Man dies after Taser shock by police at Vancouver airport.

[superkia]

I thought the tazers were supposed to be safer than the old tackle and subdue measures. How many people do you think will die from them before they stop using them?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/10/14/bc-taser.html

[AuntPatsy]

1. One a week it seems, perhaps more that we just do not hear about.

[hisownpetard]

2. Another good reason to stay away from airports.

[Catch22Dem]

3. In this case, what should they have done?

"an unidentified man began pounding on windows and throwing chairs and computer equipment in the customs area shortly after arriving on an international flight at 1:30 a.m."

I can tell you, I'd be nervous as hell and hoping there was a cop with a stun gun nearby.

[superkia]

4. The same thing they did before stun guns were in fashion and...

accepted, physically subdue him. Its getting crazy when citizens in our country are now afraid of someone that resembles a pissed off drunk that isn't being allowed to fly because hes drunk. Not saying that is why he was acting that way but its almost like we have been beaten up and terrorized by our own government, that we accept harsher ways of dealing with people. Hell, why not start shooting people in their lower extremities, at least that way you live. I have seen bar drunks acting crazy and the bouncers handled them without stun guns just like the police did in the past, I think I would rather be slammed to the ground or put in a strategic hold ( that all policemen and bouncers are taught )than stunned multiple times.

[cuke]

5. That would mean clubbing, and I don't mean a night on the town

It means a sound beating. Just like the bouncers do.

Clubs also kill, and almost always break bones. Choke holds killed many, which is why they are banned by most (all?) police depts.

[Catch22Dem]

6. Exactly! Had the cops done that instead, someone would be bitching about it

in another thread.

[cuke]

8. No, no one would be complaining

It wouldn't have made the news. Tasers make the news because they are new and scary. Tasers are the pit bulls of law enforcement

[superkia]

9. I like my life so I will take being thrown to the ground over killed.

Again, why not just shoot people in their lower extremities, that way they don't kill them. The stun guns are NOT like the pitbull situation, there has always been some police brutality but now we have accepted not just the use but the fact that it is so common to see someone getting tazed. There was a drunk lady on video that got stunned like 12 times instead of the officers just pinning her down after she was tazed and on the ground after the first one. Its just a new easy way for them to do their job at the citizens expense. A man in his 40's doesn't deserve to be found guilty and killed for disturbing the peace without even having a chance at a trial. This is a twisted way of thinking and if people are already accepting this, we are in trouble. Hopefully the same people that believe in it have a family member or friend die for a misdemeanor and maybe they will rethink whats happening. Americans are becoming very selfish and only worry about themselves, no wonder our government only worries about themselves, thats who we are as a people.

[cuke]

10. They don't just throw you on the ground.

They beat you. With a club. It killed some people. Others had brain damage, paralysis, internal injuries, broken bones, etc. And choke holds killed so many that they've been banned in many places.

"There was a drunk lady on video that got stunned like 12 times instead of the officers just pinning her down after she was tazed and on the ground after the first one. Its just a new easy way for them to do their job at the citizens expense. "

I do think that they are misused by some and that the use of tasers should be accompanied by more thourough training. I'd also add that all police officers should get far more extensive training on how to deal with the mentally ill, an issue close to my heart because my mother has Alzhiemer's. It's entirely possible that someday, my mother will pull a knife on a cop (if in her confusion she thought the cop was threatening her) and get herself shot. In such a situation, I prefer a taser over a gun or a club

"A man in his 40's doesn't deserve to be found guilty and killed for disturbing the peace without even having a chance at a trial."

The man wasn't found guilty and wasn't killed for disturbing the peace. The police used force to subdue a man who was a threat to himself and to others.

"Hopefully the same people that believe in it have a family member or friend die for a misdemeanor and maybe they will rethink whats happening. Americans are becoming very selfish and only worry about themselves, no wonder our government only worries about themselves, thats who we are as a people."

Should my mother ever pull a knife on a cop, I hope the cop has a taser instead of a gun. That may be selfish, but I'm not going to apologize for not wanting my mother shot or clubbed

[Catch22Dem]

12. You really hope that happens? A-fucking-mazing

"Hopefully the same people that believe in it have a family member or friend die for a misdemeanor and maybe they will rethink whats happening."

[superkia]

13. Of course not, its not the family members fault someone believes...

in the abuse of stun guns. I'm just trying to get the point of how selfish people can be when its not them. The problem with club beatings and stun guns are the abuse from our peace officers, they do not need more training. Beating people with clubs was never accepted, if you saw a video of someone being beaten over and over again there would be outrage but for some reason the stun guns that are deadly if abused have been welcomed by allot of people. People can look at videos of the overuse and say thats what they deserved?

I don't ever remember people defending peace officers beating people with clubs and some how the abuse of the stun gun is now an accepted form of citizen control that without a camera may not leave evidence that it was abuse. At least with a club beating you would have the bumps and bruises from the beating, now we accept a form of control that can be overused without the evidence of its abuse. Oh we stunned him, he was resisting, and if you don't die they can just say they stunned you once or maybe twice instead of 12 times. I think its dangerous to give someone an easier way to abuse people, including when it is something pumping that many volts.

Thats my take and I guess I just see things differently, maybe its because of the city I grew up in and the abuse of power that I have seen and been a part of myself. I want to be tried and convicted, not instantly convicted by an officers decision to zap the shit out of me for his own style of justice.

[cuke]

14. Not true

Tasering people over and over also gets people upset. The threads on DU prove this is true

And I support tasers, not because I'm selfish, but because I don't want to see my mother get shot by the police


And if you don't want to be tasered, I suggest you comply with the officers commands. If you object to any of them, tell it to your lawyer

[superkia]

16. In a perfect world that would be great but most people in the...

area I am from cant afford a lawyer, so if they are treated unjustly they have to just take it. When I was around 13 or 14 years old, I decided to make a bad decision and spray paint under a bridge, when the police came I made the mistake of running. When I saw another police car I stopped where I was at and waited for them to approach me, they decided they would teach me a lesson by slamming face first to the ground and then put handcuffs on me as tight as they would go and then pick me up by them. I never resisted at all, I was scared shitless and waited for the car to stop right beside me, no resistance, only compliance. I guess they were pissed and knew as a kid I probably wouldn't get into trouble so they treated me the way they did for their own style of justice and I didn't understand because I never thought that an officer would attack me in this way as a young teenager.

When we went to the juvenile office a week later, the first thing out of their mouth was, wow are those cuts and bruises from handcuffs ( because the marks were still there a week later and still sore ) my mother offered to either have me pay for the damages or clean it personally and they said that we could leave, I had already received a punishment. The lady told my mother she would be also making a few phone calls because whoever the officer was that did it to me needed to be reprimanded. Now that was years ago and I was a child but we were broke as hell and if they would have done worse to me like they do to many others, I would have had no recourse.

Sometimes we need to realize that what happens in our lives isn't always the case for the rest of the country and we need to see things from different views. Its just like people who grow up with, like to think that poor people are there by there own fault or they are lazy, its not the case. You obviously haven't had something unjust like this happen to you and you are unable to see that these things actually happen when they shouldn't, I am happy that I can see that sometimes the world is allot different than what I have personally seen.

Either way, we can just disagree on this one because you have your view of the world and I have mine.

[Catch22Dem]

11. Bingo. Good point (n/t)

[Catch22Dem]

7. Uh, I've felt that way about violent drunk assholes since long before bush

and his ilk began their own terra campaign against our country. It's very unnerving to me and always has been.

[slackmaster]

15. No, they are supposed to be safer i.e. less lethal than firearms

n/t