Tasers are part of the problem not the solution
by digby
My piece in Salon today discusses those two choke hold incidents this week and the Police Commissioner's promise to look into more taser use. Those who have been following this blog and my writing on tasers will be unsurprised that I am not in favor.
The viral video incidents this week in New York, the first of which resulted in death and the second a beating in the face as well as the illegal choke holds were about suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes in the first case and jumping a subway turnstile in the second. These were not people who were suspected of a violent crime requiring that the police spare no energy in protecting the public. Indeed, it appears that the violent acts against these two suspects were entirely based upon the crime of failing to instantly obey a police officer. Have we decided that this crime is worthy of beating, torture and possibly death? Because thats whats happening all over the country. Its happening to children, its happening to the mentally ill, its happening to the elderly and the sick, its happening to average citizens who merely assert their rights and it can happen to you too. (It even happens to NFL players.)
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/tasers-are-part-of-problem-not-solution.html
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)vt_native
(484 posts)maybe some reason, maybe a ticket.
tech3149
(4,452 posts)You wouldn't ask that question if you'd read the entire Salon article.
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)He repeatedly calls for a ban on tasers. I want to know what he thinks police should use instead.
There is a problem with police brutality in our nation, no argument there. However, a ban on a usually non-lethal method of stopping someone in his or her tracks is not the solution.
FarPoint
(12,276 posts)Tasers have saved lives far greater than any other method. The baton has a violent history record but the gun is always intended to be lethal. Tasers accomplish detainment and control ...one typically lives to complain about being tazed. Today's trigger happy militarized field police officer will utilize a glock more often without the taser option.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)It's not about the equipment they carry, it's the officers themselves. One could argue that the corporations that sell the equipment have created the problem by "donating" surplus inventory at the wind down of the Bush wars. They have followed the drug dealer model of the first taste is free to create an increasing dependency on military style equipment. But the root problem is the officers.