Page 9 - IAV Digital Magazine #421

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BlindManTaseredAfterHisWalkingStickWas MistakenForAGunByArmedPoliceOfficers
Police tasered a blind man at a train station on Thursday evening after mistaking his walking stick for a gun.
Officers from Greater Manchester Police were called to a platform at Levenshulme Station after receiving a call that a middle-aged man had been seen holding a firearm.
Arriving at the scene, officers tasered the man with a 50,000 volt stun gun, after he failed to respond to police calls to drop what they believed to be a weapon.
In fact, the 43-year-old was blind and had been holding his cane, folded up, as he waited on the platform for a train home.
The man is believed to have collapsed before then being detained by officers.
A local convenience store worker, Tasawar Dar, said he saw heavily armed police arrive at the scene at around 7pm on Thursday.
He added that another witness had claimed that officers had issued instructions at the man at gunpoint.
“I heard the police and they shouted ‘lie down on the ground’ and there was the bark of dog as well,” he told reporters.
“I saw a guy sitting on the stairs of the station and a police office came into the shop asking for a can of coke. They went out and gave it to the guy.
“A friend of mine said he saw them pointing the gun at the man as well. They left about half an hour later and then an ambulance came.”
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police confirmed that the man had been detained before officers realised that the weapon was in fact a folding cane.
He added that the man was later released and the incident has been referred to the Force’s professional standards branch to investigate, adding
Superintendent Steve Howard, of GMP's City of Manchester Team, said: "Officers respond- ed quickly to the inci- dent to ensure the safe- ty of the community of Levenshulme.
"It has been established that there was no threat and inquiries are ongo- ing to fully understand the circumstances of the incident.
"In line with standard procedure on occasions such as this, a referral has been made to GMP's Professional Standards Branch."
International's head of policy and Government affairs, said: “This is another extremely dis- turbing incident of a Taser apparently being misused.
“The Taser is a poten- tially lethal weapon which should be used only in a strictly limited set of circumstances, namely a threat to life or the risk of very serious injury.
“With growing numbers of police officers armed with Tasers, this incident shows again that they should be getting the same level of training as firearms officers.
“We’re calling for police officers to undergo rigor- ous training which takes into account how to respond to people in vulnerable groups, including the visually impaired.
“Amnesty remains con- cerned that police offi- cers are still likely to cause serious harm using Tasers without appropriate training."
Allan Hogarth, Amnesty
US Border Agents Ask Muhammad Ali's Son: 'Are You A Muslim?'
Border agents detained and questioned the son of the boxing legend Muhammad Ali about his religion when he flew back to the US this month, a family lawyer said.
“Where did you get your name from? Are you a Muslim?” they asked the 44-year-old Muhammad Ali Jr, who was born in Philadelphia and is a US citizen.
When Ali confirmed to immigration officials at Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood international airport in Florida that he was a Muslim, they began questioning him about where he was born, family friend and lawyer Chris Mancini told the Courier-Journal newspaper. The ques- tioning lasted for about two hours.
Ali had been at a black history month event in Jamaica with his moth- er, Khalilah Camacho- Ali. She was allowed to enter the country after producing a photo of herself with her famous ex-husband, who died last year, but her son had nothing to prove his link to the boxer.
The 7 February incident was the first time the family had been detained or questioned in this way, despite reg- ular international travel, Mancini said.
They consider it reli- gious profiling linked to President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to bring in a “Muslim ban” and his now-suspended execu- tive order banning citi- zens from seven Muslim-majority coun- tries from entering the US.
“To the Ali family, it’s crystal clear that this is directly linked to Mr Trump’s efforts to ban Muslims from the United States,” Mancini said, adding that they were trying to find out how many others faced simi- lar questioning, and were contemplating fil- ing a federal lawsuit.
“Imagine walking into an airport and being asked about your religion,” Mancini told the paper. “This is classic customs profiling.”
Ali’s is the latest in a string of complaints about US immigration
controls after the inau- guration of Trump.
The former prime minis- ter of Norway was held for nearly an hour at Washington Dulles air- port earlier this month and questioned over a visit to Iran three years ago, which he had made to speak at a human rights confer- ence.
Meanwhile, the best- selling Australian chil- dren’s book author Mem Fox has suggested she might never return to the US after she was detained and insulted by border control agents at Los Angeles internation- al airport. The 70-year- old said she was left “sobbing like a baby” after two hours of ques- tioning while on her way to a conference.
A British Muslim school- teacher travelling to New York last week as a member of a school party from south Wales was denied entry to the US. The foreign secre- tary, Boris Johnson, had previously claimed the US government had committed to allowing all UK passport holders to enter the country.
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