Monday, September 21, 2009

Taser torture

I don't think Tasers should be banned.

The company touts them as a non-lethal weapon to use in situations where police officers would otherwise be forced to shoot people. This is a good thing. Not just because of the inherent saving of a life, but because of important side benefits such as saving police officers from the trauma associated with taking a life and mitigating those case where a mistake is made and an innocent person is targeted by police due to the fog of war.

Unfortunately there's increasing evidence that police are overusing Tasers in situations where they would not be using deadly force. They are using Tasers to force compliance from suspects and even Tasering people for verbal remarks rather than physical resistance. And, it seems sometimes they are simply Tasering people because the Cop got pissed off. I really don't care what kind of an asshole a guy in a wheelchair might be, I can't see how it's justified to use a Taser on him.

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