AlterNet: Why Are Cops Tasering Grandmothers, Pregnant Women and Kids?

Why Are Cops Tasering Grandmothers, Pregnant Women and Kids?

By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted August 17, 2009.

Police officers are brutalizing innocent civilians with accelerating lunacy. How did this happen? How can we make it stop?



Technology is a double-edged sword, the cliche goes. It can save and even extend your life, but it can also kill you in new and unpredictable ways. In the several years since the Arizona-based Taser International has deployed its terminologically challenging Electronic Control Devices (ECDs), colloquially known as stun guns or simply tasers, what started out as a midrange law enforcement weapon has turned into a surreal nightmare that has gone viral from streets to screens. It's now to the point that only a hyperreal comedian like Stephen Colbert can make sense of it.

"Nation, our gun rights are always under attack from the bleeding hearts," he cracked in late July, "and not just the hearts bleeding from a gunshot wound. Thankfully, there's the taser. It's the perfect weapon for when you really want to shoot someone, but killing them just seems like overkill."

Of course, Colbert milked the footage of accidental and purposeful taser victims, the latter being media and law enforcement members who signed up for shock therapy and provided the world with no shortage of hilarious video. But his point was well-taken: Thanks to the taser's wildfire deployment, classification as non-lethal weaponry and pop-cultural appeal in films, television, comics and even cartoons, cops have nearly lost their minds using it on everyone from children, the elderly, and pregnant mothers to the mentally unstable and physically disabled.

Or have their lost their spines? After all, the police are public servants, and were even once referred to as peace officers, charged with resolving disputes, defusing danger and, when necessary, applying lethal force to keep the public safe. But lately, and thanks partially to the taser's alleged safety, they have been leaving peace behind in favor of brutalizing innocent civilians with accelerating lunacy. That kind of unarmed diplomacy takes real work, and involves much more than simply firing off electrified darts and wires. But rarely is there a day that goes by without another news entry doesn't stun, pardon the pun, the senses. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/142006/why_are_cops_tasering_grandmothers%2C_pregnant_women_and_kids/

what they would have done WITHOUT the tasers?? would they shoot the person if they didn't have tasers?? i don't think so. They can't shoot someone unless they are threatened physically, if I am not mistaken. Then why is it ok to taser people just for talking back?? I mean, the taser was supposed to be to use instead of a gun if you are threatened, or so I thought. It's just nuts how much they are using these things and what they are using them for. Someone's going to end up getting hurt. What's it going to take to reign these people in!!

They appear normal but are closet LOLOs and Abusive with POWER

What we need is a change in police policies to make it so they have to be faced with an unruly, uncooperative person who can't otherwise be restrained. Or something like that. And it needs to be heartily enforced.

anyone who does this has some deep seated psychological issues.