Word: shock
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...past year, the human-rights group Amnesty International has waged a battle with manufacturers and governments around the world to curb commerce in these devices. Amnesty says electric-shock torture or the abuse of prisoners with shock devices has occurred in at least 50 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia. "Torturers seem to be discovering that electroshock stun weapons are ideal for their evil purposes--cheap, easy to conceal and hard to trace," says Brian Wood, who tracks the weapons internationally for Amnesty. TIME's own investigation found few international controls over the devices, along with...
Countries that practice torture have little problem finding suppliers. Taiwan exports shock batons to Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia. German- and South African-made stun weapons have turned up in Angola and Egypt. Mexico is becoming a production and transshipment site for American and Asian stun devices. It has also begun attacking its own people with the weapons. Last September police turned fire hoses on 400 people protesting election fraud in Campeche. Members of the Cobras security force then waded in, jabbing protesters with 3-ft.-long shock sticks. "I fell to the ground, but they carried on giving...
...TIME review of Commerce Department documents shows that Washington has approved a dozen shipments of stun guns and shock batons over the past decade to Saudi Arabia despite that country's long history of brutalizing prisoners. American firms must obtain a Commerce Department license to export shock weapons to most countries, and officials say the applications are closely screened to block the items from falling into the hands of human-rights abusers. Yet Air Taser has been negotiating to supply thousands of electric-shock riot shields for crowd control to police in Turkey, where torture is "widespread," according to State...
...manufacturers and many law officers argue that stun guns actually prevent worse abuse by police. Without a shock weapon, a cop is left with the choice of clubbing a dangerous criminal with a nightstick or shooting him with a handgun, which can cause more severe injuries. Indeed, law agencies in the U.S. have used stun guns thousands of times, and there have been relatively few documented cases of serious injuries. "These devices don't kill people," insists Nova's president, John McDermit. Rick Smith, Air Taser's president, has launched a publicity campaign to rebut Amnesty's charges. In restricting...
Obviously much depends on how the devices are used. Even in the U.S., the record of shock weapons is far from unblemished. Prison guards in California, Arizona and Texas have been accused of tormenting inmates with stun batons. Five states have banned the devices. "It's one of those toys that enterprising manufacturers have developed that sound real good, but their potential for abuse is so great," says Armond Start, a professor at the National Center for Correctional Health Care Studies. And in the hands of a torturer, the "toy" can produce cruel, even fatal, results...