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MOVING MOUNTAINS;
I've Seen American Torture
by Lydia Howell
Tue. May 22, 2007

I witnessed torture last week.

Thursday, May 17th, was a beautiful Minnesota spring afternoon and I
was mentally planning out the next phase of planting in my new spot in
a community garden, while out running errands. I came out to the bus
stop in the Rainbow Foods parking lot on 27th Avenue off East Lake
Street---a few blocks from where the raids on immigrants took place two
days later. Immediately, my guard went up, as a police car pulled up.

Their focus was obvious: an African-American woman. Perhaps in her early
30s, she was even more vulnerable to law enforcement by two aspects of
her situation that became apparent.

Her white jogging pants and t-shirt were dirty. She gripped a luggage
cart, with a battered overnight suitcase strapped on the bottom and
various plastic bags tied all over it. I'd bet this week's pay she was
homeless. In our age of relentless gentrification and contempt of the
poor, being homeless is treated as a crime, where one is not only
subjected to harassment and arrest, but, to beatings and theft of all
one's belongings by police.

It was also quickly clear that she was mentally ill.

In a sing-song voice she repeated the same sentence endlessly. Yet, as
the 1960s radical psychologist R.D. Laing observed in the 1960s: if one
attempts to read the "metaphors of insanity", they are often very
revealing. In fact, they often say a great deal about the insane,
everyday cruelty of our culture that drives people mad.

The woman was saying, over and over,"I'm not white and I'm not a star."

One police officer was speaking too quietly to hear, but, at one point
she said, "Talk to the store manager." Then, a Hennepin County Medical
Center ambulance drove up. The police knew they were dealing with a
mentally ill person and Mayor R.T. Rybak has made a number of reassuring
speeches about MPD's Crisis Intervention Teams—officers trained to deal
differently with mentally ill people after several mentally ill people
were gunned down by police.

There were about six of us at the bus stop, just five feet away. I
remembering thinking that surely so many witnesses present would protect
the woman from harm. The two EMT guys came forward and the second
police officer was behind the woman.

The woman made no threatening moves toward anyone, but, proclaimed with
a bit more intensity, "I'm NOT white and I'm NOT a star." She was now
surrounded by four big white men in uniforms. One cop behind her.

The officer who'd been talking to the woman put one hand on her
shoulder. Taking one step back, she jerked away and shouted,"Get your
hands OFF ME!"

Then, I heard the harsh buzz as the other police officer used a stun
gun, Taser, on the woman.

One. Two. Three. Maybe even a fourth time.

Like the woman's reaction at the first officer's touch, I just reacted.
Bursting into sobs and yelling, "STOP iT! You're FOUR BIG MEN! You
DON'T have to Taser her! STOP IT!"

The woman crumpled to the ground. I guess the EMT guys stepped in, but,
I wasn't looking since the Taser cop now turned towards me.

"She's OFF her meds! Did you want her to attack YOU?"

Actually, it was the police that had scared me from the start. But, my
body was now numb and I was in "de-escalate the cops" mode. That means;
be still, maintain eye contact, keep one's voice low and use the word
"sir" frequently. He threatened to arrest me for "interfering with a
police officer', demanding I leave.

Walking quickly across the Rainbow parking lot, I desperately hoped for
another bus. Any minute the squad car might come and then, what?
Luckily, the #7 pulled up and I jumped on.

The Taser is touted as a "non-lethal" alternative to deal with
aggressive suspects, without shooting them. No research has been done
as to its longterm health effects. As many as 200 people have been
killed by Tasers. Police departments are supposed to train officers on
when they're allowed to use this device which administers a shock of
50,000 volts. Here's what Amnesty International says:

"Many U.S. police agencies now ROUTINELY use Tasers to subdue UNARMED,
non-compliant individuals who DO NOT POSE A SERIOUS DANGER to themselves
or others...police have used Tasers against unruly school children,
mentally disabled and elderly people and people who simply argue with
officers..REPEATEDLY ADMINISTERED SHOCKS, sometimes while IN
RESTRAINTS." (Emphasis added)

The City of Minneapolis spent $160,000 on Tasers last year and plans on
spending $861,000 this year on more Tasers. The Arizona-based company
supplies thousands of U.S. police departments, and, also sells them to
human rights abusing governments world-wide.

AI also notes that these weapons are "portable...easy to sue..inflict
severe pain at the push of a button and leave no marks."

That sounds like the perfect torture device for abusing one's authority
over others while evading all accountability.

American torture didn't start in Abu-Graibe. That video of Los Angeles
cops beating Rodney King—almost 60 blows with batons—exposed this
reality more than 15 years ago.
See Amnesty International at http;//amnesty.org