High Taser Usage Stirs Controversy

Link= High Taser Usage Stirs Controversy

Frederick County, MD, USA: One officer, Corporal Rudy Torres, has deployed his taser seven times [another report says NINE] in the past two years. The local police force has had 70 taser deployments in two years.

Get this: "...the sheriff fiercely defends the number saying it reduces the times officers will pull their guns."

Reduce? Reduce? You're saying that Torres would have shot seven citizens, with his gun, in two years if it weren't for the taser? That your trigger-happy department would have killed 70 citizens in two years if it weren't for the taser? [Rolls-eyes...] Why do the police spokespeople sometimes sound like some sort of an 'Orwellian 1984-speak' when they are answering the taser controversy? There's enough illogical spin to make the world turn backwards.

Lawyer Ted William said, "This is a trigger-happy Sheriff's Department. The number of times they have utilized those tasers is shocking, in relation to the population of Frederick County."

Exactly right. This appears to be one of those jurisdictions where the taser deployment rate is roughly two orders of magnitude (100:1) above where you might expect to see the historical/accepted rate of police shootings. The only rational explanation is that they're using the taser not in self-defence or as a replacement for the gun, but much lower on the 'Use of Force' scale. Perhaps as a replacement for talking, reasoning, or waiting. Or perhaps as a pain-compliance device.

And what's the result? The statistics of overuse (=misuse) start to catch up and people die. Continuing the story: "Jarrel Gray's cause of death is still pending, as is a possible lawsuit..."