tasered is to that I will know what people are going through (when tasered).” Mack said that because of his inquiries with the Seattle Police Department he is now very familiar with the use of tasers and all of the procedures involved in their use; but he still needed to find out the physical effects that tasers have on victims, so that he could have better since on how to handle complaints of alleged taser abuse in the future. “I mentioned to the Chief that I wanted to be tased, and asked him if he could arrange it,” said. Mack. “The chief said that he had never been tased before either and if I did it, he’d do it too.” Both men received two-second jolts from the taser, at the same time. Both men groaned during the exercise and then slumped over into the arms of the handlers holding each of them up. “I’ve never felt anything like that in my life,” said Mack a few minutes after the exercise. “I had no control o f my body at all. It takes everything out of you.” “It’s a scary feeling,” said Kerlikowske. “You can’t move, you couldn’t even blink if you wanted to.”Mack originally wanted to be tased for a full five seconds; the length of time a taser is administered under normal use by officers, but was talked out of it by Kerlikowske before hand. “I’m glad the Chief talked me into just two,” said Mack. Mack had only one word of advice to people with regards to dealing with police after the experience: “Comply.” Approximately one-third of the department’s officers are fully-trained to use and carry tasers. The department started using this non-lethal weapon after the David Walker incident in 2000, where police shot and killed Walker who was mentally ill. Mack made reference to David Walker and other eight African American men who had been killed in altercations with police in the span of nine years. “I think some of those lives could have been saved with this technology,” Mack said. And more importantly for Mack the use of tasers by police provides more accountability than any other weapons system. The tasers have a computer chips that log each the date, time, and number of times that the taser has been used, and acts as an `impartial witness,” so allegations of abusive multiple use can be checked. “Any weapon can be abused in a sick kind of way,” said Mack. “But if the weapon’s computerized log refutes a complainant’s account then who’s credibility is gone.”