I’m not a big fan of punitive lawsuits, but in this case I can live with it. Taser has sold a less-lethal weapon as a non-lethal weapon, and their PR releases and training have encouraged police to use tasers as a compliance tool rather than a disabling weapon.
LawDog had a good post about this if anyone missed it.
It seems that every time the cops get a new “gee-whiz” tool, some lawyer shoots it down.
As a retired cop, I don’t feel bad about this, either. Patrol officers must now carry two weapons strapped to their sides, and it not only looks stupid, it IS stupid.
When I came into police work in ’73, all officers had to be able to end the resistance of a LARGER person with body strength or martial arts. I’m not large, while working, was in the mid 170’s and had average reach. I learned by practicing with the biggest trainee in class, and was confident enough to take down much larger folks plenty of times.
When the scores are added up, I’ll wager that physical strength and unarmed combat familiarity can make more resisted arrests happen with less damage to the arrested than any combination of “less-lethal” or “non-lethal” weaponry.
Folks, I’m going to utter a non-correct word here: Just as the FBI abandoned 10mm, the most powerful pistol caliber normally available, because the distaff agents couldn’t handle it, so have all these “miracle” weapons come to use because of women cops.
But, given that 90% of police chiefs are politically liberal, the “dumbing-down” of arrest procedure is as reasonable as dumbing down our educational system so even Little Johnny Dufus can ride home on the Short Bus playing with all his “A-graded” schoolwork.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:39 am
“excited delirium”
Is this poltergeist?
June 10th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I can’t wait to see taser’s defense when one of the shotguns or claymores they developed goes horribly wrong. And they will.
June 10th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Yeah, sure, the cops did not know that shooting 50,000 volts through someone’s body could cause cardiac arrest.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I’m not a big fan of punitive lawsuits, but in this case I can live with it. Taser has sold a less-lethal weapon as a non-lethal weapon, and their PR releases and training have encouraged police to use tasers as a compliance tool rather than a disabling weapon.
LawDog had a good post about this if anyone missed it.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
My mistake, I failed to master the link function. I’ll just cut and paste.
http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2006/11/meditations-on-police-brutality.html
June 11th, 2008 at 12:36 am
It seems that every time the cops get a new “gee-whiz” tool, some lawyer shoots it down.
As a retired cop, I don’t feel bad about this, either. Patrol officers must now carry two weapons strapped to their sides, and it not only looks stupid, it IS stupid.
When I came into police work in ’73, all officers had to be able to end the resistance of a LARGER person with body strength or martial arts. I’m not large, while working, was in the mid 170’s and had average reach. I learned by practicing with the biggest trainee in class, and was confident enough to take down much larger folks plenty of times.
When the scores are added up, I’ll wager that physical strength and unarmed combat familiarity can make more resisted arrests happen with less damage to the arrested than any combination of “less-lethal” or “non-lethal” weaponry.
Folks, I’m going to utter a non-correct word here: Just as the FBI abandoned 10mm, the most powerful pistol caliber normally available, because the distaff agents couldn’t handle it, so have all these “miracle” weapons come to use because of women cops.
But, given that 90% of police chiefs are politically liberal, the “dumbing-down” of arrest procedure is as reasonable as dumbing down our educational system so even Little Johnny Dufus can ride home on the Short Bus playing with all his “A-graded” schoolwork.
We’re doomed.