As part of the training in the use of tasers, many police and correctional agencies require their officers to be tasered before being issued a taser. The thinking is that officers need to know what it feels like to be tasered in order to ensure the most judicious use of this non-lethal weapon.
The use of tasers has been embroiled in controversy because a number of people have died after being tasered by the police. I suspect that in some, if not all of those lethal cases, the officer who used the taser had been tasered himself during his taser training.
The tasers issued to cops are much more powerful than the tasers that are available to the general public. Instead of tasering their officers, law enforcement agencies should make sure that they are trained in the proper and safe use of these non-lethal weapons so that they really will be non-lethal. Some of the taser deaths appear to have resulted from the deliberate or unintended misuse of these devices.
Ever since tasers began to be issued to police officers I have ridiculed the tasering of cops as nothing more than a worthless form of entertainment. I remember that during my army basic training I was made to enter a building where my fellow recruits and I were tear gassed. The idea was not for us to see what it felt like to be gassed, but rather to give us some experience in putting on our gas masks.
The other night my oldest granddaughter paid us a visit. We were talking about her younger sister - now attending Sam Houston State University – wanting to become a cop. The subject of tasers came up and she asked me whether her sister would have to tasered. When I told her why her sister might have to be tasered, she came back with this:
If they taser cops so they’ll know what it feels like to be tasered, WHY DON’T THEY SHOOT THEM SO THEY’LL KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE SHOT?
Thanks to my granddaughter, I rest my case.
No comments:
Post a Comment