File under "What were you thinking?"
TAMPA — ...Richard Longstreet, 34 ...jumped back in the car and pulled a pistol from under the seat. ...Sheriff's Cpl. Mark Clark responded by pulling his taser and jolted Longstreet in the leg ["Hey, stop that! It hurts!" (?)]. Longstreet reacted to the shock, but managed to kick the taser away. He continued to struggle and wave the gun around at Clark, Warren and the children. Clark finally pulled his pistol and fired once, hitting Longstreet in the upper body, killing him. ... [LINK]
Authorities really need to have a close look at the corporate brainwashing (that masquerades as "Taser Training") that has resulted in an officer reaching for his stupid taser when the subject has just clambered back into the car and reappeared with a gun.
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3 comments:
This is a problem with taser and "less-than-lethal" weapons that is seldom addressed. The fact remains that officers when doing their job correctly have to protect citizens. Unfortunately sometimes that means when deadly force is being applied to them or to another citizen force of an equal value must be applied. Tasers can kill, but their effective kill rate is no where near that of a firearm. Training an officer to use the taser all the time is like partially de-clawing a cat. Loss of life is not something to take lightly, but until some company perfects the star trek style phaser with a stun setting firearms are still needed. This does not seem, to me at least, to be the most pressing issue with the use of tasers, rather it is one more nail in the coffin for them.
Hi, thanks for the comments.
Nateo termed the taser a "less than or equal to lethal" weapon. The MD AG report advises not using the "less than lethal" because it is false advertising, they recommend "less lethal".
The wing nuts that run Taser International believe that the taser is the Star Trek Phaser. Problem is that the taser is not as safe as the "phaser set on stun", and it is far too often ineffective (which sometimes leads directly to lethal force being employed).
Seasons greetings.
I agree, plus the blatant overuse of these weapons creates higher number of more dangerous situations. It's a simple matter of statistics, if you have force of any type being applied more often you will have more injuries. Police believe they can use these weapons at will, with almost no provocation.
Keep this blog coming, its needed and done very well.
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