Comments about ‘Questions about Tasers’

Tasers are proving themselves lethal. Cops already carry lethal weapons; it's time to rething the need for a second one. Real police work used to do the job.

nothing is perfect,depends on the ratio of positive and negative

Trying to make a case against tasers or any other subject backed by such groups as Amnesty International or the ACLU can do nothing but invalidate your position. Anyone with half a brain can count on those two organizations to be totally off base no matter what they say. If the ACLU is against their use then we should all go out and buy the civilian model of tasers and also demand that our police forces use tasers more often.

Sounds like an oxymoron?

I think a lot of cops just can't or don't want to arrest people the old-fashioned way these days. They just go right to the tase as their first option.

About a year ago a man from Poland arrived in Vancouver International Airport to meet his mother. He didn't speak any English and no one sent for an interpreter and he languished in the clearing customs area fro 16 hours without food or water.

He finally went a bit bonkers and started through a chair. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police came in with a full SWAT team. This was caught on video, with sound. One of the cops, a rookie (aged 46) was heard to ask if he could Taser the man.

He tasered him four or five times. He died.

It's getting to where the Taser is option one. Failure to comply, no matter how calmly, seems to automatically warrant tasing. We are giving our officers a "non-lethal" way of forcing compliance.That is the hallmark of a fascist regime, and we are intentionally supplying the means. They used to use clubs, but it took too long, and someone might film them.

It seems like it would be easy enough to test. Have 2 different police organizations covering a common-sized population train to the same standards, except allow one group to use tasers. Then see how many deaths or injuries there are over some time frame, such as 5 years. If tasers end up causing more deaths and injuries than the alternative, then I could be persuaded to do away with them. Somehow, I think it would be found that they have their place, vs nightsticks or whatever.

Make every cop who wants to use a taser, submit to a tasering.

I say, comply with the law and don't get tazed!

BobP: police officers are required to get tazed as part of their certification to carry one. We also have to be pepper sprayed to carry it as well. Just so you know.

Don't like Amnesty International? Don't like ACLU? That's okay, there are others with highly-informed opinions on the subject of taser safety.

AMA: tasers can cause death, directly or indirectly.

Canadian RCMP: use of tasers carries risk, including risk of death, especially with acutely agitated individuals.

Braidwood Inquiry ($4M public inquiry): tasers can cause death, through a variety of mechanisms, even in healthy adults.

Wake Forest University's Dr. Bozeman: tasers can kill.

United Nations: a form of torture that can kill.

Many of the studies that Taser International points to have obvious flaws. Or they misrepresent the findings. Such as the NIJ study that found there is not a "high risk" of death (duh!) but that there was an indication of risks with repeated exposure, or with about half the population.

Holding up AI and ACLU to ridicule is simply a cheap propaganda trick. It provides no illumination to the larger body of conclusions. In short, it is deceptive. And that sort of deception appears to be a common practice with taser fan boys.

Did I mention the AMA? Yeah, I did.

I'm no expert, but from what I have read; it would appear that MOST of the deaths are the result of REPEATED tasering.

A medical device, the defribulator, if used INCORRECTLY, can ALSO cause death.

Perhaps the police need better training, OR the units themselves need to be more limited; such as, maybe, a timer type lockout that keeps them from firing AGAIN for a set time after being discharged the FIRST time, like maybe 5 or 10 minutes.

I'm sure to get a lot of arguments for my subject alone. I've noticed something about taser stories. I've never heard a story from someone who didn't break the law but got tasered. If people didn't break the law these things wouldn't happen as much. I've never really broken the law seriously and I've also never been tasered. I've had one ridiculous run in with a cop and rather than freaking out at him and showing him attitude at the time, I did what I've always been taught. I stayed in the vehicle and cooperated with him. I later emailed the sheriff's department and got everything cleared. The video of the guy on YouTube who was tasered, was actually speeding and then didn't believe there was a sign. Had I been in that situation and seen proof of the sign in the video, I would have felt stupid for not seeing the sign and not believing the officer.

Has is ever occured to any of you knee jerk, law and order types the the cops ARE NOT the law. The simply are very well paid to enforce it. Again, the police are not the law.

I am more conservative and law and order (aslo darn near 70) but I have lost almost all of the respect for the police that I have had. 40 years as a criminal defence lawyer aided that attitude.

That poor guy in Vancouver, Canada, broke no laws. Although some rookie cop thought he did.

I an Excited are referring to the same case.

ouch | 6:58 p.m. Oct. 30, 2009

"I say, comply with the law and don't get tazed!"

There is a difference between complying with the law and complying with some guy who thinks he is the law. If I want to mouth off to some retard I will do so whether he is a cop (aka pig) or some idiot poster like the cop who posted here. If cops are posting to these forums then it just proves that they are human too and that just because they are on the job does not mean that we have to obey them or agree with them anymore then we would if they were posting their opinions about when they can use a taser to an online forum.

If you don't like it that those o us who diagree with you won't obey those who do then you can try to come to my house right now and taser me for telling you and the cop who posted here where you both can go with your votes, posts and your idiotic opinions when you violate my rights as a poster off duty or on-duty.

All of you whining monday morning quarterbacks want the law enforced but it it done by officers who will cowar to the criminal and beg for their cooperation. You want them there for you when you are in trouble but dont want them around when you are commiting a crime. You cowards that have never stuck up for anyone or anything, never put your lives in the way of danger to assist someone else, like to sit on the sidelines and complain about how the poor innocent criminal was hurt. Well in this real world, the majority of the criminals that would warrant a tazar use would have injured or killed the officer if given the chance. Too many people are raised to think that they should always fight, even if they did something wrong. Maybe you ACLU types should encourage parents to teach their children to accept responsibility and take the punishment when they have wronged. Problem solved.

Has anybody here heard that the punishment comes after the trial not at the whim of some power hungry policeman.

Tazing is much less dangerous than the old fashioned method of using grappling moves, flashlights or clubs to get people to stop struggling. Pepper spray accomplishes the same thing usually, but you have to buy gallons of the stuff because it doesn't have an indefinite shelf life.

I would rather have people tazed & ocassionally die than have a cop or a bystander injured because a cop has to worry too much about tazing someone. I don't think Cardall deserved to die. I think the officer was considering his & others safety in this instance & was probably upset that it resulted in the death of one of the people he was trying to help.

How many mentally ill people, cops & bystanders lives have been saved by using tazers. This is a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Hopefully data collected from these deaths will be used make tazers safer. But a few deaths compared with the overall use of tazers is relatively small.

They should review all uses of tazers like they do with using guns to make certain it was appropriate.

To me, the biggest problem isn't where the cops hit people with the probes, but rather at what points they choose to deploy them. They shouldn't be allowed to use tasers in any situation they wouldn't also be allowed to use their firearm.

In the case of Jared Massey, he was not struggling, running, threatening, or resisting. He was just loud and mouthy. If the UHP officer had shot him with his gun in that situation, people would be up in arms. And they should be about this.

Tasers are a good tool for police officers. They just use them far too often any time someone mouths off.