One day, there will be more brutal weapons to come besides a Tazer.

You know the problem with tasers is since they don't "harm" directly the subject we tend to consider them more socially acceptable.
I ask you, what is the difference between tasing the guy and firing on him (not with the intention of killing).
There is no difference whatsoever, just as firing on that guy would be considered absurd, so is tasing.
Calling tasers non lethal weapons makes them socially acceptable.
But the nature of those weapons doesn't change.

A gun can kill, but it can also incapacitate a suspect. Does any sensibile person dare call a gun a non lethal weapon ? :roll:

There are times a taser is warranted but those are times where it is also warranted to use a firearm.

I agree with this.
So what advantage does a taser give the police that a firearm doesn't ? :hmm:

Well for a good officer he does not have to spend the rest of his life knowing he killed a human being.

Is your real name Annie Oakley? :rotfl:

Shooting to maim is a myth. If I were to discharge my duty weapon, it's to protect my life, another officer's life or civillian's life. Don't know how it is in other countries, but case law has established in the US that using a firearm by police, constitutes deadly force. Besides, do you realize how hard it is to hit center mass from 5 feet away. I do, 90% of police involved shootings happen from 5 feet or less, and the hit percentage is a whopping 30%. (to center mass, the largest presented target)

I really wish this could be true. Sometimes to protect life, we must take life.

As I mentioned before, a no-win situation.

It is a no win situation now.

A person is dead

A person is about to be Jailed or sued to Oblivion.

Cops are ever closer to losing the taser.

You know, in some cases I don't think cops use their smarts as much as they could, or try and be creative. In this case, they probably could have gotten this guy to sit down if they waved a large Pizza from Pappa John's under his nose.

What strikes me is the absurdity of the whole situation.
If the cops haven't had the tasers and only wore firearms WOULD THEY HAVE FIRED UPON the guy to calm him down ?
I think its safe to say that the police would have done the sensible thing.
Either try to physically calm down this guy or wait for an expert to handle this situation.

Or a gift card to Best Buy.

A story was once related to me about an old timer on the wagon who gets waved down by a citizen stating a man was eating a pigeon in an alley. Him and his rookie partner go to location and sure enough, a very large man is sitting in the alley, half way finshed with a pigeon. Blood, feathers and tissue stuck to his face and lips. He takes another bite when the old timer asks him, "whats going on..." The man stops for a moment and looks at the old timer, and says with a straight face, "I'm eating my chicken dinner, officer, what does it look like?" The old timer knows that this could be a very bad situation and thinking quickly responds, "Is that chicken from Harolds?" "Nah, ain't as juicy as Harolds". "If I had some money I'd of gotten a Harold's #3 with a big coke" "This sh*t is really dry". As the man takes another bite, the old timer directs his partner to walk over to Harold's Chicken and get the #3 meal and large coke. As the partner walks away the man say's to the old timer, "You buying me dinner officer, thats nice of you. But I can't pay you back..." The old timer still thinking on his feet says, "I only ask you to eat it in the back of the wagon, the alderman has a bug up his a$$ about the rat problem, and he believes that eating in alleys is the main culprit." "No problem officer, if you bring me the #3 with a coke, I'll eat it anywhere you tell me. I don't want to get you in trouble with your boss for just being nice to me." The partner brings back the food and drink, the man smiles at the old timer, stands up, and walks into the back of the wagon. The old timer asks him to discard the remains of the "dry chicken" on the ground, gives him his #3 and coke and locks the door.

True story. The guy had murdered three people twenty years before, but was found to be insane. That is why I try not to judge, no two situations are ever the same.

Not sure about NYPD, but we don't have "experts" to handle the situation, we are it. I'm not sure what you mean about 'physically calm down'.

If the guy was using the four foot long glass tube to strike at the officers as it is reported, they would have been more then likely justified in using their firearms to negate the threat. As I stated before, it was a no-win situation.

yeah right. you wish to frame the debate with language such as "negate the threat" and now you want to say he deserved to be shot! And furthermore you wish to imply that civilians have no right to pass judgment on the police because blah blah. Don't forget who pays you.

So I suppose if the review commission, or whatever, decides that the policeman involved acted incorrectly in tazing the guy, you'll jump up and say how wrong the commission is, will you?

What was the guy standing there for, anyway? You can't exactly be a threat to anyone standing the way he was, unless you are able to shoot someone with the light bulb. What was the point of the police even trying to talk to him if he deserves to be shot for ranting butt-naked with a flourescent tube. Why not just shoot him from the ground and say Dredd-like "naked ranting with a light bulb is illegal, perp"

The point being the policeman had an objective, which was to talk the guy down. Then presumably he thought he could solve the problem with a taser, without actually thinking through the obvious consequences of his actions.

Guy dies, policeman demonstrated to be profoundly stupid, and with blood on his hands

Because in fact the policeman could have just waited. The guy was no threat, and would either have hurt himself or got cold and hungry and come down voluntarily. {EDIT: that's the win in this no-win situation btw}

But no, can't wait, must do something, how about kill him?

I really feel sorry for this poor guys mother who was clearly distressed asking the police not to hurt her son ... so they kill him, they must have known through training that his muscles would tense up & altimately fall.:cry: Ignorant turds!:nope: Hope mom sues for all it's worth, won't get her son back but maybe they'll review the future use and training of tazers.:-?