COPS HARPOONED AND ZAPPED

The use of Tasers by the police as non-lethal weapons was initially aclaimed the greatest development since sliced bread. The second guessers, usually civil libertarians, come out of the woodwork every time a cop pops someone with his gun, Tasers were thought to be a harmless way of subduing those who charge at cops with knives, clubs, hammers, axes, machetes, chainsaws, a sack full of shit or whatever, without having to resort to deadly force. God forbid that the police should ever shoot some hatchet swinging juvie punk. Heaven help the cop who shoots an unarmed hyped-up 250 pound hulk bent on beating him into a lifeless bloody pulp.

All good things must come to an end. Some scientists and many civil libertarians no longer look at tasers as the weapon of choice for a kinder, gentler, and friendlier neighborhood cop. There have been a number of people throughout the country who have died after having been tasered by the police. Many cops have been criticized for using tasers instead of sweet-talking some aggressive drug-crazed asshole into a police car. Others have been accused of resorting to tasers out of anger or to satisfy some sadistic trait.

Police taser guns fire two barbs which imbed themselves in the clothing or skin while delivering a five second long 50,000 volt electric charge, resulting in the loss of muscular control, thereby incapacitating the targeted individual. Some police agencies require that before an officer is issued a taser, he himself must be tasered. The thinking here is that an officer needs to experience the hurt he may put on others to keep him from using the taser unless it is absolutely necessary. Other police agencies do not require their officers to be tasered.

I have always felt very strongly that it is ridiculous to require that an officer be harpooned and zapped with 50,000 volts before he is allowed to carry a taser. If that is necessary to prevent the unnecssary use of that weapon, why not shoot an officer before he is allowed to carry a gun? Or, why not really whack him a few times with a baton before he is allowed to carry that weapon? You say that shooting and clubbing an officer are absurd analogies. Sure they are, but they are no more absurd than harpooning and zapping an officer.

The judicious use of tasers can best be achieved through an emphatic training program without resorting to the tasering of the trainee. As with guns and batons, their judicious use can be enforced by written taser use policies, the violation of which would result in serious disciplinary consequences. Whether or not police agencies will continue to use tasers is besides the point. There will always be an occasion when a cop will have to shoot someone in order to save himself or the life of another citizen.