[Edited to add guard David Boling’s name.]

Every now and then, this blog serves as an outlet for one of my incidents of otherwise intractable outrage.

Some time ago, I wrote a blog entry about the death of Victoria Snelgrove at the hands of an overzealous Boston police officer using something described as a “less lethal” weapon. At the time, I was apoplectic with anger at the loss of an innocent bystander, particularly one so young.

I recently looked into the outcome of that case, prompted by a recent event in the news. District Attorney Daniel F. Conley decided not to prosecute any of the police officers involved in the incident. Rochefort Milien, the officer who killed Snelgrove, got away with a 45-day suspension without pay for “using poor judgement and excessive force,” and was probably back out shooting bystanders before his next union-mandated pay raise. Additional depressing details are available in this 2005 story from The Boston Globe.

The event which prompted me to look back on all this is even more depressing. We did not even hear about it when it happened; perhaps it took place on a busy news day, or perhaps it was effectively kept under wraps. A lawsuit filed this week, though, has catapulted the story to national attention.

In April, 2007 at the Woman’s Hospital of Texas in Houston, William Lewis and his wife had just taken delivery, so to speak, of their baby girl, Karla. For reasons yet to be made public, the Lewis family felt they were being mistreated by hospital staff, and they wished to leave. As is usually to be expected, hospital staff discouraged them from leaving so soon after the birth, but Lewis was having none of it. The couple simply wanted to take their child and go, which is of course their right.

At this point, Lewis picked up the child and the couple moved toward the elevators. Lewis was confronted by a hospital staff member and told that he could not leave, and that security would be called if he tried. Meanwhile, the baby’s RFID wristband shut down the elevator.

Off-duty Houston police officer David Boling, in his capacity as a security guard, responded along with another guard. Security cameras captured what followed, although no sound was recorded. Lewis and the security guard talked briefly, the child still in Lewis’ arms. The consensus among witnesses is that Lewis was belligerent and defiant but not physically threatening. Boling then made the incomprehensible decision to do the unthinkable.

Boling, who had entered the scene with a Taser in his hand, fired it at Lewis. It hit him, and as anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together would expect, the child fell.

Lewis is no saint. He and his wife have a history of domestic violence. He wasn’t being particularly polite or cooperative with the guard or with hospital staff. I can’t bring myself to consider those facts relevant. Personally, I wouldn’t care if he were a convicted axe murderer and had threatened to kill the security guard with a pair of Metzenbaum scissors. Nothing excuses Tasering a man holding a newborn infant.

The baby is now exhibiting neurological effects, and the parents claim the fall caused them. As in most legal battles today, the winner will probably be the party who can afford the best legal representation, but in my opinion, it’s certainly possible that a causal relationship exists between Karla’s fall and her condition.

A spokesman for the Houston Police Department said that they did not investigate the security guard’s role in the incident. Is anyone surprised?

Tasers have gotten some very bad press recently, as have many so-called “less lethal” weapons. While it’s often been difficult to prove a direct causal link between a Taser shock and the victim’s subsequent death, it’s undisputed that many people in the last few years have died soon after such shocks by law enforcement officers. A 2004 story published by CBS News counted seventy such cases. UPI reported on a Chicago case just last week.

To me, these “less lethal” weapons, which often appear to have very lethal effects, represent a frightening trend. Officers consider the weapons harmless, and that perception leads them to use them in situations where the justification is weaker. Police wouldn’t fire a bullet at a man for being drunken and belligerent, but they’ll gladly Taser such a man just to avoid having to wrestle him into handcuffs. When the man subsequently dies, we have to wonder if he would still be alive had police considered the Taser truly dangerous. To put it another way, should a man lose his life to save a police officer a bloody nose or a torn shirt?
Would Victoria Snelgrove still be alive had officer Milien known that the pellet gun in his hands could kill if used carelessly? Would Milien have used his firearm in the same situation?

The words “criminally stupid” come to mind. How this guard was never investigated or prosecuted is beyond my comprehension. I hope public attention brings justice in this case.