Tom Says: “To taser? …or not to taser?”
Wouldn’t it be an ideal world if nobody broke the law? Just think for a minute…
Four people wouldn’t be dead in a three car accident in the Annapolis Valley if all the speed limits had been observed.
Nobody would be stopped on the side of the road being issued a citation for going through that red light.
Drug pushers would suddenly be out of business because whatever it is they’re pushing would be purchased by no one.
There would be no bank robbers, no child molesters, no spousal abuse, and no one would be killed either in manslaughter or in murder. We wouldn’t even need police!
Time for a reality check.
There has never been a society like the one I just eluded to and there never will be. As a consequence, we do need police. We need armed police. We have to arm our police officers with every weapon available. In order for them to protect those who live on the right side of the law from those who live on the wrong side.
One of the weapons we’ve chosen to arm our police with in recent years is something called a “taser.”
I’m told it can shoot a couple of darts into your skin and instantly incapacitate you with 50-thousand volts of electricity. It has it’s own way of bringing unruly men and women into very swift involuntary compliance.
If you don’t want to do what the police officer says — the taser then seems like an alternative.
If we’re going to arm police with tasers, can we expect a full public hearing, or a full public inquiry every time an officer draws and uses the taser?
I hope not.
Being a police officer in today’s society is a tough enough job at the best of times and an absolutely terrible job at the worst of times. Our men and women in blue for the most part, do a great job. Give them the tasers and let them use them or take the tasers away and let them use the alternative.
I’ll take the taser everytime rather than a police issue .38
I’m Tom Young.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
I thought the “Taser” T-a-s-e-r. Was a non lethal alternative to deadly force. How can non lethal cause 18 deaths in Canada since 20 - 0 - 5? Excited delerium my foot. How many deaths from pepper spray in the past 3 years? Ban the taser!!
November 27th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Dear Tom;
Although the Taser is another tool for the enforcement officials to used when required….being a first responder throws up a yellow flag concerning high amounts of voltage going through someone’s body. We use defribulators when attempting to revive a patient who has suffered a heart attack and cardiac arrest, the obvious reason is to jump start a heart that has almost completed stopped beating. The defib uses electical shocks to stimulate the heart muscles to pump and hopefully the heart will continue to beat on its own without having to shock again. If someone should be in contact with the person we are attempting to defribulate, then the shock will stop this person’s heart…so when it comes to an electric shock being sent through someone’s body for approximately 5 seconds…this scares me. Most electricutions have an entry wound and an exit wound, hence the bruising that the reporter talked about the other day.
In closing, it’s not that I am against our police force having the tazer or taser, it’s the circumstances in which the officer deams it necessary to use it. It is fairly prominate in the news as of late, even though they have been in use for a few years now.
The UN does bring up a good point in stating that they feel it is a form of torture and that this needs to be addressed. Also, I think that most, if not all, police forces today carry 9mm hand guns, not 38’s.
I was really intrigued with the conversation around the poverty issued discussed during your program on Tuesday and wish to add comments regarding poverty, especially in First Nation Communities. Could you possibly reply to me as to when this will be on your blog.
Thank-you
November 28th, 2007 at 6:55 am
It’s not quite so simple as “to taser or not to taser”. As I understand it, the taser is supposed to be used as the last resort before a gun. If a suspect is armed with a knife or a club, a broken beer bottle, whatever, then that would seem an appropriate time to use a taser. What is so disturbing about the device is not that it exists, but that it is sometimes being used against unarmed people at the drop of a hat, not to mention that some of these people are mysteriously dying afterwards. Tasering a mouthy female prisoner simply to shut her up, or a distressed immigrant who has his hands up and backs away from police - how is this justified or appropriate?
November 29th, 2007 at 4:52 am
Why is it that we hear about it every time a Taser incident goes bad, but we never hear about it when someone gets hit with a Taser instead of a bullet and lives without any medical or physical damage?
There are probably numerous times every day when the Taser gets used effectively without incident, and in most of these cases, there are two options, a Taser or a bullet. I like your chances better with the Taser.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you don’t want to get hit with the Taser, do what the Officer tells you to do!! Failure to do so may be harmful to your health!!
December 4th, 2007 at 2:48 am
A very sensible approach you espouse here Tom. Too bad your a Liberal…..
December 5th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Yes i would like to know where is everybody’s common sense with these taser’s,and the death’s they cause. Now what happen’s to you if you have a heart attack and your heart stops they use a defibulator to start your heart. In other word’s they give you a electric shock to start your heart but if they used this defibulator and your heart is say fine as you know,the electric shock from the defibulator can put your heart in cardiac arrest or stop it completly. So with these taser’s they are useing and they can adjust the length of time the electric shock last’s no wonder people are dying from them the voltage put out by a taser is about the same as a defibulator.
December 16th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Tom I love your wit and wisdom and while on patrol you keep me balanced and informed. I love your commentary on the taser just thought I would add my view.
People I am sick and tired of police being criticized for doing their job by all the armchair wannabe’s. Bottom line is, more police officers are killed by criminals than there are criminals killed by police officers. We are the ones getting killed , crippled and injured for merely doing our job to protect those who can not protect themselves. These people being tasered or shot or hit by police have put themselves in harms way, they CHOSE a set of actions that led them into a confrontation with authority. Police do not release criminals from prison, they do not release mentaly deranged people from hospital. Police do not sell drugs and liquor to people or let them drive drunk. Police clean up the mess that others created or allowed to happen. Police go in when people are running out, police come into your home to handle your husband , wife or kid that is out of control. Police chase the person that killed you, beat you, shot you or stabbed you. The taser can mean the difference between life and death, primarily for the officer and in the second part for the violator. So what if the person is on crack or coke or mentaly deranged what if they are enraged past the point of reason or in the throes of excited delerium should we say oh wait they could suffer if we tase them lets wrestle them until one of us gets hurt. A taser will stop that person from harming others and the officers on scene, maybe the person will collapse and die but the person being tased is the one responsible for their own fate. Do we make mistakes ……YES and we have to account for them, sometimes a police officer loses his control in a stressful situation and lays more hurt on a person than they needed to BUT a taser would have prevented that incident from becoming so physical. In the past year I have suffered two serious injuries when a taser was not available , one with a drugged up offender the other with a mentaly deranged person. In the first instance I was off work 14 weeks in the second I was off 5 weeks. In both cases the violator suffered no harm or injury I have permanent reminders of my encounters. I paid the price for not having the taser.
D J