What is Digg?Sponsored by Best Buy
Meet Jarice: Next star of Best Buy’s holiday campaign. view!
youtube.com/bestbuy0 - Employee Jarice Brodie shares his story, his excitement and his singing voice.
393 Comments
- bradcrc, on 10/10/2007, -4/+97becomes more of a problem when you start to have incidents like in my town a year ago... when the police tried to taser a drunk man, but accidentally grabbed their gun instead and shot him dead. Apparently the taser and the gun were the same shape. oops.
- syroncoda, on 10/10/2007, -45/+128this is what a police state looks like...
- Ghoztt, on 10/10/2007, -3/+77I was sitting in a car with my friend talking. We were parked next to a lake reservoir in California that is right off of a public road. Suddenly cops swarm us with sirens flashing and they start screaming at us. I started to get out of the car with my hands up but then they started screaming (yes, screaming) at me to keep in the car. They took my friend out of my sight behind the car and had me sit on the ground in front of the car. First thing they told me was that if I made ANY moves they would taser me. Turns out (according to the cops) that you aren't allowed to be parked at this lake which is a reservoir after a certain time. Even though there were absolutely no signs. We had no drugs, we weren't doing anything except talking and waiting for a friend to come help us start our car and they treated us like we were suspected Iraqi insurgents caught in a patrol. This country is going in a very, very bad direction when police can do this to people. I was pretty darn scared to tell you the truth. Being just a normal white guy that pays his tax's and only gets, maybe one speeding ticket every few years I was very, very, VERY shocked that police actually treat people like this. In every sense of the word it was HOSTILE.
- kirkpoz, on 10/10/2007, -15/+77I am glad our police have the latest and greatest equipment to keep us safe, but wonder what type of psychological evaluations new recruits get. I've encountered several deplorable officers.
- TheRemoteViewer, on 10/10/2007, -10/+62I've found such officers are the rule rather than the exception. There's just a certain type of person attracted to being a police officer. Would you be willing to arrest a college student for marijuana possession, knowing that a conviction will probably cause their federal financial aid to be yanked out from under them? Your local police force is full of guys who pledged that they would do exactly that, if necessary.
- LeighaThorne, on 10/10/2007, -5/+42What about the tasering of a 8 month pregnant woman?
"I didn't know she was pregnant" .... I saw the video I could tell she was pregnant.. anyone with ANY sense in their head would know she was pregnant.. what law did she break? trying to break up a fight between two teenage boys... - rtz549, on 10/10/2007, -10/+422 videos of taser used at John Kerry event:
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/bbs/message.php?messageid=438824&mpage=1&showdate=9/17/07&forum=1 - Zarokima, on 10/10/2007, -11/+41If by "protecting themselves" you mean "getting more chance to legally abuse their power" then I agree.
- nogami, on 10/10/2007, -2/+31The point is that the taser was supposed to be the last alternative to shooting someone dead. Not a tool to bully people around and shock them like dogs if they don't obey your orders.
- TheRemoteViewer, on 10/10/2007, -4/+32No, I'm positing that most reasonable people would opt out of being a police officer rather than be forced to ruin someone's life over a joint.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -9/+37Good, let them have their tasers.....I still have my gun.
- Jlaugh, on 10/10/2007, -6/+33The war on drugs is our Governments war on the American people.
- kedohmen, on 10/10/2007, -0/+26The last video, "It puts the lotion on the skin or else it gets the taze again"
- meebio, on 10/10/2007, -4/+29You're stating the obvious. No one would disagree with "if used correctly". The whole point is they aren't.
- bstud82, on 10/10/2007, -3/+26FTFA: "In the past I’ve written about the police tasering of a UCLA student for refusing to show his school ID"
Don't want to show your ID that's a taserin' - xadhominemx, on 10/10/2007, -9/+30You can't really say that in a police state.
- Navicerts, on 10/10/2007, -2/+22Whats your paintball gun got to do with anything?
- xs650, on 10/10/2007, -11/+31Anyone who wonders how totalitarian dictators gain control of a country should read the comments by the boot lickers posting in this thread.
- wakananda, on 10/10/2007, -1/+20Now you're beginning to understand. Cops don't help kids across the street anymore. They aren't there "to protect and to serve" you anymore. Elections are theater. You have no rights. You are an economic unit, not a human being. Just keep your mouth shut and your eyes down when a police officer passes.
- BGog, on 10/10/2007, -2/+21I am a good law abiding citizen and this stuff pisses me off soooo bad. The type of people who want to be police officers are exactly the kind who should not be allowed to touch a weapon. There are good cops but they are at fault too because they look the other way while their ignorant peers do this kind of *****.
- Scira, on 10/10/2007, -7/+26Some of those showed tazers being used for only disobeying verbal commands as far as i saw. That should definitely not be allowed unless the person resisting the commands has a weapon. Tazers should otherwise only be used after a physical resist.
- Orion682, on 10/10/2007, -1/+19Pfff, that's nothing. The best (and dumbest) taser story by FAR was the guy who threatened to light himself on fire, and poured gasoline all over himself. The cop's response? Fire a taser at him... igniting his fuel soaked clothes.
- genezorz, on 10/10/2007, -2/+20...every thread. You have to be an ***** in every single thread. Why can't you just say something like - I disagree, Police need options like this to ensure their protection.
But you dont. Because your an *****. - booyaman1, on 10/10/2007, -2/+19no, the fact that people are being detained, beaten, tasered, cuffed, etc simply for enacting their right to free speech and peaceful protest in this country is an obvious sign that we are moving closer to a police-state. Not that this hasn't been going on for a while, but now it's getting to the point where we see it so often we are slowly but surely becoming desensitized to it. If you don't recognize the danger of allowing ourselves to continue further down this incredibly slippery slope, you are incredibly naive and I hope that you, and enough other people realize it before it is too late. Lethal vs non-lethal force is not the issue - it's about control and intimidation, and non-lethal force is actually much more productive in achieving these ends.
- Fett101, on 10/10/2007, -2/+19That's sarcasm right?
http://digg.com/tech_news/Deputy_mistakes_pistol_for_taser,_shoots_wacko_in_tree - Syntaxis, on 10/10/2007, -0/+17The question is: What are you going to do about it? That's right. You'll suck it up because "it won't happen to me or anyone I know" - until it does. Then your post will get 2000+ Diggs on this website and people will ... still do nothing. How can that not frustrate you? Where I live (here I go again) the police officer will be fired from his job and might end up in prison for his unlawful use of a taser. At least here the cops know they are in deep ***** if they can't explain the use of their tools.
- Kektain, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15The shape (beyond just being well designed for putting the projectile on target) is designed that way partially because tasers are supposed to be used in the same manner as a pistol, but with the benefit of less-lethality. Unfortunately, just as the critics predicted, they're now being used to subdue anyone and everyone the officer doesn't want to work up a sweat over. There are definitely legitimate uses of it, and it has doubtless saved lives that would have otherwise been lost - but the concept of "just tase his ass and call it a day" has crept in.
- onewingedangel9, on 10/10/2007, -3/+17wrong. Innocent people still get arrested.
- SquigglyP, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16The UF Student may have been resisting the officers, but there were ***** 4 of them. How hard is it for four cops to pin a guy and slap cuffs on him. Even four really underweight cops should have not much of a problem doing that. The thing with the UF kid that stands out is the fact that the kid was sitting there, and the cop said "do this or you will get tazed", the kid didn't do it (i guess, couldn't really see) and they tazed him. The problem there is that four cops should be able to make one kid do what they want him to do without too much force at all. They were obviously not trying hard enough. But they were removing the kid, they were in teh process of taking him out, and they just sat him down and tazed him. It's not in their power to punish people. Jesus, i can't understand why this is such a hard concept for people to grasp. There is a judicial system at play here. If you are not endangering anyone, assaulting an officer, and even if resisting, if the cops are able to restrain you enough to get to to do what they want, then they have no right to use that amount of force on you. They get you where they want you to go, then they file 'resisting an officer of the law' charges. that's how it's done. If, say, you got one cop and one guy and there's resisting and attempts to flee, then yeah tazing is fine. If that guy hits the floor and submits, the cop is NOT allowed to then start barking orders and threaten more tazings. The cop should at that point warn that further attempts to flee will be met with equal force and then proceed to cuff the guy or whatever. In a one-on-one situation a cop might have more leeway, but the tazer is meant to be treated the same way a gun is.
If a cop were to shoot an armed suspect once, and that suspect were to fall and throw his weapon away, that cop is not allowed to walk up to the suspect and then bark out to "roll over and put your hands behind your back or I'll shoot you again!" It just isn't meant to be used that way. Beside the obvious wrongness of such a scenario, there's always teh possibility that the suspect might no longer be physically able to comply. The pain from a tazer may subside quickly, but the disorientation can last for some time, and to further taze an individual who may be stunned in such a way would be reprehensible, but it is apparently done quite often.
I;m all for Tazers and i do appreciate that they can defuse a potentially dangerous situation without loss of life, but they are not meant to be used as a way to have orders complied to when the individual is posing no immediate threat. When to use then in cases of resisting arrest can be hard to solidly define, and i agree that in most cases when initially used in a situation where there is heavy resistance it is perfectly within reason, but further use of the device should only be made if the individual continues to resist after the initial tazing. i've seen video of people who get tazed, then get back up and start assaulting the officer who tazed them, so they get tazed again. I've never seen a video, EVER, where someone gets tazed more than two times where i felt that it was warranted after the second or third time. I remember a video where a student, handcuffed and lying prone, refused to stand up and was tazed multiple times as a result. That sort of abuse should never be allowed to happen, and that is the sort of all-too-common tazer use that people are referring to when they talk about it. There are many times when a tazer can be used legitimately, i don't think anyone on Digg would deny that. - Ghoztt, on 10/10/2007, -14/+27If this keep up it'll be: "Alright son, you're coming with us for questioning." ... "Okay, I'll go quie--" ... (cop pulls out and fires taser into the guys' chest) BZBZBZBZZZTZTZTT "AHHHHHH NO!!! I SAI-!!!"" BZZZZZZTZTZTZTTT... (cops pulls limps body out of the room) Taser first! Ask questions later!
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -3/+15Alternative title: "Reason why cops need to haver additional self-control courses."
- straxus, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12"When a cop does something stupid, punish the individual cop."
That would be great if it actually happened. - archimago42, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12It is hard to be "nice" to a cop that is trampling over your rights. What do you say when a cop pushes your door open and searches your home illegally? Nothing apparently or they'll make up charges about you. That is what I've learned.
- andshewas, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10I don't understand the ridiculous enforcement of laws that aren't even posted. Like you said, there were no signs. I was at a lake with my friend a few years ago drinking coffees, smoking cigarettes and talking in his car. We were doing nothing wrong. A cop pulls up and puts his high beams on. We didn't know what to think, so we just went on talking. After about five minutes, the cop comes up and asks us for ID. We had no idea what we had done wrong and when I asked him, he said he wasn't stupid and that he was "young once" and knew what we were "up to." He made us leave the park, escorted us out and everything. On the way out I saw the sign that said the park is open until 9pm. It was only about 7. Still haven't figured out what we did wrong.
- jdaniel284, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11Maybe because white people don't commit that many crimes in relation to certain other races, so his demographic didn't fit typical crime statistic profiles. Made perfect sense to me, but then again I don't attend the church of political correctness too often.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10"I decide the value of his life."
Who are you to place a value on any human life, title notwithstanding? I think you need to look in the mirror, bud. - kag9000, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10This is very worrying in the UK, police here are to be handed out taser-guns en-masse, without the previous training requirements. They will abuse the rules, the police always do, especially when they want to show how macho they are to their buddies.
I really can't understand the reason for their blanket availability unless the Government want us to be terrified of our Police Force. In the UK gun crime, and knife crime are very low, despite what the tabloid newspapers claim. The cops have other means of controlling violent drunken behaviour, without having to resort to a potentially lethal weapon. - Puppetx, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10I nominate this as the best title.
Seriously what was the charge? You can hear Kerry offering to answer his question and then they haul him away... - SquigglyP, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10In case anyone at home is playing along, that last video could also be (aside from ***** hilarious) police brutality. Once the drunk guy was on the ground and obviously in a stunned state there was no need for the continued tazing. But i doubt that guy even remembers being tazed anyway. But the cop should have just tazed him once, or pepper-sprayed him, and then just put him on the ground, rolled him over and slapped cuffs on him. it's when cops start barking orders and tazing for non-compliance and *****.. that's *****. Their job isn't to punish people, it's merely to arrest or subdue. The moment they start threatening people and using repeated force like that on an already subdued individual is the moment they cross that line between right and wrong.
- Firehed, on 10/10/2007, -2/+11They have guns too. The taser is just the first choice. They also have a nightstick, pepper spray, and handcuffs. And often a pretty friggen big flashlight. Oh yeah, and a really fast car, in case they feel like just running you the ***** over if you pull your gun.
I share your sentiment, but don't expect to last too long if you try it. - garbanzo, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9A little hard work would be using your training to physically restrain and control the suspect instead of jumping straight to torture that could kill the suspect.
- ConfirmedCynic, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8What about training to treat people with respect and dignity rather to treat them like cattle?
- archimago42, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7I've had cops come to my door and illegally enter and order everyone around and then they made up charges and arrested me. So, yes pretty difficult to do. I'm just hoping to be rich enough that the next time some prick pulls that ***** I'll sue him until he crawls back under the rock he came from.
You may be wondering why they came to the door in the first place. Someone told them to. Not noise or anything like that. Just someone said, well since you are here, go to that room and see what is going on. That is a great reason to take away my rights. - drake89, on 10/10/2007, -4/+11but not the other color so police think
they have the authority to kill a minority - akula696969, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8Neither......unless we agree that we are living in a police state and have no choice in the matter because of out-of-control/power-hungry cops.
- Jlaugh, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9neither.
- rkzda, on 10/10/2007, -6/+12What if I am tased, I had a congenital heart defect, and surgery to fix it at 15. Even the little battery powered pranks that shock you, state specifically not to use on people with heart conditions. That's a toy. I wonder what tasing would do to me. I'd rather be hit or sprayed with mace. Not that I have EVER been arrested, or resisted arrest.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8Refuse to follow an outdated and unjust law just because you were told to and think for yourself. Problem solved.
- Wootery, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6"Tazers should otherwise only be used after a physical resist."
No, they should only be used when the only alternative is lethal force. - Dissy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6"I don't quite see how you being white would make you any more shocked about the actions of the police."
Then you haven't been paying enough attention... -
Show 51 - 100 of 402 discussions
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is