Now police are told they can use Taser guns on children (UK)

Source: Daily Mail



Tasers work by firing metal barbs into the skin which emit a 50,000-volt electric shock... have been used only by specialist officers as a "non lethal" alternative to firearms. However, they can now be used against all potentially violent offenders even if they are unarmed.


Police have been given the go-ahead to use Taser stun guns against children... despite warnings that they could trigger a heart attack in youngsters. The Defence Scientific Advisory Council medical committee told the Home Office that not enough was known about the health risks of using the weapons against children. The committee, which is made up of independent scientists and doctors, said that limited research suggested there was a risk children could suffer "a serious cardiac event". It recommended that officers should be "particularly vigilant" for any Taser-induced adverse response and said guidance should be amended to "identify children and adults of small stature" as being at potentially greater risk from the cardiac effects of Tasers.

The Government scientists were also asked to test whether the weapons could cause a miscarriage if used on a pregnant woman. While not saying whether police would be allowed to Taser an expectant mother, the Home Office said the DSAC committee had "specifically asked" for computer simulations to be carried out to analyse the effect on "a pregnant female".

Amnesty International claims Tasers have been responsible for 220 deaths in America since 2001. Many cities and police forces there have banned their use against minors. Two years ago in Chicago a 14-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest after being shot with one. Medics had to use a defibrillator four times to resuscitate him. Taser International, the American firm that makes the device, said tests on pigs suggested the weapons were safe.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=479341&in_page_id=1770

anyone who doesn't meet their criteria in any way. Age not an issue.

that moves & breathes, so why should children be bared? :cry:

> Taser International, the American firm that makes the device,
> said tests on pigs suggested the weapons were safe.

Oops ... my bad ... :evilgrin:


(PS: Please note that this was in the Daily Mail, a well-known rabidly
frothing at the mouth right-wing rag so take with several pinches of salt ...)

To try and confirm this with another publication and this is the first thing that popped up....Taser Tupperware Party. It's pretty scary in McCain ville.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/12/tasers-the-tupp.html

Why don't we train police to be human beings. Let's get them physically fit so they aren't intimidated by everything that breathes! My god when I see five cops sitting on a woman that is tased so they can cuff her my reaction is....you guys are in the wrong jobs! The taser is the answer for out of shape cops. I feel that every time a taser is fired there needs to be the same kind of investigation as in a traditional gun shooting. I think the shooter would use much better judgment. I wonder what would happen if parents used tasers as a form of punishment? How about in the High Schools? If they don't put there lunch tray away....boom tase away. This is over the top! Peace, Kim

holding down and cuffing 22yo Alexandra Svoboda while spraying her distraught friends with mace. Why were her friends distraught? Because the cops had almost ripped her leg off. She's lying there on her face with her leg bent the wrong way at the knee. What had she done to deserve that treatment? She was drumming as part of an IWW action and had "attacked" the cops with her drumsticks. And she somehow "slipped" and "injured her leg" while "resisting arrest". The cops had, of course, done nothing wrong.

http://supportalexsvoboda.blogspot.com/2007/08/what-happened-in-north-providence.html

those bastards. It's so OBVIOUS the leg is broken...that should have been the sign they went to far and to help her. My god...how do you sit on a person with a leg bent like that!

Just ask me what it is like to look at a cops's taser when you have a pre-existing heart condition. And to think that some asshole cop can just whip it out on a routine traffic stop if he doesn't like my attitude.

They should have their fancy cattle-prods taken away. If cattle-prodding was not a tool of law enforcement before, I d not see why a taser should be one now.

Oh...and pigs are considerably tougher than humans.

I'm not entirely against the idea of Tasers on principle, but they should be treated as lethal force, the same as drawing a gun. If you wouldn't draw and fire your gun on someone to ensure compliance, a Taser shouldn't be drawn and fired either. It's not legal to shoot unarmed suspects, and again that restriction should apply to Tasing.

In the same vein, the things should have a counter (whether hidden or viewable from the exterior) that keeps track of how many times it has been discharged, similar to police accounting for spent ammunition. When police officers discharge their weapons (and especially when a suspect dies), the investigation teams come out - this should be the same procedure for Tasers.

Of course, that's all on adults. Tasering children should just be considered in the same league as pulling out the billy club - you just don't do it. It speaks volumes that for thousands of years, children could be disciplined without electrical shocks, and now suddenly they're the front-line option. I think that speaks to incompetence and laziness on the part of law enforcement if they can't even deal with a child without pulling out the weapon.

That's even worse. That's quite equivalent to pulling out the billy club on a pregnant woman. All she has to do is fall the wrong way or seize up and bad things happen.



Testing Tasers on pigs and physically fit police officers in their twenties and thirties is not representative of the rest of the population. They're becoming a tool of laziness and indicative of the lack of training police used to receive in defusing situations or ensuring compliance with psychology and backup. The current situation of unbridled use is so unsustainable, but it will probably take the Tasering of some politician or politician's family member for it to stop.