Taser's other Canadian PR firm: The RCMP

Let's play Spot the Contradiction

Winnipeg Sun (17 December 2009) - Manitoba RCMP say the use of a Taser actually saved a man's life on Opaskwayak Cree Nation late last night. ...a [highly intoxicated] 19-year-old man was....holding two knives to his own throat. ...told officers he wanted to die and asked police to shoot him. ...the man began to stab himself with knives and police stepped in to shock him with a taser. Police say the man was then taken into custody without further injury. The man was not seriously injured. [LINK]

A drunk young man with knives starts stabbing himself, but is not seriously injured? It's interesting that the facts don't quite square with the RCMP & Taser Public Relations point of the story.

So you want to count this take-down of a highly intoxicated young man as a live saved by the taser? LOL. Puhleeze...


Replacement for the gun? More like a replacement for the second officer on his hands and knees just behind the highly intoxicated subject, while the first officer pushes the subject backwards. It's more like an episode of Keystone Kops than a life saved.

The taser is (in Canada) considered to be a firearm. And the Parliamentary Committee SECU wants the RCMP to classify it as an impact weapon. Police shouldn't be using the potentially-lethal taser to take-down highly intoxicated subjects. Use whatever methods have been used for the past 140-odd years. And this doesn't mean that you'd have shoot the subject with a gun; nor is it necessary to allow him to poke himself with knives all day and night.

See this previous post: [LINK]