Taser instruction
A police officer reader gives us the skinny on Tasers here. Worth the read.
And takes me to task for being anti-LEO. Which I am not. I do, however, frequently criticize their techniques and judgment. And I simply think Tasers are overused and are often used when unnecessary (some times with deadly consequences). That’s not being anti-LEO.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Failure to idolize is the same as being anti-LEO according to most LEOs
June 15th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Sorta why I said…as somebody who works with LEOs and has LEOs in the immediate family, I really find it annoying when idiots insist that pointing to a cop doing something stupid or wrong means “you’re anti cop!!!”.
It’s fucking stupid.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I’m not anti-cop, I just don’t think they’re special.
Which, to some cops, makes me anti-cop.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
But, but, but….they have BADGES that are shiny…..and can ignore our inalienable rights…..you mean they are just flesh and blood citizens just like us….
I sure wish they would start actng like it.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
The first people to correct LEO mistakes, offenses and even criminality should be the LEOs themselves. But it isn’t. They back the blue behind a wall of brotherhood and silence.
In the long run, this will work but the rest of us will be slaves to the state.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I must agree with other comments on the previous post that Tanner’s response was quite condescending; he said nothing more than there will be an investigation and a short description of how a taser functions and that he took a 16 hour class which verifies his comments on this subject. That is all acceptable use of the comment box, yet it doesn’t advance the topic of moral justification of taser use. In previous topics I have explained that tasers cannot be used on targets which present a dangerous physical threat to officers. Americans are fed up with the bureaucratic answer of merely hiding behind regulations and solely repeating those byzantine edicts when their moral legitimacy is questioned.
Secondly, shall I take solace in the fact that a government employee who ended the life of a civilian (I am not connoting guilt) will be investigated by another government employee who has probably done the same job and has been employed longer by the gov, lets set aside the strong camaraderie, of which both are supervised by another longer serving government employee, all within the same department. If there is an objection to the findings of this investigation, an appeal must be made to yet another lifetime-paid government employee whom is supposedly unbiased. Even disregard that all these actors within the investigation have been trained their whole careers to follow government guidelines so reports are easily accepted, as well as the fact that there is little to no repercussions for errors made and the strength of an investigation to be impartial loses merit in my mind.
I must remain skeptical on taser use upon citizenry until that use is proven ethically correct and effective.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
I second the “failure to idolize” comment above.
I frequently post about cops getting up to no good. Imagine what they think of me. Of course coming from Chicago, I don’t have any feeling that cops are always on the up and up. (Anybody recognize the name Jon Burge? How about The Midnight Crew from Area Two?)
Once upon a time, but not that long ago really, in a land not so far away on the shores of the Great Lakes, you could bribe your way out of any traffic ticket for a very small amount of cash. (They made it up in volume. Not that I ever did… I was too young at the time.)
I have also seen cops do despicable things, like let gay bashers go and arrest the guy bleeding on the sidewalk when he and his friends complain. How many cops hated gays 10 years ago? 20 years ago? 25 years ago? A lot still hate gays today. (It is how they prove how *manly* they are.)
Are most LEOs good folks? I don’t know. Some of them are. Some of them are not. I don’t give them the benefit of the doubt.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:16 am
I responded to the previous post about my comment that Uncle made several “anti-LEO” posts. I agreed that I was being defensive and apologized.
But then I come here and am astounded by all the sheer hypocrisy. Cops who are not supposed to be discriminatory and who are supposed to judge each person individually according to the letter of the law are all just lumped into a heaping pile of “all cops are assholes”.
Maybe I just read the comments of Uncle’s posts before and that was where I got the anti-LEO sentiment from.
Sebastian-PGP
(This is solely addressed to Sebastian-PGP’s comments, this isn’t my opinion of Uncle’s original post.)
You know what I think is “fucking stupid?” Pointing out something you thought was “stupid or wrong” with no evidence other than a newspaper article. Painting a critical incident with a wide brush, and condemning the officers actions with little evidence or knowledge on the matter.
My point was, “don’t to jump to conclusions based on guesses and misinformation,” not “all cops are perfect and don’t you dare say otherwise.”