Editorial
Review of Taser use is timely and necessary Palo Alto police auditors’ call for overall review of Taser-related policies and training is appropriate for these ‘sometimes lethal’ weapons
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o fatalities have occurred from the seven instances in which Palo Alto police officers have used Tasers to help subdue or control suspects in police contacts. But nationally, the list of Taser-related deaths has climbed into the hundreds.
In a new report to the Palo Alto City Council last week, police auditors Michael Gennaco and Robert Miller detail four of the lesser-known circumstances in which Tasers were used, concluding that most were appropriate — with some glitches such as missing the mark or the Taser not being effective in two instances. Concern about the use of Tasers is not new. When Tasers were first proposed for Palo Alto police in 2005, the Weekly published a cover story, “Shock Value,” that detailed concerns nationally about the use of Tasers — then billed almost exclusively as a “nonlethal” alternative to guns. But even then there were about 50 known deaths linked to Taser use, since grown to at least 10 times that, according to sketchy and evolving national statistics. Tasers in Palo Alto were finally recommended only after extended, contentious hearings by a special citizens task force. Regrettably, the most ardent local critics of Tasers have used a tactic of personal attacks and name-calling against city and police officials in their incessant anti-Taser, largely e-mail diatribes. This polarizing approach has been a serious setback to any balanced look at the use and risks of Tasers in Palo Alto. The auditors are correct in their recommendation that Palo Alto city officials review Taser-use policies and training procedures. The auditors praised the department for improving Taseruse reporting: “This year, the Department has upgraded the documentation of Taser incidents, providing a more thorough and well structured evaluation,” they wrote. “We believe this will enhance the Department’s ability to evaluate and improve the utility of this still relatively new tool.” The department also has improved its willingness to report Taser-use incidents as part of routine reports on arrests, rather than withholding such information for a later report on Taser incidents as it did for a time. According to police reports generally, one of the most effective uses of the Taser is as a deterrent: belligerent individuals quickly decide to comply with instructions when a Taser is aimed at them. But it is clearly a misnomer to call them non-lethal. They need to be defined as lethal weapons that most of the time don’t kill.
‘Thanks’ in hard times means helping others
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n the “spirit of giving” of the impending holiday season, the Weekly each week publishes on its website (www.PaloAltoOnline.com) an expanding list of community-based organizations that provide services, counseling, clothing and even food for families and individuals who especially need help during an extra-difficult economic time.
The holiday season is a time to pause from shopping and preparations for family festivities to feel a sense of thanks for what most of us do have. And giving back to one’s community is a priceless part of that feeling. The list and a summary of programs or services are part of the Weekly’s contribution to enhancing the very best, most positive aspects of our community and region: those nonprofit organizations that channel the energies of hundreds of volunteers to make like better or easier for our neighbors. The listing is in addition to the Weekly’s own Holiday Fund, now underway to raise $260,000 or more for local organizations that provide specific services for children and families. People may give online through the Palo Alto Online website, and organizations can get grant-application forms there as well. Some donors are responding to the hard economy by increasing their gifts. One woman, raised in Palo Alto, has traditionally given $500 each year to the Holiday Fund in memory of her late father. This year she doubled that amount, knowing that hard times may reduce donations from some others. This spirit of generosity is what makes a community extra special, and the Weekly is proud to have a share in that. Please join us in that sharing this year. Page 14ÊUÊ iVi LiÀÊ£n]ÊÓää ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii Þ
Spectrum Editorials, letters and opinions
Project Cornerstone Editor, Palo Alto is an incredible community, and I have enjoyed my first six months working at a church in Palo Alto. I am in awe at all of the amazing people and groups that exist to support young people in the city, especially after the tragedies in the past few months. Through my experiences as an elected official in another part of the county, I have become familiar with Project Cornerstone and the developmental asset model. This is a model that has transformed communities throughout the state and nation. I am excited to hear the Palo Alto Arts, Parks, and Recreation departments support this model. The Palo Alto YMCA and Gunn High School have recently expressed interest in integrating the asset approach into Gunn. Project Cornerstone’s work is based upon the Search Institutes’ Forty Developmental Assets, which are the experiences, values, relationships and opportunities that all children and youth need to thrive. The latest brochure from Project Cornerstone asks three important questions. Have you smiled at a child today? Do you know your neighbors by name? Have you asked a teenager about his or her interests? I encourage individuals and groups to find out more about the organization and the movement by visiting www.projectcornerstone. org/index.htm I also invite you to join me in saying hello to, learning the names of, and spending a few minutes getting to know the incredible young people in our community. Everyone has a role to play — at home, in school, in faith communities, in neighborhoods and in the larger community. Chris Miller Youth Ministry Director, Saint Thomas Aquinas Parish
Ban Tasers Editor, Tasers ought never be carried by anyone other than the most discerning police officer. Thus, the tool ought not be standard issue in the Palo Alto Police Department. The PAPD is best served by getting back to the basics of law enforcement. Ban tasers in Palo Alto. Ronna Devincenzi El Camino Real Palo Alto
Climategate? Editor, Where has the Palo Alto City Council been that apparently it, along with most citizens of Palo Alto, are unaware of the current Climategate scandal at the University
of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, where prominent scientists in the climate field have been cooking, deleting and changing data on global warming to make it fit the current “theory” and discrediting and firing any scientist who disagreed with the current “accepted” version. This has all come about because of the Freedom of Information Act and a whistle blower on the inside in the U.K. who simply couldn’t stand the lying any more and made public e-mails from the past 10 years between the top scientists in the field, these same scientists whose figures played prominently in Al Gore’s and the U.N’.s theory. In the whistle-blower e-mails it becomes clear that they had tremendous financial advantages in pushing the people-cause-globalwarming theory even though they were in a major dilemma to explain why we have actually been cooling for the past seven or eight years. Why hasn’t your newspaper covered what may turn out to be the largest scientific scandal in this century? It’s all over Europe, Australia, the Middle East but not printed in Palo Alto or the Bay Area in general. Isn’t journalism about printing the truth? Just look up Climategate
and you’ll find out all about it if you don’t already know. Shame on you for not covering it. Nancy Deussen Greer Road Palo Alto
Orwellian Obama? Editor, President Obama said, “Such a warped view of religion is not just incompatible with the concept of peace, but I believe it’s incompatible with the very purpose of faith, for the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us... The nonviolence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached, their fundamental faith in human progress.” In George Orwell’s book “1984,” the main character worked for the “Ministry of Truth,” dedicated to eliminating every vestige of the truth and replacing it with what the government said was truth. Force is the typical U.S. response to problems. It reminds me of the (continued on next page)
U.S. military man during the Viet-
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