Source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/palestinian-man-repeatedly-tasered-by-israeli-police-in-front-of-his-children-1.460398

A Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem complained to the Justice
Ministry department that investigates police misconduct on Thursday
after a police officer shocked him five times with an electric stun gun
in front of his five children on Tuesday.

The Palestinian, 42-year-old Talal Siad of the A-Tur neighborhood, was
shot while out with his family at a Tel Aviv water park celebrating the
Id al-Fitr holiday. Siad checked himself into the hospital suffering
from burns and nausea.

The incident took place after Tel Aviv police were called to Meymadion
Water Park to control a brawl. Officers used pepper spray to subdue one
of the participants. Siad, who was not involved in the brawl, attracted
the officers' attention by telling them they were using the irritant too
freely.

"I was there with my family, my five children and my wife; we went out
to have fun on our holiday," he told Haaretz. "Suddenly there was a
confrontation between a few security men and kids who were fighting
among themselves. The officers wanted to arrest the boy who was seen
naked in the closed-circuit television system. He fell down and they
sprayed him in the face.

"I saw them repeat that action several times, and then got up with my
3-year-old in my arms and shouted at them to stop. I told the policeman,
'What are you doing? You're killing those kids,' and he told me to
leave. I said, 'You're being unreasonable, you go away.'"

In response, Siad said, the policemen threatened him with the Taser. "I
shouted, 'Do you want to shoot me?' and then he shot me in the
stomach,'" Siad added.

Embed CodePlays: 2015 (Embed: 574)


The whole event was filmed by several of the bathers at the park. In
the films, one can clearly see the policemen using the stun gun while
handcuffing Siad.

The Taser is meant to aid policemen in controlling suspects until they
are handcuffed, and its use is prohibited from that moment on. But the
films prove that the policemen continued shocking Siad in front of the
other bathers even after he was handcuffed and could not have presented
any danger to them.

"Every time I tried to rise to my feet, he pulled the trigger and
shocked me again, even though I was handcuffed," Siad said. "My whole
body was bleeding. I vomited and then went to the hospital. I was
shocked five times, and several times more outside the Meymadion area.

"[The policeman] said 'Sit.' I told him I had done nothing wrong, and then he shocked me again."

According to Siad, the complaint to the investigation department was
based on testimony from witnesses he hadn't known beforehand.

Siad told Haaretz he didn't know the policeman's name, and the
investigation department refused to tell it to him. The department told
him it would give the officer's name only to Siad's attorney, if he
chooses to be represented by one, he said.

Sa'id Kabub, 40, of Jaffa, who filmed the incident, said officers shocked Siad several times.

"I'm 40, and I began to weep. I came for a day of fun with my wife and
kids, to enjoy the holiday. Then there was a brawl; it happens. They
should have arrested whoever was involved. But why did they behave like
that? It was shocking. One young woman saw the incident and passed out.
She was later taken to the hospital in an ambulance. I see a lot of
stuff in Jaffa, but I never saw anything like this."

The Tel Aviv police said the film "was edited in a manner that does not
reflect the complete picture. There was a massive brawl between two
families from East Jerusalem, and several of the participants were
wounded and had to be evacuated to receive treatment. Police officers
who arrived at the scene were forced to separate the fighting sides and
confront a crowd that incited all present to riot and impede the
officers' work. The man in the film attacked the policeman and
interfered with him in the line of duty. A Taser was used in order to
control him."

View comments (24)