"Don't tazer me, bro" has come to the UK

[jumpy]

I don't think it's appropriate to taze a 15 year old kid who is obviously having some kind of tantrum.
I'm sure some of us have done worse and with no police involvement required.

The case that 50000 volts is better than a 9mm round in the chest is an obvious one. But the whole idea (as was sold to us here in the UK) is that it's an alternative to firearms officers using deadly force. What part of this incident meant that an armed response unit had to be called, that the situation with a 15 year old kid could not be resolved by ordinary officers? And perhaps I have overlooked this; when did ordinary plod get to carry these weapons? Previously they were only an option for trained firearms specialists.

Tazers and the like are a symptom of failure. Failure to deal with the problems which underlie many minor offences. They ought to be a proportionate response by trained firearms officers to a situation which requires their unique abilities, not given to any ordinary copper who wants to get the job done quickly so he can mark up a notch on the crime figures or knock off early for a cup of tea.
With their widespread application, you may as well give all police guns too. That way we can all be doubly afraid of them and their tools to make us 'think twice'. That's a dangerous idea - fear of the police. And it only requires a relatively small number of abuses or accidents and the public face of the police force is tarnished and looked at with mistrust.
If we were to do more to address the real problems causing low level violence, drunkenness and general stupidity then maybe we will not continue to walk into a time where there is less and less respect for the authorities in general.
Quite frankly I don't like the idea of living in a country where every ordinary policeman carries a tazer, or a gun for that matter; it points to a greater malaise.