A report finds that Baltimore police are disturbingly quick to use Tasers on mentally ill suspects

The Department of Justice published a scathing report on Wednesday blasting Baltimore's police department for discriminating against African-Americans and violating their constitutional rights.

The 163-page report contains dozens of disturbing examples of police misconduct, collected throughout an investigation last year following the death of Freddie Gray, who died while in police custody.

Some of the most damning anecdotes in the report suggest Baltimore police were especially liberal with their use of Tasers, particularly on mentally ill suspects.

The report describes one incident in which police responded to a call to transport a woman for a mental health evaluation. Upon arriving at the house, they found the woman sitting on the ground, clutching two vials of an unidentified substance and yelling "Don't shoot me." The woman refused to open her hands.

From the report (emphasis ours):

"Because drive-stunning an individual causes great pain, it did not calm her," the report continues.

In another anecdote, officers responded to a domestic disturbance call and found a shirtless man who smelled of alcohol standing outside his home. According to the report, his wife informed the officers that she had not been assaulted, but that her husband was intoxicated and she was leaving for the night. The man began yelling profanities and said he wanted to die, the report states.

The man was eventually handcuffed and taken to a hospital, and was never charged with a crime.

One of the more harrowing examples details the actions of nine officers who responded to a call about a man standing on the street with no clothes on. Police found him reciting religious verses and arguing with himself, and decided to take him to a hospital for a mental evaluation.

A violent scene then unfolded:

The transport van driver then exited the vehicle and used his Taser on the man.

Using the Taser's drive-stun capability - which stuns subjects without firing projectiles - is to be avoided unless an officers need to create distance between themselves and a subject, the report states, citing a 2011 set of guidelines for electronic control weapons.

The Baltimore Police Department "had no policy or training so limiting the use of drive-stuns, even against individuals with mental illness or in crisis, at this time," the report states.

Read the full Department of Justice report below:

Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department by U.S. Justice Department by Ethan McLeod on Scribd

 

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