Tasers are essentially unique "tool"

URBANA, Ill. — Two federal lawsuits, each seeking more than $10 million on behalf of two 12-year-old boys who allege a Kankakee police officer shocked them with a stun gun [a 'taser' according to most reports] during an in-school [unauthorized, illegal and stupid] demonstration. ... [LINK]

Try to imagine this sort of incident happening with any other police weapon.

"Hey kids, you want to try pepperspray in your face?"

"Hey kids, anyone like to try a rubber bullet in the belly?"

"Hey kids, who wants to be sleeper-choked?"

"Hey kids, anyone wanna get shot in the leg with a .357?"

None of these seem to happen at the frequency of children being tasered "for fun".

There's something disturbingly unique about tasers and ECWs. There's something in the marketing and "training" (one-in-the-same, which is another aspect of the same problem) that results in there being a much higher than expected rate of the officers honestly believing that tasers are much closer to a harmless toy than a potentially-deadly dangerous weapon.

This is exactly what happens when the 'industry leading' manufacturer is allowed to "significantly" understate the risks associated with use of tasers. And is permitted to mix such false claims and dangerous attitudes into the vertically-integrated "training", certification and departmental-infiltration scheme.

Police leadership should not treat this as a one-off incident. This tasers-R-safe and (even worse) tasers-R-fun attitude can be trace back to Taser International.

And the entire taser chain-of-command are suspected carriers of these defective and dangerous attitudes.

The larger version of this problem calls for major corrective action to purge these attitudes from the ranks.

Otherwise you'll spend half your life in court, and the other half writing huge settlement checks.

I told you months ago that the taser party was over.