UK police kill 3 with Taser, pepper spray

Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:28PM GMT

Dale Burns, 27, died after the police tasered him several times in Cumbria, the United Kingdom, last week.The British police have killed three people with Taser guns and pepper spray, amid rising concerns over the use of brutality by the police in the United Kingdom. 

London riots due to Police killings

The Metropolitan Police shocked 53-year-old Philip Hulmes to death, the third man to be killed by the British police in eight days, while trying to arrest him in Over Hulton, near Bolton. The police broke into Hulmes's house after receiving reports that he had locked himself and intended to commit suicide. Hulmes was then tasered to death as the police officers tried to arrest him. 

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has expressed concerns over the use of Taser guns by the UK police against British citizens.  The international rights organization said the rising number of deaths due to Taser shocks in Britain have reaffirmed the body's concerns over the use of Taser guns. 

Last week, Dale Burns, 27, died after the police tasered him several times in Cumbria. Another officer also used pepper spray while trying to arrest Burns.  Twenty five-year-old Jacob Michael was also killed following the use of pepper spray by the UK police to restrain him in Cheshire town on August 24. 

London activist on London rebellion.

The developments come as the death of a Black man, Mark Duggan, at the hands of the British police triggered Britain's worst unrest in decades earlier this month. 

The unrest in Britain began on August 6 in the north London suburb of Tottenham, after a few hundred people gathered outside a police station to protest against the fatal shooting and killing of Duggan by the police. 

However, violent protests erupted in major cities like Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bristol in Britain's worst rioting since the 1980s. Protest outbreaks were also reported in Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Reading, and Oxford. 

Duggan's case has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is set to launch a post-mortem examination on the body. However, the commission is already under fire as it infuriated the public after admitting that it might have "misled" the media into believing that Duggan had fired at officers before being killed by the police. 

Video of London cops kill Ian Tomlinson..

British Prime Minister David Cameron earlier said that the government would take an iron fist approach toward the protesters as he called for a more visible presence of British police officers on the streets, blaming the recent unrest across Britain on British society's sense of irresponsibility and moral decline. 

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