What is Digg?372 Comments
- obliviousfool, on 11/19/2007, -5/+309The cops should check to see if their Tazers are set to "stun." Many of them seem to be accidentally set to "kill.
- missingnoh4x, on 11/19/2007, -5/+107We need a taser section.
- anachronaut, on 11/19/2007, -25/+94How many more deaths is it going to take before people stop making excuses for the abuse of this device? Obviously the authoritarian drones out there aren't going to change their minds until someone directly related to them dies as a result of its use, but haven't most reasonable people seen enough already?
I've read somewhere that the vast majority of police officers retire without ever having fired their gun in the line of duty. If the taser is supposed to be an alternative to the use of their gun, then why are they so free with its use? It has become policy to tase first and ask questions later (if the person survives, that is). This tool is quite obviously being abused in a manner that was not originally intended -- it is not a nightstick or pepper spray replacement, it is marketed and intended for use as an alternative to deadly force (i.e shooting a suspect with a real gun).
What's it going to take to strip these weapons of abuse from the hands of power? The police have proven time and time again that they are going to use this weapon in an inappropriate fashion and thus can't be trusted with it. And the cops aren't going to voluntarily stop using them -- that much you can count on. Most of our Congress-critters have demonstrated that they fall under the "authoritarian drone" category, so I don't know how much help can come from that quarter. Local authorities are usually in bed with the local police, so how much help can you count on there? What a mess. - chupavacas, on 11/19/2007, -7/+48I doubt they would have shot him. Four people fighting and not with weapons. A cop wouldn't have pulled out a gun.
- inactive, on 11/19/2007, -8/+46I stole this story to submit on reddit and others, then looked like an idiot because I copied your title as well. Taser. Thanks.
- faskill, on 11/19/2007, -4/+39Bullets shot in the air have to land somewhere.
- tagnarth, on 11/19/2007, -6/+37Time to switch back to using guns. We all know they have less incidence of death when trying to subdue a suspect.
- inactive, on 11/19/2007, -5/+36Before Tasers were in popular use, people used to say "How many more deaths until they start using them?!?"
- whaambulance, on 11/19/2007, -3/+30These police officers seem to forget that the taser is a "non-lethal" replacement for their FIREARM. It is for situations where they have no other option and they or someone else is at risk of great harm or death. If they wouldn't use their gun in the situation then there is no reason to use their taser in its place. There are a lot of good cops who never fire their taser, but there is also a lot of gun-horny officers who have been dying to fire their gun for years, sometimes decades and now with this device can get their frustration out on people who don't deserve nearly that level of force to subdue.
- inactive, on 11/19/2007, -1/+28I'm sure there's a higher population than .03% that has heart conditions in this country.
- gbarger, on 11/19/2007, -2/+269 volts will kill if the amperage is high enough.
Volage kills electronics, amperage kills people. - inactive, on 11/19/2007, -0/+23You know for decades, police used their batons and fists.
- inactive, on 11/19/2007, -0/+23The whole problem with the tasers is that they're used indiscriminately. You can't just fire a gun at an unarmed person (technically, hairbrushes and wallets aside), but they'll fire tasers and pepper spray at anyone who talks back.
- dagnome1984, on 11/19/2007, -1/+24Sure blame the victims. Most heart conditions are not diagnosed until cardiac arrest.
- Tobark, on 11/19/2007, -20/+37Root cause - the guy shouldnt have been screweing around.
- yojiffyskippy, on 11/19/2007, -1/+18"Shooting in the air" is a Hollywood technique and not a real life technique for various reasons including the one listed by faskill.
- sticksnstones, on 11/19/2007, -1/+15The reason we are seeing so many stories where the citizenry is being brutalized by the police is because the government wants you to know that if you do not submit immediately, you will literally feel their wrath.
Remember, the police are charged with carrying out the politicians "laws".
I remember when a cop was your friend, but I am old. Those days are long gone. - KevDol, on 11/19/2007, -13/+26I am not trolling or anything but I have read these "POLICE KILL ANOTHER WITH TASER" posts here on digg and on similar news pages. I just want to put in my two cents here. I have been trained in the use of a taser and I have been tased (no I didn't say "Don't taze me bro!" ;) ) during my training. Let me be the first to point out, as a side note, that tasers EFFING HURT! ;) Tazers are NOT a replacement for our guns. They are the preferred tool to use BEFORE our nightsticks. Also, the sole company that markets tasers has spent umpteen millions of dollars investigating every instance of "taser death" and has disproven every one. Not one person has EVER died as a direct result of the electric shock a taser delivers. The frequency of the shock delivered by the taser is not even close to the electrical impulses involved in a beating heart- like the defibrillators use. The problem I see is that all of these sensationalized headlines are scattered all over the Internet, but after the autopsies are conducted and other mitigating circumstances are taken into play, the true cause of the death never merits the same sensational headlines as "POLICE TASER BELOVED GRANDFATHER TO DEATH." I mean how many newspapers would they sell with "TASERED MAN HAD UNDERLYING DEFECTIVE HEART VALVE" or "TASERED MAN HAD LETHAL DOSAGE OF COCAINE IN HIS SYSTEM ACCORDING TO AUTOPSY." I am just saying that these posts are just so easy to send over to digg and reddit and the like, but the readers should dig(g) the incidents a few weeks or months later and maybe they would find out that there were other circumstances that caused the persons untimely death.
- h0zae, on 11/19/2007, -1/+143 more
- rikwakefield, on 11/19/2007, -4/+17ROFLMAO. You say it as if those are the only options.
- inactive, on 11/19/2007, -5/+18Ya I really love their "it wasn't the taser" line......When you tased him, he fell over sideways and cracked his skull on the pavement.....not the taser's fault? When you tased him and exasperated the unknown defective heart valve till it completely failed, it wasn't the taser's fault.
Get a ***** clue. The tasers have a direct role in the death of hundreds of people. I wouldn't believe a single thing the taser company said about their research since they obviously are out to sell a product. - dboy3587, on 11/19/2007, -0/+13they are called less lethal for a reason
- inactive, on 11/19/2007, -0/+13If they called them "Electric Rifles" instead, maybe we wouldn't see them being used so indiscriminately.
- firechill, on 11/19/2007, -1/+14Yeah I guess they left out the part about him being run over by a lion stampede.
- heartcoldfusion, on 11/19/2007, -2/+14It's kind of hard to get behind this story. The cop (according to the limited info in the article at least) used the taser to break up a fight, which is actually within the realm of what they're supposed to use them for. It's not like the guy got tasered in his car when he was being compliant. It also said he was administered first aid on the scene. If there was another non-lethal way of ending a fight between four guys that the cop had immediate access to, then I'd like to know what it is.
- 2trkpony, on 11/19/2007, -1/+13They got 'em maxed at 50,000 volts by 'mistake'. Whoops.
- Marzuk, on 11/19/2007, -23/+34The article does not directly list the taser as the cause of death. This is sensationalist garbage.
- Niceguy4186, on 11/19/2007, -0/+11I have a friend that works as a guard at the county jail. Most of the guards are not allowed to carry any weapons at all, and must use brute force to controll any inmates. I know they've had at least one death due to trying to controll someone. I'm pretty sure your suspect of "less than 10" is just a little off.
- blackinthmiddle, on 11/19/2007, -1/+12KevDol, there's no doubt that news outlets are simply looking to make money and will sensationalize stories knowing that they can sucker a good majority of us into a frenzy. However, as someone who's been on the wrong end of the law too many times, you have to admit that some of the facts of these stories (that are often video tapped) are disturbing. What about the guy (I think he was Serbian) that was tasered to death last week. On at least three separate occasions, you can hear someone in the background telling the officers, "He doesn't speak English. He doesn't speak English. Btw, he doesn't speak English." At one point you even hear someone in the background ask, "Can we get an interpreter down here?" One officer arrives to the scene and the first question he asks his supervisor is, "Can I taze him?" This is all captured on video. Scary!
Then, as they taze him, you hear one officer yell, "PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR BACK!!!" It's those kinds of actions that will forever ensure that cops get no love from the general public. Someone already told them (three times from video, maybe more that wasn't captured by video) that he doesn't speak English.
Let's say we find out later on that this guy was hopped up on drugs. Or had a faulty heart. So it wasn't the officer's fault then, right? I disagree. In the end, you're using force that is proving more and more lethal to a lot of the population. Older people (like the guy who died last week), the very young, people with heart issues (known or unknown), the very young. What happens if, once we have more data, we find out that the taser is actually lethal for 15% of the population? Do we then say, "Oh, your body just sucks. It wasn't like I was trying to kill you?"
I don't blame the officers because this is how they've been trained. However, something has to give. This is going to be yet another multi-million dollar settlement that will burden the taxpayers of that community. Maybe when a city goes completely bankrupt over this something will change. - sugarazor, on 11/19/2007, -0/+10Ever try to subdue a grown man with a nightstick? Yeah, there's going to be more than a few lumps on the head. Unless you consider a skull fracture to be a lump.
- TexTurboesq, on 11/19/2007, -10/+20Was the suspect on drugs? Was the suspect intoxicated? Did the suspect have other conditions that we're not aware of? What were the conditions of the situation? Why? Were weapons involved? Were the conditions present for a lawful use of force? All of these factors come into play. Learn the facts before you knee jerk into a flame war that has been repeated time and time again.
- sugarazor, on 11/19/2007, -2/+12I'm sure that's exactly how it happened. The cop showed up, jumped right out of his car and tased the nearest person he could without alerting anyone to his presence. He's a ninja cop.
- geneticlemon, on 11/19/2007, -0/+9The first hit stuns, the second hit kills, and the third disintegrates. The guy must've been tazed once before. :(
- inactive, on 11/19/2007, -1/+10What does he need to break up the fight for? He should have realized that 4 to 1 with a tazer makes no sense.
Another sensless death. - yojiffyskippy, on 11/19/2007, -1/+10I vote for letting them beat the ***** out of each other. Sure, they'll then sue the cops for NOT doing anything but just think of all the fun in watching the fight. Heck, maybe the cops could video tape it and put it on Yourtube for all of us to enjoy. /sarc/
- radink360, on 11/19/2007, -7/+16What was they guy doing fighting at 4:54 in the morning, I mean sure he didn't deserve to die, but im sure he wasn't up to any good.
- silveravnt, on 11/19/2007, -4/+13should read "Guy kills himself by fighting illegally and ignoring cops"
- honorablesauce, on 11/19/2007, -6/+15Another fine upstanding crin.. I mean young man who was mistakenly killed after simply getting in a four man fight.
I mean who hasn't been in a four person fight where the police needed to be called... and was still fighting when they arrived..... and didn't stop when they were instructed to.
What a poor misunderstood individual.
Seems like the Tazer is the Gene Pool's much needed chlorine. - jun2san, on 11/19/2007, -1/+10I think there is some sort of digg taser coalition out there digging all these taser stories up.
- anachronaut, on 11/19/2007, -0/+9Why would that have spared the world a lot of confusion? It's not like laser is spelled with a "z", nor is maser, or phaser...
- dagnome1984, on 11/19/2007, -1/+10""TASERED MAN HAD UNDERLYING DEFECTIVE HEART VALVE"
Sure blame the victim. - inactive, on 11/19/2007, -1/+9Cops need to stop using tasers and get in there and break some bones with their nightsticks.
- yojiffyskippy, on 11/19/2007, -2/+10Those countries also don't allow their citizens to own guns. So to adopt that strategy, you would have to make guns illegal in the US (not going to happen) and then remove all guns from the country to avoid having the cops being unarmed against armed criminals (also not going to happen). So your reference to "other countries" doesn't really apply to the real world.
- SeekerDarksteel, on 11/19/2007, -1/+9If cops were only using them in place of their guns we wouldn't be having this discussion. Because then even if someone dies, you can legitimately say "Well otherwise I wouldve shot him". Instead, we see cops using tasers on people where there's only the threat of violence, or even when they're simply non-compliant.
Taser are NOT a compliance tool. They are NOT an alternative to physical force. They should be used only when there is a significant danger of a life threatening situation. What if "Don't tase me bro" dude had died? We can all agree he was an ass, and may have even deserved being forcefully removed. But did he deserve to die?
Face it. A single death due to a taser being used in a non-life threatening situation is one death too many. - Shatneresque, on 11/19/2007, -2/+10This is a bit cynical, but probably true: if officers had to fill out as much paperwork whenever they fired their tazers as they do whenever they fire their real firearms, they would use them a lot less often.
- inactive, on 11/19/2007, -0/+8Proofread? I can bairlie reed!
- card51short, on 11/19/2007, -0/+8but but 9/11.
- colto, on 11/19/2007, -0/+8Especially with our obesity problem and so many people eating fast food. That stuff will clog your arteries like you can't believe.
- DiscoLando, on 11/19/2007, -1/+9So are you telling me that if a person has an underlying heart condition, that being tazered and then dying as a result isn't the tazer's fault? Even if the tazer only played a small part in the death, don't you think it warrants critical analysis of the possible effects of usage on people with all kinds of health issues?
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