The latest news on tasers comes from the UN’s Committee Against Torture (CAT). “Taser electronic stun guns are a form of torture that can kill”, the UN committee said on November 23, 2007 after several recent deaths in North America. “The use of these weapons causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture,” the UN’s Committee Against Torture said.
This isn’t a shock to me after seeing just a few of the countless taser videos that are on the web. I can understand that in some cases it may be the best option short of deadly force. But From what I gleaned from watching most of the videos is that the cops are going to this first instead of using standard methods of subduing suspects. They have more to say too: “In certain cases, [tasers] can cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and real-life events,” The ten member CAT panel said. Three men all in their early 20′s were reported to have died in the United States within a few weeks of the tragic killing of a Polish immigrate in Toronto, back in October. Many of you may have already viewed the video on the news. The RCMP wasted an entire 24 seconds investigating what the disturbance was before using a taser on the helpless victim who died as they piled on top of him.
You might say that this is a isolated event but far from it. Increasingly across the US, Canada and the world, police forces are using it first. Not as a method of last resort as it should be. I’ve seen multiple videos where the police seem almost eager to use what amounts to potential deadly force. I do not think that police should use them except as a last resort and the training should be held to a higher standard than it is now. Every use of a taser should be reviewed the same way that is done when an officer uses their sidearm. Police seem entirely too cavalier about something that hurts so much and carries the possibility of killing the suspect every time it is used. We are leaning closer and closer to a police state where there is no recourse when police or another government agency brings forth harm to either suspects who are treated as if they are guilty of the most heinous crimes or innocent citizens who at the least are inconvenienced and/or badgered by threats and bullying by officers “just doing their job”.
So now even the United Nations regards tasers as torturous weapons that can kill. When will our police stop using Tasers? I am glad that I am not doing a job that causes such potential harm. If I were, I would not be so cavalier about it.