Full Version: Police expand use of Taser
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > Foreign Policy and National Defense > Foreign Policy & National Defense Issues Archive
QUOTE
Officers used Tasers repeatedly last year as compliance tools, to avoid chases and physical confrontations. The officers shocked people who made threatening gestures, tried to run away or would not follow commands to raise hands, turn around or lie on the ground.
That is the purpose of them. Can we all say duh? Or do you subcribe that my job description is to stand there and let the bad guy attack me? And the one who ran away...people will complain if he is shot with the Taser, but would also complain if he wasn't and went down the street and killed someone. The best we can do in law enforcement is take the public's critisism about how we make sure we go home to our families and accept its a no win situation. I guess we could just go back to killing them all instead of using Tasers or Pepper spray. But we would come under public fire for that too.
And the article from the New York Times?....please. Give me a break. 50 people dead. No, it was eight as stated in the first article. And their info is out dated. 7 of those have shown the suspect would have died anyway from the drugs they had overdosed on, and the 8th had a pace maker that police had no way of knowing about. But that's typical from the NYT. They have always been anti-police.
And before anyone says there are other ways of handling these types of calls and people...unless you have logged a few years in the street at night being shot at just because you wear a uniform, trying to protect others who wouldn't give you the time of day, all for less money than teachers make then you assume too much.
I agree that tasers are a valid tool, but the Phoenix PD has some really bad history with use of force and harrassment with very little legal restraint (a case I recall was at least manslaughter and the officers were found not guilty, they dragged a man who had been strangled across a parking lot and refused to allow EMTs access for over 15 minutes).
QUOTE
Police expand use of Taser
good.
Authorities review actions of S.C. officer who used stun gun on 75-year-old woman
Police were reviewing whether it was proper for an officer to use a stun gun on a 75-year-old woman who refused to leave a nursing home where she'd gone to visit an ailing friend.
Margaret Kimbrell acknowledged she was distraught after unsuccessfully trying to visit a friend at the home Friday but the officer "didn't have to do that. I didn't deserve this."
A police report said the woman tried to hit the officer.
Kimbrell said she became agitated when the staff would not tell her where her friend was, fearing he had died. The man was taking a walk at the time.
Police charged Kimbrell with trespassing and resisting arrest. Officer Hattie Macon, who joined the department about 18 months ago, remains on duty during the investigation.
"On face value, it looks like it was" proper, police Chief John Gregory said. "We have a person who was asked to leave, who refused and who attempted to assault the officer."
The nursing home staff called police after Kimbrell refused to leave. Police said Macon fired the taser, striking Kimbrell in the back and forcing her to the ground.
"I thought I was dying," Kimbrell said. "I didn't want to hurt her and I can't believe she would hurt me."
A taser shoots small probes into a person's body, sending 50,000 volts of electricity into the person for five seconds.
Kimbrell said she bruised her leg when she fell, but the police report said neither the officer nor Kimbrell were injured.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1813EDT0737.DTL
So, instead of using common sense and persuasion with an elderly woman, do you really believe it is acceptable to use a taser in this case? I don't approve of it at all. It quite clearly shows how lacking in proper training police are when they use a taser on an elderly woman.
Police were reviewing whether it was proper for an officer to use a stun gun on a 75-year-old woman who refused to leave a nursing home where she'd gone to visit an ailing friend.
Margaret Kimbrell acknowledged she was distraught after unsuccessfully trying to visit a friend at the home Friday but the officer "didn't have to do that. I didn't deserve this."
A police report said the woman tried to hit the officer.
Kimbrell said she became agitated when the staff would not tell her where her friend was, fearing he had died. The man was taking a walk at the time.
Police charged Kimbrell with trespassing and resisting arrest. Officer Hattie Macon, who joined the department about 18 months ago, remains on duty during the investigation.
"On face value, it looks like it was" proper, police Chief John Gregory said. "We have a person who was asked to leave, who refused and who attempted to assault the officer."
The nursing home staff called police after Kimbrell refused to leave. Police said Macon fired the taser, striking Kimbrell in the back and forcing her to the ground.
"I thought I was dying," Kimbrell said. "I didn't want to hurt her and I can't believe she would hurt me."
A taser shoots small probes into a person's body, sending 50,000 volts of electricity into the person for five seconds.
Kimbrell said she bruised her leg when she fell, but the police report said neither the officer nor Kimbrell were injured.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1813EDT0737.DTL
So, instead of using common sense and persuasion with an elderly woman, do you really believe it is acceptable to use a taser in this case? I don't approve of it at all. It quite clearly shows how lacking in proper training police are when they use a taser on an elderly woman.
You are always going to find isolated examples of misuse of power, but the great preponderance of the evidence shows that the tazer is one of the safest and effective compliance tools to come along in some time.
QUOTE(karo @ Nov 13 2004, 01:58 PM)
Authorities review actions of S.C. officer who used stun gun on 75-year-old woman
Police were reviewing whether it was proper for an officer to use a stun gun on a 75-year-old woman who refused to leave a nursing home where she'd gone to visit an ailing friend.
Margaret Kimbrell acknowledged she was distraught after unsuccessfully trying to visit a friend at the home Friday but the officer "didn't have to do that. I didn't deserve this."
A police report said the woman tried to hit the officer.
Kimbrell said she became agitated when the staff would not tell her where her friend was, fearing he had died. The man was taking a walk at the time.
Police charged Kimbrell with trespassing and resisting arrest. Officer Hattie Macon, who joined the department about 18 months ago, remains on duty during the investigation.
"On face value, it looks like it was" proper, police Chief John Gregory said. "We have a person who was asked to leave, who refused and who attempted to assault the officer."
The nursing home staff called police after Kimbrell refused to leave. Police said Macon fired the taser, striking Kimbrell in the back and forcing her to the ground.
"I thought I was dying," Kimbrell said. "I didn't want to hurt her and I can't believe she would hurt me."
A taser shoots small probes into a person's body, sending 50,000 volts of electricity into the person for five seconds.
Kimbrell said she bruised her leg when she fell, but the police report said neither the officer nor Kimbrell were injured.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1813EDT0737.DTL
So, instead of using common sense and persuasion with an elderly woman, do you really believe it is acceptable to use a taser in this case? I don't approve of it at all. It quite clearly shows how lacking in proper training police are when they use a taser on an elderly woman.
Police were reviewing whether it was proper for an officer to use a stun gun on a 75-year-old woman who refused to leave a nursing home where she'd gone to visit an ailing friend.
Margaret Kimbrell acknowledged she was distraught after unsuccessfully trying to visit a friend at the home Friday but the officer "didn't have to do that. I didn't deserve this."
A police report said the woman tried to hit the officer.
Kimbrell said she became agitated when the staff would not tell her where her friend was, fearing he had died. The man was taking a walk at the time.
Police charged Kimbrell with trespassing and resisting arrest. Officer Hattie Macon, who joined the department about 18 months ago, remains on duty during the investigation.
"On face value, it looks like it was" proper, police Chief John Gregory said. "We have a person who was asked to leave, who refused and who attempted to assault the officer."
The nursing home staff called police after Kimbrell refused to leave. Police said Macon fired the taser, striking Kimbrell in the back and forcing her to the ground.
"I thought I was dying," Kimbrell said. "I didn't want to hurt her and I can't believe she would hurt me."
A taser shoots small probes into a person's body, sending 50,000 volts of electricity into the person for five seconds.
Kimbrell said she bruised her leg when she fell, but the police report said neither the officer nor Kimbrell were injured.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1813EDT0737.DTL
So, instead of using common sense and persuasion with an elderly woman, do you really believe it is acceptable to use a taser in this case? I don't approve of it at all. It quite clearly shows how lacking in proper training police are when they use a taser on an elderly woman.
When I first saw this story I thought hopefully this is an isolated occurrance.
Then I heard something about a policemam tasering a six year old kid, another instance of a 12 year old girl, and someone getting killed by a taser for something very minor.
I know a lot of the smaller departments only get trained OJT, seems like this ought to require a fairly rigorous formal training since several abuse cases have come up so quick.
QUOTE(Frenchy @ Nov 28 2004, 04:50 AM)
You are always going to find isolated examples of misuse of power, but the great preponderance of the evidence shows that the tazer is one of the safest and effective compliance tools to come along in some time.
Ya...I know that Frenchy. This one I found so disgusting. Can you imagine?
"Greater Boston", a nightly news magazine on WGBH hosted by Emily Rooney (Andy's daughter) discussed the Red Sox fan who was killed in the celebration after game 7. The crowd was not rioting. Some college kids were up lamp posts and climbing buildings, big deal.
But here's the rub.
They say the Boston PD got the tazers as part of the security for the summer's DNC convention.
Another victim of 9/11.
But here's the rub.
They say the Boston PD got the tazers as part of the security for the summer's DNC convention.
Another victim of 9/11.
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