‘Why Talk When You Can Shock,’ says Taser Opponent

[Joanne98]

TORONTO — Tasers are not a replacement for guns; they’re a replacement for talking, said author Naomi Klein at a town-hall meeting last night.

“If it happened in a cell, we would call it torture and if it happens on the street we should not be afraid to call it torture,” said Klein, who is the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

The discussion on the police use of shock and stun guns was held at the University of Toronto in response to Toronto police Chief Bill Blair’s request that 3,000 officers be armed with electroshock guns.

When RCMP officers used a Taser on Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in Vancouver International Airport last October, they did so within 25 seconds of their arrival on the scene, Klein said. Dziekanski died shortly after.

“Why talk when you can shock?” she said. “Tasers are not a replacement for guns. They’re a replacement for everything else …they’re a replacement for talking; for negotiating.”
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/07/6914/

[libbygurl]

1. Indeed. Rec for Klein's 'Shock Doctrine'. And...

...these tasers seem to have become part of the cops' everyday arsenal, and they're too willing to use it in far too many situations anymore.