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Add to FavoritesIt is high time we stop feeling sorry for the perpetrators of crime. In almost every instance the victim of crime fares far worse than the perpetrator when it comes to public opinion. In court it is considered that the victim is being a trouble maker by insisting on justice. What justice is there to a victim of assault who has been disfigured by someone wielding a knife for example, only to go through the ordeal of court proceedings and see the perpetrator receive what seems to be a pat on the back for keeping the court system alive?
Consider this situation. If someone is wielding a knife (perpetrator) and you (the victim) are unarmed but have asked very nicely for that person to be a good fellow and put the knife down ,do you really think that that person is actually going to comply with your request? Sure he'll put the knife down but not before you (the victim) have been badly slashed . But wouldn't you know it? The perpetrator was partially deaf, came from a broken home and thought you were attacking him. It almost as if you brought it upon yourself to be slashed across your face and arms in your attempt to disarm the person. You shouldn't have interfered.
Now lets assume you are a police officer in a similar situation only this time you have drawn your gun and rather than ask nicely for the person to put the gun down ,you have actually shouted the order . The person does not comply and comes at you with the knife. If I was the police officer facing imminent slashing by some cretin who may or may not be partially deaf I would use my revolver every time without even thinking about whether the cretin came from a broken home.
The minority groups would no doubt insist that the police officer ,if he had to use his gun, should have aimed to hit the person in the leg or arm if that person came charging at the police officer while wielding a knife. I also have no doubt that the ranks of the minority would be thinned considerably from knife wounds ,if not death ,while trying to aim their gun at some cretin charging at them with a knife. Any person who sets out to disobey a clear cut order from a police officer to drop his weapon in my opinion deserves everything he gets. In the split second to make a decision between life and death , the police officer has every right to shoot to kill.There is no time to be selective.
So if the police officer made a decision to arrest the person by use of a taser rather than draw his gun would not that be a better solution than the distinct possibly of killing a person? Would not the use of a tazer avoid the terrible trauma that the police officer goes through if a death occurs, not to mention the family of the criminal? Surely the minority groups would support the use of tazers where appropriate in preference to fire arms?
It should not matter if the person is armed or unarmed if they set out to disobey a police order. Use of a gun or the tazer should be a matter for the police officer's judgment and not a violation of any law. Given a choice of being shot or being tazered where circumstances dictated their use I would have no doubt what choice the criminal would make regardless of whether or not it violated any law.
Learn more about this author, Barry Williams.
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Yes
Bad boys, bad boys...what you gonna do? What you gonna do when they come for you? The long-standing theme-song for the television series, COPS, dramatizes much more than just a reality TV show.
Most law-abiding citizens in America don't perceive the threat of violence or attack by police, unless or until it happens to them.
But who polices the legalized use of so called 'non-lethal' police weapons?
The Police Executive Research Forum, a national law enforcement organization, recommends police uses of 'magic-bullet' weapons, such as electric air-tasers and stun-guns, be restircted to subjects who resist officers, and should apply force for no more than five seconds per taser jolt, which delivers a shocking 50,000-volts to immobilize and control resistive behavior in typically unarmed people.
These guidelines were issued amid growing criticism of police for using stun guns too often, and sometimes with deadly results. Amnesty International has compiled a list of more than 100 deaths related to being zapped with tasers. [source: usatoday.com]
A recent report by the US Department of Justice, FBI publications, states: Tasers often leave burn marks on subjects and are not, in fact, effective in many situations.
The Rodney King incident represents perhaps the most widely witnessed failure of any tool used to control a single subject. King could not be subdued immediately, despite repeated taser applications and baton blows. Police officers across America relate similar, but less publicized, incidents.
The perfect tool for controlling subjects does not exist, and probably will not be discovered in the foreseeable future. Until that day, officers should be trained to rely on their own abilities, with the aid of equipment, rather than relying on the equipment itself to control resistive subjects. [source: fbi.gov]
Are the police in violation of the LAW when using tasers against unarmed citizens?
Law enforcement agencies have established use of force policies, training requirements, operational protocols, and safety procedures to help ensure the proper use of tasers. NO police agency has separate use-of-force policies that specifically address tasers, yet most agencies do include the USE of tasers. [source: gao.gov]
No clear-cut parameters for the use of police tasering exists. Taser laws (for private purchase and public use) are NOT applicable to peace officers, military, and corrections personnel. Law enforcement agencies regulate their own training, guidelines and uses for taser guns, with unlimited legal restrictions, including their uses of such weapons against unarmed minors and women.
CNN reports today, video of a pregnant Ohio woman, who was on the ground, face down, and partially hand-cuffed, being tasered in the neck by an arresting officer who claimed to be unaware the woman was pregnant.
Chief of police, Mike Etter of the Ohio police department was asked, did the officer do anything wrong? His response was, " There will be a full investigation into the policy for their use-of-force continuum in which the taser can be deployed." Why the taser? Chief Etter proclaimed the arresting officer WAS within policy guidelines of their agency for tasering the woman. The FBI is conducting a full investigation.
Should law enforcement agencies be allowed to establish their own use of force policies, training requirements, operational protocols, and safety procedures?
If our policing agencies are having this much trouble maintaining a legalized protocol for training, guidelines and uses of non-lethal weapons, within their own departmental policies, how can they in turn be entrusted to serve and maintain proper protections and policies for American citizens?
United States law requires twelve impartial jurors to deliberate the evidences brought against its citizens to determine the guilt or innocence and freedom of prosecuted court cases and trials. Why then, are the same 'citizens' NOT entrusted to police unlawful and inhumane law enforcement policies, treatments and procedures?
The time has come for the people in this country take back the proper control of the biggest gangsters in America, the police, and demand citizen policies for the law enforcement agencies across this country. Otherwise, every one of us, is at growing risk of physical harm and potential death, at the hands of those sworn to serve and protect.
Learn more about this author, Michelle Ann Newton.
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