Stephen Colbert last night had an
hilarious segment on the Travis County Deputy Constable who
tazed a 72-year old great grandmother at a traffic stop. The whole piece is funny but the schtick about the Austin great grandmother kicks in about at about 2.5 minutes:
I saw that show last night, and man, is he funny or what?! Stephen has a knack for approaching these subjects with humor- but I am just glad to see him bringing this to the public's attention. It is time for tazers to be discontinued by law enforcement. Surely there is a safer alternative to subduing violent and confrontative subjects-without injecting them with voltage...
ReplyDeleteAnon, the problem is not that cops are using tazers to subdue violent people. They are using them to "subdue" people who are not violent at all. They are using them to summarily punish people who simply don't do what the cops tell them to do. Big difference.
ReplyDeleteGrits, why was this post labeled "Art"?
"why was this post labeled 'Art'"?
ReplyDeleteBecause it consisted entirely of a video clip from a satirical actor playing a character on TV.
I don't think Tasers should be banned, but it shouldn't be used merely to gain compliance from someone who's uncooperative. It should be much further up the "use of force continuum," to use the police policy lingo, only used when there's imminent danger.
How many force situations have you been in, Anon 1:26 pm?
ReplyDeleteAnyone who did that to my 72 year old mother (who still lives in Texas), would be a dead man walking.
ReplyDeleteI heard a commercial or something just yesterday on the radio touting a new taser that fires three shots without having to reload.
ReplyDeleteThey can now now shock multiple people at one time.
ReplyDeleteThe TASER Shockwave device has the ability to de-escalate/defuse violent crowd/riot situations with the only safer response to resistance Area Denial incapacitating device, by deploying multiple TASER cartridges that are oriented across a wide area arc
http://www.taser.com/products/law/
Pages/ShockwaveLE.aspx
Lawmakers to propose ban on texting while driving
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/073009dnnattextingban.8a75ca6b.html
Proposed by a democrat who are proposing the COPS grant. Yes sir, change we can believe in.
Geez-12:36. I hope there aren't any pregnant women or children in that crowd. Or someone with an internal heart defibrillator or pacemaker. Or an elderly (or any, for that matter)person with an prosthetic (metal) hip. Scary.
ReplyDeleteTasers have a legitimate role in law enforcement as a less lethal response (short of using a service weapon).
ReplyDeleteHowever, the policies and rules around the use of tasers need to be tightened to: allow only one application by a single officer, limit the shock to about 3-5 seconds; require medical observation of the person after being tased; require supervisory notification and investigation of each use to assess whether is was necessary and appropriate; use of force review by the chief; referral of questionable cases to internal affairs; and, periodic review of taser use incidents by a citizens review board.