How many more will it take?

[CCIP]

Besides, 64 officers in traffic stops in 10 years... not a terrifying number if you ask me. Perhaps that needs to be in context of the total number of traffic stops made each year.

It's not that I'm dismissing the danger entirely, but does this really justify using such a dangerous weapon in any situation where a stop doesn't go as planned? Also, how is tazer not "brutality"?

I'd rather people get roughed up a bit by police than have their internal organs potentially fried, for one. Likewise, I'm more willing to live with 6.4 officers killed in a country the size of the US each year due to this cause than risk these kinds of outcomes.

[AVGWarhawk]

The good old billy club worked well. Unfortunate I see more and more that the tazer is the easy way out of handling situations that normally escalate because the officer allowed it to escalate. Control is lost. Take a look at the video from the officers video cam in submans post . The stop started out bad because the cop let it start out bad.

You have to undestand something. The tazer shoots electricity through out your body. Your body functions by small electrical charges that jump from neuron to neuron. This includes your heart and brain. What happens to a wire that can handle 120 volts that receives 240 volts? ZAP, SMOKE, FIRE. Same situation here with the tazer. The friggin thing is lethal to the human body.

A broken arm or cracked rib from a billy club certainly is better than having electricity sent through your body that can and will stop your heart. Worked great with the electric chair. Works great with tazers also.

[elite_hunter_sh3]

bean bag shotgun... non lethal unless shot at the gonads region

[Skybird]

You guys see it all wriong. It's the war on terror age of time - what we really need is gigawatt-tazers, you see.

[Oberon]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7198742.stm

Just saw this on the local news.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Kapitan_Phillips

To be replaced with what?

With sane cops maybe?:hmm:

[U49]

Originally Posted by Dowly

With sane cops maybe?:hmm:

Why not try something new :hmm:
Yes, sounds like a good idea...

But it doesn't sound like a high probability that it will happen...
"Less muscels - more brains" is an idea that has never survived a politician who wants to prove something...

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Kapitan_Phillips

Would one of those extreme cases include someone who was resisting arrest yet was much bigger in stature than the officer in question? Its not as simple as just pouncing in there and having a scuffle, who knows what anyone could be carrying on them and what might be going through their minds.

Not co-operating with an officer automatically sets off alarm bells in his/her head - why are they so anxious not to leave the vehicle, why do they refuse simple orders, why do they not put their hands on the wheel. Its more complicated than saying "Its killed people, make it hard to access". Its probably saved more lives than its ever taken.

I agree with this, if people would simply comply with the peace officer, most of this, if not all, could be avoided. The reality is, we need police, they have a job to do, and if someone feels he is being wrongly arrested or detained, in this country, he should tell the judge. I cannot imagine why police officers have to be compelled to scuffle with people physically in order to detain them. I certainly would have none of that if I was a cop.

I would opt for tranqulizer dart guns, but surely some people would end up dead from this to, from some kind of allegric reaction or something. Just follow the officer's instructions, that would work.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Here's an interesting site I go to:

www.realpolice.net

You can talk to real cops.

[AVGWarhawk]

The deal with a tranq gun would not work. Doesn't the weight of the receiver come into play with the amount of actual tranquilzer used? In other words, enough juice to sedate a 200# man but use it on a 100# man. He might get the permenant sleep.

[TteFAboB]

Simplify it people:



Just make sure to tell the robber to pretend that he's stuck and pretend that he fell to the ground because of it.

[sonar732]

I remember a while back a thread being posted regarding a student refusing to leave the library from his college. After multiple attempts of the college security officers telling him to leave, they finally gave him a shot from their tazer. He still didn't leave and they shot him again.

It all comes back to if someone had a complaint of why they were being singled out, they can have their day in court and then sue the police department. Now, they wait until they resist arrest, get hit a few times by the officer, and cry wolf sueing the department.

Please don't think that I'm writting a blank check for all officers as I've seen video of some guys who do comply with the officer and get hit anyway. It's something that I've grown up knowing....it's always one bad apple that ruins it for everyone.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by TteFAboB

Simplify it people:



Just make sure to tell the robber to pretend that he's stuck and pretend that he fell to the ground because of it.

Now, if we could just electrify the net....then we got something

[clayp]

Originally Posted by CCIP

That's an understatement if I've ever seen one

Seriously, the question shouldn't be "replaced with what" - the question is of replacing the "philosophy" of using it. Right now all these scandals coming out are cases where it was used as a supposedly non-lethal device. It's not a non-lethal device. It's maybe a slightly-less-lethal device than a gun, although some have argued that shooting people without aiming for vital areas might actually be safer... And since when are police officers chosen from a pool of wussies who can't go in and wrestle an unarmed person to the ground? Afraid to get their feathers ruffled now are they?

Taser use needs to be severely restricted, and the approach to it needs to be as to a very dangerous, harmful weapon that should be used not to enforce cooperation, but to incapacitate people who present an immediate and serious threat.

The problem is people who dont have any idea what its like to be in a Policemans shoes at the moment something goes down and you only have seconds to react,I DO...The most biggest problem is the NEWS MEDIA!!!! They blow everything up...

[silentrunner]

Officers need better training when used corectly the taser can be an efficient and safe tool. When used incorectly due to insufficiant training the taser can be almost as dengrous as a firearm. My father (who is a police officer) claims that every time he has used a taser it ends any situation without harm to the suspect of (most importantly) the officer.