I read an article about a man that was tasered so severely that he had a massive coronary and lost all but a fraction of his heart muscle. Doctors cited his ejection fraction at 10% or less and couldn’t estimate how long he might live.
Prior to being tasered for over 65 seconds straight, as well as receiving 10 taser shocks in under 2 minutes the guy was a healthy working-class adult.
Now, before I go any further let me assure you that I am not someone crying over a person getting hit with a taser. The police have a very dangerous job, and we empower them to use force I order to constrain criminals and protect themselves. And let’s face it, most criminals won’t simply stop and cease whatever it is they are doing because you ask them nicely.
This guy had a drug problem and had just made a drug purchase when he got nailed by the police for a traffic violation. In the ensuing stop he resisted arrest and got tasered.
I’ve not yet read any incident where the “victim” complied completely and still got tasered or beat. It’s probably happened, but most of the articles I’ve read are simply this:
Failure to comply with the officers
*And*
An excessive use of force (i.e. the taser).
Aside from ignoring the matter the police only have a few options when enforcing the law and / or detaining potential criminals:
Asking them to comply (i.e. stop!)
Physical confrontation and contact without weapons
Physical confrontation and contact with a club
Confrontation with pepper spray
Confrontation with a taser
Confrontation with a gun
A gun is clearly and definitively a deadly weapon. Pepper spray has been shown not to even affect some people at all, or at the very least not provide enough stopping force to ensure the safety of the officers.
Tasers, somehow, seem to be the best choice. They provide stopping power and limit the distance the office must be from the suspect. But somehow, we’ve gone wrong. I think part of the problem is that the potential long-term effects of tasers are just being realized. It was assumed that tasering someone didn’t really do any irreparable harm, but apparently there are plenty of medical cases citing otherwise.
Due to this assumption the officers have apparently taken this to mean it’s OK to just taser someone whenever they don’t immediately comply with the officers request. Clearly we have a lot of cases where the immediate repercussions of one’s actions is far more severe than the infraction.
Last year, the Fort Worth police department reported five deaths from tasers. That’s reported and proven and doesn’t account for any unreported deaths or other injuries that may have been linked to tasers but wasn’t proven.
While I don’t believe we should take tasers away from police officers I do think there should be a general policy review of how and when to use a taser. Maybe it would help improve public relations and prevent some unnecessary harm to citizens.
And let me flip that coin over for a moment – when a cop asks you to stop, or get on the ground, or sit still just do it. And then there won’t be a reason to use ANY force on you.
Prior to being tasered for over 65 seconds straight, as well as receiving 10 taser shocks in under 2 minutes the guy was a healthy working-class adult.
Now, before I go any further let me assure you that I am not someone crying over a person getting hit with a taser. The police have a very dangerous job, and we empower them to use force I order to constrain criminals and protect themselves. And let’s face it, most criminals won’t simply stop and cease whatever it is they are doing because you ask them nicely.
This guy had a drug problem and had just made a drug purchase when he got nailed by the police for a traffic violation. In the ensuing stop he resisted arrest and got tasered.
I’ve not yet read any incident where the “victim” complied completely and still got tasered or beat. It’s probably happened, but most of the articles I’ve read are simply this:
Failure to comply with the officers
*And*
An excessive use of force (i.e. the taser).
Aside from ignoring the matter the police only have a few options when enforcing the law and / or detaining potential criminals:
Asking them to comply (i.e. stop!)
Physical confrontation and contact without weapons
Physical confrontation and contact with a club
Confrontation with pepper spray
Confrontation with a taser
Confrontation with a gun
A gun is clearly and definitively a deadly weapon. Pepper spray has been shown not to even affect some people at all, or at the very least not provide enough stopping force to ensure the safety of the officers.
Tasers, somehow, seem to be the best choice. They provide stopping power and limit the distance the office must be from the suspect. But somehow, we’ve gone wrong. I think part of the problem is that the potential long-term effects of tasers are just being realized. It was assumed that tasering someone didn’t really do any irreparable harm, but apparently there are plenty of medical cases citing otherwise.
Due to this assumption the officers have apparently taken this to mean it’s OK to just taser someone whenever they don’t immediately comply with the officers request. Clearly we have a lot of cases where the immediate repercussions of one’s actions is far more severe than the infraction.
Last year, the Fort Worth police department reported five deaths from tasers. That’s reported and proven and doesn’t account for any unreported deaths or other injuries that may have been linked to tasers but wasn’t proven.
While I don’t believe we should take tasers away from police officers I do think there should be a general policy review of how and when to use a taser. Maybe it would help improve public relations and prevent some unnecessary harm to citizens.
And let me flip that coin over for a moment – when a cop asks you to stop, or get on the ground, or sit still just do it. And then there won’t be a reason to use ANY force on you.
1 comment:
An ejection fraction of only 10% is serious business, and death from congestive heart failure is likely. It takes about 30% to be able to function more or less normally. Most healthy people have an ejection fraction of 65% or more.
Post a Comment