Convenience
It is legally permissible for police to zap a suspect with a Taser to obtain a DNA sample, as long as it’s not done “maliciously, or to an excessive extent, or with resulting injury,” a county judge has ruled in the first case of its kind in New York State, and possibly the nation.
I have always been of the opinion that the only time for using a Taser is when deadly force is justified.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Isn’t that a bit like saying, torture is okay for obtaining information as long as those doing the torture treatment are not angry and only wish to improve life for everyone else? Sorry, line of thought would put human rights back into the Dark Ages.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Tazers are only a pain compliance tool to speed up compliance because the suspect must be totally non-combative and docile for the taser to be effective. Next time you see a taser video, you will see that the target is totally under control of the officers, be it if they are just standing there or on their faces with a knee in their back. Tasers are not effective if the the target has any sort of weapon, is physically combating the officer, is running away, or able to quickly access a weapon. Basically tasers cannot be used when an officer is in danger of bodily injury.
Tasers are a torture device. Good thing the only ones and other gestapo wanna-bes have them to use on the defenseless.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:43 am
I agree with HardCorps. There’s a variation of the taser which is a belt they put on prisoners when transporting them, remote-controlled. Along with with a chain around the waist with handcuffs behind the back and leg shackles.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Unfortunately, Tasers went from being a Less Lethal alternative to a baton or firearm to an “I don’t like your attitude” device. I agree that any proper continuum of force polcy would not allow the use of Tasers in any situation where firing a gun would not be justified.
June 4th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Sometimes you just have to shock the cattle. What do you think we are, citizens?
June 4th, 2009 at 11:15 am
“I have always been of the opinion that the only time for using a Taser is when deadly force is justified”.
“Tasers are a torture device”.
Both of these statments are wrong.
They should only be used to keep the situation from escalating to a point that both the officer or the subject may be injured. Not to speed up compliance but for the officer to gain control.
However as we know everyone does not always follow the policy’s set by the departments. Each department must have a written policy for use of force and I bet you will never see it written anywhere to use it to speed up compliance or to torture. This may be your opinion and I am not saying it does not happen but that is not the purpose of a tazer.
June 4th, 2009 at 11:23 am
not done “maliciously,
I’ve never minded being tased as long as the cop had a smile on his face.
June 4th, 2009 at 11:44 am
One more reason to avoid visiting New York.
June 4th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Tasers are a torture device in that they are primarily deployed to perform electronic torture, and are rarely used as an alternative to lethal force. If batons were used primarily for sodomy and rarely to defend the officer, I would call them a sodomy device.
June 4th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Government is never granted a power it doesn’t abuse.
June 4th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
A report from a meeting of the United Nation Committee against Torture states that “The Committee was worried that the use of Taser weapons, provoking extreme pain, constituted a form of torture.
Tasers may also not leave the telltale markings that a conventional beating might. The American Civil Liberties Union has also raised concerns about their use.
Well I guess I was wrong.
These two fine organization could not possibly be wrong.
June 4th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I think you can do it as long as you are a big tough cop, and the tazee is a 72 year old grandmom…
http://www.examiner.com/x-536-Civil-Liberties-Examiner~y2009m6d2-Texas-cop-Tasers-greatgrandmother
June 4th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Sorry, but tossing out the United Nations and ACLU to discredit the fact that Tasers are a torture device doesn’t work. If I point out that Obama has said AFTER Heller that he believes that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right, does that make that fact any less real? Using pain, whether it’s pulling fingernails, smashing toes with a ball peen hammer, breaking limbs or electro-shock, to get someone to do what you want is torture.
June 4th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I agree with Dad. The deadly force standard is way too high – if deadly force is justified, you’d better believe I’m going to have a gun out. The taser is just a way to quickly gain control of a subject with minimal injury to all involved parties. I’d rather be tazed (and have been) than knocked down with a baton.
This article you’re citing though, is weird. Why wouldn’t you just use several people and put them in an Emergency Restraint Chair? Hopefully this case will be an isolated event. I just don’t think you can guarantee a drive stun (which is pain compliance) would even work for most people in this situation.
June 4th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I was not throwing the UN or the ACLU out there, I was posting some of their views. You can take it any way you want. Tasers are issued to police as a tool and yes some misuse it while many others use it as it was intended. To say police use it as a torture device is a disservice to many fine men and woman trying to do their job for little pay and to be discredit by the same ones they are trying to protect, I find those kinds of statements absurd.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
When the “good” cops turn in and bust the “bad” cops then they will cease to be lumped in with “bad” cops, and might get the respect they think they deserve. By protecting the brotherhood and protecting scumbags behind the blue curtain they are complicit in the corruption and abuse. Stop the whole Us vs. Them mentality, and hold the police to at least the same standard as all the other citizens. Someday the Us vs. Them mentality will backfire on them and they will cry the loudest. I’m tired of the badge worshipping. Using electricity to make someone do what you want them to do IS torture.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Using pain, … to get someone to do what you want is torture.
So when I use the pain of beating someone with a baseball bat to get them to stop attacking me (which would qualify as what I want) is torture?
The “why” is just as important as the “what”.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I’ll give you that the “why” is just as important as the “what” but I take affront to someone who MAY see me, my wife, my mom, you, dad, or anyone they come upon as the “enemy” and a lesser class than themselves, being given the final descision. And I know that “there are only a few bad apples” but like I said, when the good apples start to point out the bad apples and take them down, they are all in the same bushell.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
few bad apples my ass, good men do not stand silent when they should speak. that would seem to make the very great majority rotten Granny Smiths.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Tazer use is what I call, “Electrocution without Prosecution”. There is no one who can tell ahead of use whether using a Tazer will kill someone. This is scarry to anyone who values life. ER doctors and nurses cannot tell if a person will die from a tazering. They may have an undiagnosed Hyperthyroid condition, a pacemaker, a heart or lung condition, a very high blood pressure leading to a stroke or aneurysn during a tazering. Many have died post tazering already and it is easy to attribute the death to something else. We will never know how many have already been killed. You must remember those being tazered have not been tried or found guilty of a crime yet. It is definitely unconstitutional. Just to suffer the indignity of pooping and peeing your pants in public is demeaning and torture to most people.
I suggest the excuse that the suspect was thought to be “drugged-up” on PCP or speed etc is contrary to the use of tazers. Their heart rate is already dangerously fast and the tazer could induce a heart attack. Where is our respect for life???? Police should have longer training and in use of NON-LETHAL force. I would rather have my leg shot than take a chance on dying while being Tazered.
It will save energy on laundry also.
You are presumed innocent UNTIL prooved guilty. Just because there are no bullets to trace is not a good reason to allow their use.
How can we ask a policeman to live with the wrongful death of a person tazed, when he had no way to know the consequences of his actions.
I’m sure the numbers of injuries from tazers are not reported honestly.
Keep up the good work here, I’m saying “Uncle” right now. I don’t think it is a battle we can fight. Let’s allow babies to play with them…..
Barb
June 6th, 2009 at 1:11 am
You can’t tell whether someone will die when a two foot steel rod is vigorously used to subdue them either. But I can confidently predict that the average outcome of being beaten to the ground by a baton or shot in the chest is much more severe injury than that of people who are tased.
http://www.jems.com/news_and_articles/columns/Wesley/how_common_is_death_from_agitated_delirium.html