Even Guntards Don't Deserve Tasing

If they're not armed, just point and laugh until they go away or give themselves a stroke.

Digby:

Here's a test for your princples against police use of tasers: a heckler at a gun control rally was tasered by police for shouting at a victim of gun violence:

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Yes, this person is definitely a creep. But ... he didn't physically threaten anyone, did he? Indeed, his resistance, like many people, seems to be a reaction to being shot through with electricity, not the cause of it. It seems to me to be a rather natural reaction.

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I completely disagree with his stand on guns and yes, we should probably all be more polite in general. But I think the police could have handled the situation without deploying a taser. They used to be able to do it all the time. Even gun nut hecklers don't deserve to get shot through with 50,000 volts merely for expressing their opinion, however vociferously, at a public rally.

Meanwhile, the search for a police department that trains its officers to handle non-violent situations in non-violent ways continues.

Pam's House Blend:

This is madness. I haven’t posted a Taser piece in a while, but this abuse of the “non-lethal” shock device is outrageous. Since when is an unarmed, naked child on the side of the road a threat to a law enforcement officer? This occurred in Ashland, Oregon, where motorist Adam Bednar saw her wandering at 4 AM.

Bednar says he drove alongside her while he called police. He says the trooper who arrived called for her to stop, and when she didn’t respond threatened twice to taze her. After giving no response, two little red dots appeared on her back, then metal barbs.

“She seized up and she fell face first on the ground,” said Bednar.

State police officials say it was necessary to prevent her from wandering further into the road and putting herself in danger. Bednar, who helped troopers apprehend the girl on the hood of his car, says he isn’t so sure.

“She wasn’t going off the road, she was set on walking down the freeway,” said Bednar. “And I think that, had [the trooper] waited for back up, they could have gotten her without the Taser.”

Didn’t wait for backup, didn’t use what should have been standard police training to physically subdue the child (how about tackling, wrestling her to the ground, blocking her path with the vehicle, anything — are these not procedure anymore?). The girl, who was unaware of her surroundings — she has severe autism — was returned to her family and not charged with any crime.

 Not madness. Laziness. And disrespect.