Sydney, Australia - Career of Police Sgt. damaged by taser

Sydney, Australia - Judges advises that he will find the actions of Sergeant Timothy Devitt "unlawful and improper" in connection with an incident where Sgt Dewitt assaulted Ali Alkan using a taser. Not only that, but the Judge also advised that the various charges against Mr. Alkan will be dismissed. And Mr Alkan is suing NSW Police over the arrest. [LINK]

It is my personal opinion that the clearly-defective taser training, and taser use policies that were probably cut-and-paste directly from propaganda-laced documents written by the cowboys at Taser International, have led directly to a good police officer going bad.

It is essentially inconceivable that Sgt Dewitt would have considered it appropriate to shoot Alkan in the back with his service revolver, or to suddenly become too-obviously violent and whack Alkan with a baton, or to (without provocation) spray him with pepper spray, or even lay a hand on him.

But the oh-so-clearly defective taser "training" (brainwashing) has somehow left Sgt Dewitt with the dangerously-false impression that the taser is in a different category, and somehow the taser deserves to be 'given a pass' with respect to common sense, common decency, and basic human rights.

If you are reading this and disagree, too bad. Because the judge in this matter has made findings that disallow any rational alternate explanation. Sgt Dewitt's use of the taser was "unlawful and improper". In other words, bad. And the blame for this must obviously be shared between Sgt Dewitt and his taser training.

Government decision makers and police leaders must realize that the police have been given a dangerous (potentially deadly) false impression. That tasers are some sort of high tech miracle (sic) that can be freely used without justification and without consequences.

That a police Sgt can be brainwashed is clear cut evidence that the information being promulgated by the stun gun salesmen is not only wrong, it is dangerously wrong. Naively accepting this obviously-false information from the stun gun salesmen has put a massive dent in the career of one Australian Police Sergeant.