Taser Guns: Increase Police Aggression

The rationale for Taser International’s stuns guns is that they are non-lethal and help cops subdue dangerous suspects with minimal force. But reports show plenty of suspects have died almost immediately after being stunned. Not the least of these deaths was twenty-one year old Andrew Washington from Vallejo, California who on September 15, 2004 after trying to flee from the police, was shot repeatedly with 50,000 volts while his was body lying in a trickle of water. In Northern California over the last seven months, there have been seven deaths linked to Taser International’s product, but police continue to parrot the Scottsdale, Arizona company’s promotional material that the weapon is safe and that illegal drugs are the problem. Washington’s death and the subsequent stonewalling of the investigation into the true cause is typical of what appears to be increased aggression on the part of police who see the weapon as “a new baton,” as Andrea Pritchett of CopWatch put it. Vallejo police claim Washington was an auto-theft suspect. The trouble is that he had not stolen a car, had not been armed, nor hostile. He was drunk when he hit two parked cars and foolish enough to run, but there were six officers involved in pursuing the five feet, nine inch, 149 lbs. man who wasn’t hostile nor armed. He was stunned first on the fence for five seconds when it only takes a quarter of a second to incapacitate someone. He could hardly crawl. But he got shocked three or four more times anyway.[more]

Comments

[High School Graduate]

Electricity moves between the two points of least resistance. The presence of water near the suspect is irrelevant... the "juice" of a taser moves between the two probes. Only the muscles in between them are affected, obviously.

If water had been a factor, the OFFICER would become part of the circuit as it travelled back to the taser in his hand.

As far as it being used as "the new baton"... suspects all around America should pray this is true- a 5 second jolt instead of a month of nursing a broken bone is a no brainer.

If you have a heart attack after being tased, it's your fault for hitting the pipe, not the police for arresting you. Tens of thousands of people have been tased, yet the only ones that die have meth and coke in their system... think about it.

Thanks for the objective and well thought out post though. Not.

[Ordinary Joe]

You speak of aggression. Stunning/tasing is much more humane than a baton, don't you think? It's also safer for the police officer who, by the way, defends your right to a peaceful life.

A stun device's lethality does not increase the more it is used on a person. A baton, billy club, or fist does. Each successive blow does more physical damage, guaranteed. A stun weapon is NOT guaranteed to leave any damage at all, and does no more damage each successive time it is fired. I'd rather be stunned than hit any day if a police officer felt it neccessary to incapacitate me.

I like how the gentleman was described as "foolish enough to run".

Let us run through his infractions as best we can: DUI(cocaine), DWI(alcohol), Cocaine possesion and use, Crashing into TWO PARKED CARS (innocent people's personal property!), leaving the scene of an accident, failure to obey police orders to halt, resisting arrest, and auto theft(possibly, says you).

Try defending an innocent man. It usually works better.

Do a little research on how many people die in similar circumstances vs. those who survive with no regard to being stunned/tased.

Then find out how many people die after being stunned/tased vs. those who survive after being stunned/tased in similar circumstances.

Compare these two ratios. I can virtually guarantee they will be identical. Electronic stunning devices do not use enough current to kill a person, that is why they are used. The officer wanted to preserve this man's life and well-being.