Are officers too quick to fire Tasers?

[ConfuZed]

By Antigone Barton

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 29, 2005

A deputy needed just nine words to justify firing his Taser stun gun at a 15-year-old girl:

"Subject was given several commands, but did not comply."

That was enough for six Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office supervisors to unanimously approve knocking a 115-pound girl to the ground with a paralyzing 50,000-volt electric shock.

The deputy's report is one of more than 1,000 that The Palm Beach Post examined in reviewing three years of Taser use by police from Boca Raton to Fort Pierce, starting in 2001, when the weapon arrived in South Florida.

While some of the reports show that the weapons defused violent confrontations and averted the use of lethal force, the investigation also found:

• One out of every four suspects shocked with Tasers was unarmed, nonviolent and not posing an apparent immediate threat...

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2005/05/29/m1a_TASER_0529.html

[ConfuZed]

1. My opinion:

liberalnurse I know you and others will give your parti pris opinions and continuously repeat "police officers have a dangerous job" while I do agree that in alot of cases 'tasers' do save lives (so do guns) they are being substituted with professionalism,compassion,good communication,training and commonsense.

I understand that it feels good for some to see another being 'punished' for misbehaving but I thought we had grown past corporal punishment and torture.

[MrModerate]

2. I think what's going on here is . . .

Tasers are marketed to cop shops as nonlethal solutions to bad civilian behavior -- behavior that has the potential to put officers at risk. Given that option, the cops zap people frequently (maybe unecessarily) rather than expose themselves to that risk.

And some jurisdictions have more cops who are dickheads than others, and some jurisdictions have less respect for civilians' rights. So, in some places, you get excess Tasing as a matter of course.

Florida and Texas have been mentioned as particularly bad. Myself, I wouldn't live in either place (despite having been born in Texas, woo-hah).

[bryant69]

4. I think that's it

Better safe than sorry, and the taser is a non-lethal and therefore guiltless option.

This story also reflects how we individually feel about cops, I'd imagine. Or, to put it another way, our reaction to this story might mirror our general trust / mistrust of cops.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Desertrose]

3. I think having the access to the tasers

may be just to easy and too tempting to NOT use for some officers and situations.

I would not want to be a cop. I admire them for the work they do...that said, I do believe the mentality of many who choose this job has changed radically.


I also believe that violence, power and control are such a big part of our mindset anymore and the fact we so easily seem to accept atrocities such as AbuGhraib, Gitmo and so forth, that has filtered greatly into how we perceive each other.

The right has done just a real dandy job of making this world all about "us or them"..about being different and therefore wrong or "less than"...divide and conquer - or at least control.

We are broadcast violence etc etc 24/7 from the time we are tiny. What does anyone expect? We are now reaping what we have sown and no one seems able to stand back and see the insanity of it all.

Someone suggests a Dept of Peace and you all laugh and scoff...I'd say learning how to get along peacefully may be something we HAVE to learn...we already know how to make war quite well.