CJA Calls for Ban on Tasers Press Conference May 9 @ 11:00am in San Jose

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 29, 2005
For more information contact:
Richard Konda
Asian Law Alliance
184 Jackson Street
San Jose, CA 95112
408-287-9710
sccala [at] pacbell.net

Coalition for Justice and Accountability
Calls for a Ban on Tasers at Press Conference May 9, 2005, 11:00 am
In front of San Jose City Hall

WHAT: Press conference to call for a ban on the use of Tasers by the
San Jose Police Depart.
WHERE: In front of San Jose City Hall – 801 North First Street, San
Jose, CA 95110
WHEN: On Monday May 9, 2005 at 11:00 a.m.
WHO: Organized by the Coalition for Justice and Accountability (CJA),
speakers will deliver their concerns on tasers to San Jose Mayor Ron
Gonzales, members of the San Jose City Council, San Jose Chief of
Police Rob Davis and District Attorney George Kennedy. CJA will
release an analysis of tasers that states in part, “To continue Taser
usage is to play Russian roulette with the safety of both public and
police, while placing our financially strapped local government at risk
of costly lawsuits. … Because of safety issues, the ease of abuse and
the difficulty of detecting abuse and the human rights violations of a
cruelly painful and degrading punishment before arrest, today’s
electroshock technology has no place in our society’s law enforcement
agencies.”

WHY: In April 2004, the San Jose Police Department armed all of their
patrol officers with Taser stun guns that use darts to deliver
electrical shocks to incapacitate a person in less than a second. The
CJA fourteen page critique of the use of Tasers by the San Jose Police
Department, concludes that, “We have given Tasers a trial and found
that because of the safety risks to the public and to the police, the
escalated use of force, and the failure to satisfy international
standards of law enforcement, today’s electroshock technology has shown
that is has no place in our society’s law enforcement agencies and must
be banned.”

CJA formed in August 2003, after the tragic death of Bich-Cau Thi Tran,
who was shot and killed by a San Jose Police Officer as she stood in
her kitchen with at Vietnamese vegetable peeler in her hand. CJA
continues to advocate for justice for Bich-Cau Thi Tran and for reforms
in police practices.

For more information about the Coalition for Justice and Accountability
contact: Richard Konda at 408-287-9710 or at sccala [at] pacbell.net