LEO Uses a Taser

[Boomboy007]

I think the police sometimes use the Taser too freely or not when warranted, but I am glad it's an option.

I agree with Tex. It should be an option of (next to) last resort. I believe that it is justifiable to use one defensively. However, to use one offensively as a tool of compliance is risky and wrong.

We all want law and order....except to us. Not fallowing the lawful ORDER of a LEO is against the law. Somewhere in this poor ignorant womens life she got the idea that she was empowered and above the law. I love Tasers and I will Taser someone over getting into a physical altercation where I may get hurt every time.

LEO was very justified in use of Taser. She was in a passive state of not wanting to be arrested and the time had come to make the arrest. Had he layed hands on her she would have stuck back at him or ran away from him or into her vehicle. She was not complying with his order so he was very justified. He could have maced her,too. But then you have to decontaminate your suspect and you usually get some of it on you.

I understand your point, Marcus, but I think that there is a vast gulf between active and passive resistance. Obviously this woman was a wack job. She was ignoring his lawful directions. However, I do not believe in drawing a Taser in a situation where there is passive resistance. It should not be a tool that can be used to make someone do something (like getting up), just stop doing something, like attacking an officer.

[Cooter]

I've heard of some rare Taser deaths, but not "thousands". Do you have any proof of this? I think the police sometimes use the Taser too freely or not when warranted, but I am glad it's an option.

You are right, I had my figures mixed up. It is more like 400 deaths, and approximately an additional 1000 heart related deaths after being tasered. The real problem is people see them as non-lethal, but they are in fact occasionally lethal.
Our bodies are systems of electro-chemical reactions. When you introduce a high voltage current into that system, sometimes it fails. There are other methods of "behavior modification" that are much less dangerous. I think pepper spray is a better alternative to Tasers.

[Landavazoaj]

Hey guys, I thought it important to point out that Tasers are NOT NON LETHAL they are LESS-THAN-LETHAL which means they are not intended to be lethal. Same way "rubber bullets" are less than lethal...they're not supposed to be lethal BUT the rubber bullet may cause internal bleeding leading to death, etc...

[Landavazoaj]

Oh, and the officer was very patient- personally I beleive that pepper spray would have been the way to go...complications from pepper spray are less than those that COULD be suffered from Taser use.

[wuzfuz]

To Cooter and others who speak agaisnt the Taser, I have one question. Have you ever been in the situation of beig a police officer and needing to use it? When I was on the job, we had no Tasers. Ww had a side handle baton and a can of pepper spray. I have seen many instances of pepper spray totally having no effect whatsoever on a subject, and the feeling you might as well be spraying them with a squirt gun. The side handle baton requires considerable training and use of martial arts stchniques. This was demonstrated by the video of the rodny King incident. The officers in that incident were not using the batons effectivey. Mr. King ripped the probes for a Taser out, and I don't think the second shot hit him with both probes. Accorddinng to the news article featuring the spokesperson for Amnesty Intl stated 286 deaths, there are not a thousand heart related deaths after using the Taser. The officer was far more patient than I, and the use of the Taser was proper. She was not seriously injured, as evidenced by her babbling about a lawsuit. In this country, anyone may sue anyone else. I don't think she would ever prevail, especialy if the jury sees this tape.

[sav10le_308]

Its Buger King and she got it her way. I'll bet there will smoke coming off her ***** next time shes asked for DL & Reg.

As far as Taser vs OC in this case. If she had been sprayed I imagine she would have become more aggresive and there would have been a higher risk, for both, of one of them being injured while subduiing her.

[Glockster20]

The officer was very professional and courteous and showed tremendous patience! Here you have a an unruly subject that defiantly disobeyed repeated commands from the officer. I thought he showed plenty of restraint... when it was time to put the cuffs on she began to fight. He correctly deployed non lethal force. And notice after the tasing, he was very polite and went out of his way to make sure she had all of her belongings sqaured away.

[{TEX}Hawaii((]

You are right, I had my figures mixed up. It is more like 400 deaths, and approximately an additional 1000 heart related deaths after being tasered. The real problem is people see them as non-lethal, but they are in fact occasionally lethal.

Again, where are you getting these bogus "facts" from? I think it's already been said, but Tasers are not "non-lethal" they are "less-lethal".

[rrc1962]

I think pepper spray is a better alternative to Tasers.

Each have different uses. Pepper spray is not all that effective unless you are close range and even then some people will not be as affected as others. I see the Taser as a less lethal alternative to a gun. If the situation does not warrant drawing a gun, I wouldn't draw the Taser either. I'm not a cop and it's not my job to arrest. If the BG stops and leaves the scene, I'm happy. Now if it turns into a life threatening situation for me, I may use the Taser instead of my gun.

More than one cop has said that the biggest baddest BG's they've seen who would stare down the barrel or a 45 will drop to their knees when they see a Taser.

If you shoot a BG with a Taser and he dies and it goes to court, it would be pretty clear that by using the Taser you did not intend to kill him. If you shoot him with a gun, that's a bit harder to prove.

[Boomboy007]

To Cooter and others who speak agaisnt the Taser, I have one question. Have you ever been in the situation of beig a police officer and needing to use it?

Well, not only have I used one defensively, I have also been shocked TWICE!
Once during certification, and then once when a BG moved and my partner shot me instead. It friggin HURTS!

I will say again that, used instead of a firearm, Tazer use is a fantastic alternative to a firearm. The few times I have used one is when there were multiple BG's and I was waiting for backup, once with a knife wielder, and a few times on big guys who were attempting to attack me (I warned them first). I do think that, given any other option besides a firearm, these devices belong on the belt.

I had fellow officers who used them weekly. Net result was that one of them lost his to the chief, while the other two had cameras put on their units. Their subsequent use went WAY down.

The officer was very professional and courteous and showed tremendous patience! Here you have a an unruly subject that defiantly disobeyed repeated commands from the officer. I thought he showed plenty of restraint... when it was time to put the cuffs on she began to fight. He correctly deployed non lethal force. And notice after the tasing, he was very polite and went out of his way to make sure she had all of her belongings sqaured away.

I will agree that he was very patient and polite. This guy is definitely not a "police thug" in any way. In fact, I think that he was TOO nice, in that he let her argue for too long. After a minute or two, I would have called for backup, and then pushed the issue after another officer had arrived.