Police Murder Man with tazer in Longview

Good posting, Momanatrix. Sorry to hear that yet another person has died from the ill advised use of the same torture tool that killed Fouad Kaady. These paternally challenged penis heads need to be stopped, no matter WHAT it takes. Of course, they are taking their cue from the current occupant of the White House, who never met a form of torture that he didn't like, or a poor person that he did like.

It is pre meditated murder, dammit!

He wasn't naked, but apparently was mentally ill, and the staff at the Cowlitz center where he was killed had called 911 because they felt that he needed to be transported to the hospital. Instead, police responded...and killed him. He was 39 years old.

I think it's time to pass some sort of law preventing pigs from responding to calls meant to help people. Emergency calls should elicit the services of paramedics, fire fighters, or others who are capable of responding to emergencies without killing people.

...And we need to defend ourselves.

Corvallis police shot a man dead for waving a walkingstick to direct traffic. His family stated he was a well known member of the community who happened to be diagnosed with manic depression. Now the cops there want a 'quick' investigation to get over with so they can put the shooting officers back to work.

Man police killed had pipe







Relatives wonder if shooting was necessary

By KYLE ODEGARD
Gazette-Times reporter

Relatives of Richard Dean Townsend said police told them the Corvallis man brandished a pipe before being fatally shot by officers Friday night.

Townsend's family wondered why it was necessary for law enforcement to use lethal force against the 50-year-old mentally ill man, however.

"Even a metal pipe could have been taken away by three officers. ... Why did they have to shoot him?" said Marlene Joan Fujii, 72, Townsend's mother, who lives in Corvallis.

Two veteran Corvallis Police Department officers and a recruit officer have been placed on paid leave while the case is investigated by Oregon State Police.

The shooting took place after 8 p.m. on Harrison Boulevard near 15th Street as people returned home from a downtown Christmas parade.

A witness said police wrestled over an object with Townsend, shouting directions that were ignored. After the shooting, officers searched bushes along Harrison for something, said Brett Gallagher, an Oregon State University graduate student.

Benton County District Attorney Scott Heiser has said he will not comment about why the shooting occurred until the investigation is complete.

Fujii said that since Townsend moved to Corvallis nearly eight years ago, he had several contacts with police and has been in and out of mental institutions for bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness.

"The policemen knew he was a very sick little man and that he had a mother who cared for him, and all they had to do was call me," Fujii said.

Townsend, who preferred to be called Dean, would do well for a while, but then stop taking medication and deteriorate, Fujii added.

"Always when Dean is in this manic stage, he gets a walking stick. It looks like a club. He waves it around while he's out in the middle of the street directing traffic and doing his magic spells," she said.

Lately, though, Fujii had seen a three-foot-long yellow pipe at Townsend's apartment at 532 N.W. 10th St.

She knew her son's condition was getting worse and said he was behaving childlike.

Neighbor Gwen Spencer said Townsend's behavior became more erratic about two weeks ago, and he was contacted by police last week.

Fujii said she was frustrated that Townsend couldn't get more help at mental institutions, which would keep him for half a day, a day, or maybe even a few weeks before releasing him.

And months later, he'd have another psychotic episode.

Louis Townsend of Baker City, Townsend's father, said his son was an alcoholic and because of that the two hadn't spoken in several years.

Townsend attended school in Baker City before joining the Army, but was discharged for his behavior, Fujii said. He later worked with his father on concrete and construction jobs.

Fujii said Townsend was drinking the night he was killed.

"I was always hoping that he could get the treatment he needed, stay on the medication and learn to live with his disease, who knows, maybe find a wife or a girlfriend," said his mother.

"But he would always hit a wall. He was like a broken wheel."

Kyle Odegard covers public safety, Philomath and rural Benton County. He can be contacted at  kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.

we have 4 that go to our church and a good number of us are getting to where we
just don't want 'em coming there anymore. we are afraid of 'em, don't respect 'em,
nor want 'em exerting any influence on our children or grandchildren. most of us
used to respect the police, but after the past few years and the totally out-of-
control mode the cops in this area display, we've gradually come to loath 'em and
to be less respectful, less tolerant, and less likely to want to call on 'em. is
the problem the type of "managers" that oversee them, or is it a dumb-downing of
the type of people that seek to be cops? whatever it is, they'd better wake-up
and see themselves as clearly as do WE THE PEOPLE, or they'll be hurting someday
when they think they'll get our support and it's not there!

Making law enforcements opinion that the tazer is a reasonable instrument for disabling a threat represented by non-complying suspects even more incredible, is their practice of tazering a suspect after they have been shot and have stopped moving. Just to be sure. Could have those old reliable drugs in his system. Might spring up any split second even though he's been pumped full of lead, and whip an over-armed cops ass.

Once when I went hunting with my dad, we shot a deer. I was 12 or so, not big on hunting, but wanted to please my dad, etc., etc. ...so we walked up to the graceful fallen creature. It wasn't moving, but my dad said, "don't get too close, cause it could suddenly kick you". I was carrying the pistol, so I hastily finished its life. I'd never seen a deer that close before. So beautiful. It's eyes, deep, deep pools of dark. After that day, I thought the chances were good I'd never be a hunter.

I don't think members of law enforcement today see themselves in a humanitarian role when it comes to confronting and dealing with members of the public who may, by way of mental disability, not be able to comply with an order from a police officer. I think they see that their role is that of officials upon whom the responsibility falls to cull the herd as circumstances reccomend, based on philosophy and training dispensed by command structure.

Society at large, beyond their tightly knit fraternity, has not stepped forward to clearly advise them that this is wrong, and advise them accordingly, so they continue to summarily traumatize or kill people already burdened with a history of pain. Command structure commends them for their actions. The courts effectively endorse their actions. The public for the most part, that part of the public with means and money, goes along approvingly, because they don't want those kind of wackos knockin on their suburban doors.

Not enough people care, period. What will induce a change eventually, is a big lawsuit against law enforcement. They don't like having their money taken away. I thought FK case would be the one, but not so far.

"Man killed by taser looked massive, inquest told"

By PETTI FONG

Thursday, December 1, 2005 Page S1

VANCOUVER -- Autopsy results show Roman Andreichikov was a slight, smaller-than-average man, but to the four police officers who struggled to subdue him while he was under a cocaine-induced psychosis, he looked massive.

Mr. Andreichikov, a onetime fitness trainer, was so strong and unwilling to comply with police commands that he bucked off a 175-pound (80-kilogram) police officer with his legs while two others held down his upper body.

Three of the officers testifying at a coroner's inquest into Mr. Andreichikov's death said they gauged his height to be at least 5 feet 11 inches (1.8 metres) and his weight at more than 200 pounds.

All the officers were surprised to hear while they were testifying that Mr. Andreichikov was 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 168 pounds (76 kilograms).

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"He was extremely strong, even face down," Constable Brian McKeddie said at the inquest yesterday. "It took 15 to 20 seconds to get the handcuffs on and we had a lot of difficulty holding him."

When police responded to a 911 call that Mr. Andreichikov was suicidal, the man looked so massive and imposing that within seconds of seeing him sitting on a couch, Vancouver Police Constable Darren Hall said he decided to draw his taser from its holster.

When Constable Hall and his partner, Constable Mark Bouchey, entered the Granville Street apartment on May 1, 2004, Mr. Andreichikov, 25, was upset and on the fifth day of a cocaine binge. A friend had called to say Mr. Andreichikov had attempted to commit suicide twice that day.

In his testimony, Constable Hall said he tried to control Mr. Andreichikov's legs while two other officers, who arrived moments later, attempted to control his upper body. But Constable Hall, who is 5 feet 11 inches and 175 pounds, said Mr. Andreichikov easily lifted the officer off him with his legs and threw him about 60 centimetres.

The five-person jury is hearing evidence in the inquest about the circumstances that led Constable Hall to use his taser. Mr. Andreichikov stopped breathing and died within moments of being hit with two electrical shocks.

Constable Hall said after he was thrown off, he showed Constable Bouchey a better technique to control the man's lower body, but the other police officer still had trouble.

At 6 feet 3 inches and 220 pounds, Constable Bouchey was larger than Mr. Andreichikov.

Constable Hall said that when he and his partner first entered the apartment and saw Mr. Andreichikov, he didn't have time to gauge the man's height and weight adequately. He was more concerned, he told the jury, about the man's agitated state.

"I could see how hard he was flexing his body. He wasn't sitting still. He was shaking and vibrating," Constable Hall said. "With the clenching of the jaw, the fast breathing, the sounds. It was hard to describe. It was so primal."

The officer said based on his experience he believed the man was in a drug-induced psychosis.

Constable Hall said he once saw a 300-pound police officer, one of the biggest guys on the force, lose a physical encounter with a 130-pound teenager in a similar agitated state. It took six police officers to control the skinny youth.

In his testimony, Constable Hall, who had received his taser 10 days before the May 1 incident and was testing it in the field, said he tried to calm Mr. Andreichikov. He said he feared that the man was going to run for the balcony and try to leap off again.

In earlier testimony, Rahim Hadani said he visited Mr. Andreichikov that day and got caught in the middle of a fight he was having with his girlfriend. Mr. Hadani persuaded the girlfriend to leave and tried to calm his friend down. But twice, Mr. Hadani said, he had to plead with his friend to come back inside after he threatened to jump from the balcony.

Mr. Hadani said that as three officers were on top of Mr. Andreichikov and pressing his face on the carpet, his friend said he couldn't breathe. But an officer responded that if he was mumbling, he was breathing.

Constable Hall testified that when an officer alerted him that Mr. Andreichikov had stopped breathing, he tried to clear the man's airways. He said he never heard Mr. Andreichikov complain about not being able to breathe.

Two other officers who testified yesterday said they did not hear any complaints from the victim.

In fact, Constable Hall said the man was incoherent during the encounter. Constable Hall fired two shots of 50,000 volts each at Mr. Andreichikov.

Jurors have not yet heard toxicology results, but his family has said they did not know Mr. Andreichikov was an active drug user.

His girlfriend, Jamie Layno, who had testified at the start of the inquest this week, said Mr. Andreichikov had been using cocaine for five days straight and suffering from paranoia and delusions.

The Vancouver Police have faced criticism from families of victims and some community-rights groups over the use of tasers to subdue individuals.

Just one month after Mr. Andreichikov's death, another man, Robert Bagnell, died after he was hit with a taser.

 link to www.theglobeandmail.com

Courage challenged coppers do. They seem to think that these things are the best way to deal with every situation. Wonder what those B.C. cops would have reached for, if they did not have the torture tool? What if the guy was really as formidable as they "thought" he was? How long is pissing one's pants going to be considered excuse enough to kill? Just because the cop or cops are cowards, does that mean they can go ahead and kill? "I feared for my life" is insufficient excuse.

Seems to me this article should be a feature, as this story is getting very little play anywhere else, and it's pretty big news that the police have killed someone in our own community with tasers. Especially when all pdx cops are now armed with these devices, and their use of them is out of control.

While the corporate media has been strangely silent on this incident, channel 12 news did take a moment to spin this in the direction of blaming the victim last night. In a 30 second blurb, they stated matter-of-factly that the victim's wife wonders why he was tasered and killed. They then stated, incredibly, that "police say that the tasers did not kill the man, but toxicology reports are not yet in."

Un-fucking-believable. Just as in the deaths of Fouad Kaady, Jahar Perez, and every other victim of police-induced homicide, the corporate media is actually trying to imply that a) MAYBE the man was on drugs; and b) that would have any relevance whatsoever to the fact that the police killed another unarmed human being. Any question about who the corporate media really works for? Not in my mind.

If "law enforcement" has eroded to performing summary street executions, as it appears, on such arbitrary, capricious and unexamined claims as an unarmed citizen "not responding", or causing to "fear for my life", then self-defense by those desined to be summary victims sounds reasonable--well, it's a response, anyway.

The corporate state's mercenary police gangs hide behind "less lethal" weapons as if by not using bullets any consequential fatalities aren't their fault, and they can taze with abandon. Relieved of the tedium of having to deal with another human being in other than detached video game supreme authority modes, they use these devices like joysticks in their hands, deployed against digital images.

It has been noted that 'tazers did not kill' but toxicology reports are awaited in more than one murder by non-lethal force. When do we decide whether or not the tazer did the actual killing of an individual? There should be intellect, training, compassion, 'verbal judo', or SOMETHING between a person in crises and the weapons aimed at them by those we pay to "serve and protect". If police officers turn to weapons rather than communication skills when approaching wounded, frightened or otherwise traumatized persons, can we not conclude that a lack of training and an over abundance of weapons are to blame when those persons are unnecessarily killed?
Tazers are an offensive weapon designed to torture, not subdue. Results of their initial use lead to death either directly or indirectly by causing deadly chain reactions and should be outlawed now.

When Kroecker was PPB Chief he recruited a lot of former L.A. cops. He told City council he needed to raise the pay grade to recruit college grads then he disposed of the Educational requirements. Police officers deal with people in crisis day in day out. The fact that they are not required to have a degree in sociology or Psychology seems to me negligent. The macho-defensive attitude is a major problem in some members of PPB.
If you were to talk with people who council police officers you might even be more afraid. Power and control issues, sense of entitlement, and domestic violence are just the tip of the iceberg.
There should be no surprise that people are being killed. What is surprising is that the status quo is being maintained.

The PPB is trained to react to threats with violence. If you want them to change the first method is to negotiate. The policy makers and public officals to contact are listed below. Tom Potter stated durring his campgain he would move PPB towards community policing. Former fireman and Commissioner of Public Safety Randy Leonard's wife provides counciling to PPB officers. He knows there is a need for change. The PPB Union is a major stumbling block for negotiations. City Hall has been tripping over it's self for years trying to make changes.
We as a community need to ask whether the needs of the community are more important than the financial desires of the head cases in the PPB.


# Mayor Tom Potter Room # 340 Phone: (503) 823- 4210  mayorpotter@ci.portland.or.us

# Commissioner Randy Leonard Room #210 Phone (503) 823-4682  randy@ci.portland.or.us

Yes, there is definitely a need to remove the weapons from the hands of the PPB. But it's not only the PPB. This particular killing, for example, took place in Longview. It's a global, systemic flaw that we must remedy. Step one: Unite and Stand together. Step Two: Defend Ourselves. Step Three: Revolution, freedom, independence from the corporate police state.

When the police become in fact the violent aggressors of a society, they become not a means of law and protection but a threat to liberty. At this point the Portland police have reached this level. I am a homeowner is a good area, I pay a huge amount of tazes, I have children and now grand children in Portland and as a citizen I can say I no longer belive the police to have any authority. The authority of the police is derived from the people, when they abuse and dishonor that trust and authority to this level, I no longer belive it to be valid. At this point I consider any Portland officer approaching me to be an armed threat. They are no different from any other violent gang.
Personally I cant call for or condone violence againat cops, but it certainly isnt gonna stop me getting a smile each time one is killed

In an ideal world the idea of "policing" would be more of a stewarding of the community without the need for "power over". Yet, this is how our country operates at this point, however unfortunate it is. People in crisis, on large amounts of drugs, who hearts have long since ceased to feel or care b'cuz of hard life experience ...they are still people. Sometimes those people are citzens and sometimes they are cops---we can look at this with an us and them mentality or we can realize some other solution needs to be brainstormed.

It's very disturbing to realize that cops are acting out of "fear" and not in balance with themselves and the situation at hand. I recognize this is not a new problem...it's an old one with a new twist. I agree with the person who stated that having a solid knowledge and understanding of psychology should be a necessary requirement of anyone dedicating themselves to being a police officer. Other requirements...compassion, integrity and non violence communication training===wouldn't that be great! I do intend to contact Tom Potter...

The truth is folks, our society is fucked up---most of our culture would rather veg out on beer, sports, TV, tobacco and a good lay than take responsibility for being here in LIFE---each one of us is an amazing creative being. There is a huge amount of healing that needs to occur within each of us. May we each find what is needed to begin that process. Peace within.

"Excited delirium" is a condition invented by pig apologists to "explain" deaths in police custody. The only people who have died of "ED" did so in police custody. The police in the Kaady situation had to go far and wide to find some nutty conspiracy theorist to even suggest the possibility, because no medical practitioners in the state of Oregon were either familiar with it, or willing to entertain the possibility that it might have been to blame. It was not. And the Oregonian sopped up the slop dished out by the PIO, who deliberatly planted the possibility into the corporate press, despite any credible evidence. The corporate media was not interested in credible evidence, but only in saying what they are paid to say: The police were not to blame.

Any more news on the guy who was murdered this time?

Regarding Fouad Kaady, he was "acting weird" because he was on fire. You would too. He was in a great deal of pain, with third degree burns, in shock, and unable to think clearly. Again, you would be too under the circumstances.

Regarding corporate media and indy media, indy rocks. ("Fuck the corporate media.") St, if you're still reading, go to the video page (orange button on the left side of the screen) and download "fuck the corporate media" and "li2u news." Seriously. You won't believe it. And yes, the corporate media follows indymedia just like the cops. A couple of years ago, there was a tremendous ice storm that was killing homeless people out on the streets. The corporate media ignored the peril to homeless people and instead focused on traffic snarls and late airplanes. Indymedia carried posts by people organizing a shelter to help the homeless people, and saved lives. Then an indy reporter posted an article condemning the corporate media for not doing more, and called for the removal of their licenses. Within 30 minutes of that story appearing here, the corporate media completely changed their tune. Look it up, you should be able to search the site for the string of artilces that appeared during the ice storm, and like I said, I think it was 2 years ago. Not sure.

Regarding police brutality and words, it's time to call it as we see it. When the police murder someone, the secret and stacked grand juries never name it murder. (Remember Jason Sery? He murdered someone, the grand jury let him off the hook, and then an unprecidented public inquest came back and labeled it homicide but did not have the authority to sanction him. So now he's teaching Sunday school. Because although he is a killer, he is not a "convicted" killer because the system (and the corporate media) refuse to name the crime if the perpetrator is wearing a uniform. So that's why it seems a little crazy for anyone to be annoyed that people here are willing to call it like it is. Why not use that energy to demand changes in the justice system that will enable realy justice? Why not call the secret grand jury system out? Why not insist that murder be called murder, instead of insisting that it not be? Weird.

Anyway, though, interesting thread.

People fear for thier lives from the police? This is nothing new, I know because my dad was a deputy and I learned early on that even police are afraid of police, and unless they are very intellegent, very tough, and nothing less than a righteous individual like my dad was, they may not live to see thier retirement. Yes that's right folks what happens is that the bad cops pick on the good cops and I remember when I was a kid I saw how all of the good cops had banded together in an effort to protect each other as they dealt with the bad cops, and now I know that some of these bad cops are out to get me because I know who they are and I know what they've done, and they are out there looking for the opportunity. I am all by myself now but I know what to do and I have no fear because I know that when the time comes that in the end god willing, justice will prevail. Amen

I was tazed after being pulled out of my avalanche truck by two female officers. It was late at night and when I asked them what I did wrong they said I was driving too slow. Yes, I was in the jurisdiction of St.Paul, MN. It was cold and foggy. I was driving at around 12:30a.m. When I was pulled over, my husband was the passenger and as soon as he seen their lights go on, he went crazy. Obviously his reaction frightened me. They pulled me out of the truck by my pony tail, threw me on the highway (which I suffered several abrasions and damage to my teeth), and continued to taze me while I was lying face down on the highway feeling totally brutalized. Yes, I thought that was the end of my life. I am a RN, a mother of two boy's, and a wife, however I cannot work or take care of them. Sadly it's the other way around they take care of me. I'm just starting to come out about this. I totally agree with getting these destructive weapons out off the hands of the police. I did not need the police that night. I needed the paramedics or the firemen- people I could have trusted.

My nephews girlfriend was bringing her boyfriend home from a party saturday night when he started vomiting. When she got him home in their driveway he had a seizure. (my nephew is 17) Not a Grand Mal but the one where they become nonresponsive and gaze into nowhere. She got scared because she couldn't get him to react so she called an ambulance. The ambulance came but also did a police car. The police officer was the one who went to the car and tried to get him out. My nephew started to come out of his seizure and got freaked out. I don't know if you have seen anyone come out of these seizures but they don't want anyone touching them especially any one they don't know. He started to flail his arms saying get away from me and the wench tazed him. He then bolted into the house and she called in back up. 5 more male police officers showed up and they tried to get him out of the house. Because he wouldn't come they tazed him repeatedly. They hand cuffed him and carried him out of the house and tazed him then also. When I got to the hose they had him in the police car and said he was under arrest for ressisting arrest. I asked them if they were going to take him to the hospital and they siad no he was arrested and was going to the police station. They said see that he needs any medical attention they will give it to him. I went hom and 45 min's later my nephew's girlfriend called me to say that he is at the hospital. They just dropped him off their and didn't call anyone to say he was there. The only reason we knew was because his girlfried went down to the police station to find out if he was OK and they didn't know who she was talking about. She had to call 911 to find out where he was.