1069

MAD AS HELL: Let's Taser Them, Bro!

by Cheri Delbrocco

In a time when Washington is busy laying the groundwork for possible attacks on Iran, when the nation is facing a housing market crisis with unprecedented foreclosures, when the Senate cannot restore Habeas Corpus or give its military dwell time to rest from war, when mercenaries hired by US private contractors are being expelled by the Iraqi government for committing murder, and the quagmire gets deeper by the day, the top story on all the major news networks this past week has been the alleged botched robbery of some football memorabilia by a washed-up ex-jock outcast.

Since this miserable wretch didn't even butcher anybody this time, he doesn't deserve the favor of our attention. But now that the news media has exhausted Britney's custody battle, Lindsay's rehab, and Paris's jail-time, they are attempting to resurrect the Granddaddy of all media obsessions -- the O. J. Simpson Trial. CNN previewed a trial and possible conviction as "OJ --The Sequel," while MSNBC and other cable news channels prepared for Simpson's arrival at his arraignment on Wednesday by repeatedly cutting to shots of nothing but an empty courtroom in Las Vegas. Like a rerun of a horror movie, another O. J. circus is being conceived.

Since the last sordid O. J. frenzy, America is worse off. The price we have paid for allowing the so-called news industry to spend extraordinary amounts of our time on scandals that have no impact, whatsoever, on our lives, has been the creation of a society that is complacent, apathetic, and paranoid. Most of the problems our country faces are not being solved because we, the people, cannot stop distracting ourselves to death.

>snip<

Government snooping and spying into our personal lives have become commonplace and we are now facing an even greater danger to our personal freedoms: an enforcing of compliance. The recent tasering of a heckler during a John Kerry appearance at The University of Florida is a disturbing example.

Even more alarming, however, is the symbolism of an audience that simply sat in that lecture hall ignoring or nervously laughing while excessive police brutality was taking place before their eyes. "Don't taser me, bro!" the young man shrieked in horror, as bystanders clucked, murmured, or even giggled, meanwhile remaining motionless. They were passive voyeurs who simply watched and waited for what was going to happen to happen.

The present administration has enacted legislation, adopted policies, and threatened procedures that would have been unthinkable in 1995, when the last O. J. trial took place. On a daily basis, we are being censored, reprimanded, and persecuted for our choice of words, our clothing, and other personal expressions deemed unacceptable by those with power. Blind faith in bad leadership is no longer a requirement for being considered patriotic. It is a requirement, period. Freedom in America has been reduced to keeping our mouths shut while looking the other way. And watching.

May we refuse to be conned by these peddlers of folly who call themselves dispensers of "The News!". While they keep up with their obscene attempt to keep us deflected, diverted, and uninformed with yet another stupid scandal, let's taser them, instead, bro, by getting - need I say it? - mad as hell about the things that really matter.

link

I love this!

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bhkad

This kind of thinking makes me sick. People who like this crap are going to lead America down the path to hell.

He asked to be Tazed. He GOT what he wanted. Thus be it ever to jerks.

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But, when all is said and done, Senator McCain has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America. http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell060508.php3

Caine

What a bunch of garbage.
Any time police raise a hand to effect an arrest people scream "BRUTALITY! BRUTALITY!"

these pussies in America have no clue what Brutality is...

__________________
I voted for Bob Barr.

tryreading

About the tasing, I really don't know why those officers didn't simply wrestle that guy to the ground and cuff him. That's assuming the situation had to go that far in the first place.


A case that bothers me more, though, is one in Florida where police tased a wheelchair-bound woman 10 times and she died from it:

http://www.local6.com/news/14147512/detail.html

Caine

Because if you were paying attention he was already on the ground and still not cooperating and was not cuffed.

If you don't know.... we don't get paid to wrestle and fight, we get paid to arrest. If tazing someone is alot easier than having to wresstle and fight and risk injuring ourselves or the suspect, then we taze.

Tazing is 5 seconds of electricity. Struggling with someone who refuses to cooperate creates the possibility of pulled muscles, dislocated joints, broken bones, bruising, cuts, etc. etc.

Again, we do NOT get paid to fight... apparently thats a common misconception that we should have a fair fight with a suspect.



I'd like to figure out why the officer who activated the tazer 9 times thought she needed to do so, however, this news story doesn't have the full details of the incident. BUT it does have enough details to tell me that the officers were actually authorized to use Deadly Force (at least under my department's policy). A knife is a deadly weapon, therefore police had the authority to use deadly force if she was actively trying to stab people, (swinging knives and hammers at people according to this one news report).

Unfortunately the use of the tazer cannot ALWAYS safe lives.

But for ever rare story like this, there are approximately 250 where the proper use of the Tazer by a police officer saved lives, whether it be the lives of the police themselves, the lives of others who called for police assistance, or the lives of the suspects in a situation where the officer was otherwise authorized to use deadly force but was able to subdue the suspect using the tazer instead.

I like that last one because its one that happens often. People think police enjoy abusing their power, but with the addition of the tazer alot of suspects which would have been dead are alive today, that is a decision that is up to the individual officer involved and most of the time, the officer makes the decision that saves lives instead of kills.

1069

Anybody else see the irony in the juxtaposition of these two statements?
See it? See it? C'mon, I know you do...

Caine

I see no irony.

The problem is that people see being tazed by police as something worse than being beaten by police.

If someone attacks me... im going to taze them before Im going to beat them.
Im not going toe to toe with anyone if I don't have to, thats just stupid.

Large bruises/cuts or possibly broken bones are alot worse than two small mosquito bite sized lumps where tazer contacts have touched the skin.

tryreading

I wasn't talking about a fair fight. I guess your definition of a 'fair fight' is different than mine. Four officers vs one guy shouldn't be a fight at all.

I don't have a problem with people getting arrested even with violence when needed, but sometimes the tactics don't seem to fit the situation.

Goldenboy219

Why were midget women cops unable to handle one guy???

Affirmative action, thats why.

Caine seems like a no nonsense cop, would he have had a problem cuffing this kid by himself???

If your a strong woman who can hold her own against most scumbags, im all for woman cops. But if your 5' 140lbs, wtf are you doing enforcing the law...

Lerxst

Caine has hit the nail squarely on the head with this one. People often think that cops are paid to physically fight with people. That is simply not true. We are paid to protect the public and make arrests as needed. It is the publics obligation to comply with lawful orders...society dictates this. Just read the laws our elected officials enact. Preventing an officer getting injured by a some combative ****bag is well worth the possible fallout over somebody catching the tasing on video and then putting it on Youtube and giving it to the press. Big...F'in....Deal.

Caine's statement about the majority of people not really knowing what brutality is is also spot on. Unless you have actually seen it in person or been a part of it in some way you have no idea. Cops are in NO way as brutal as the violent offenders they arrest...or even many of the intoxicated offenders who decide they don't want to cooperate. The problem many of you have is that you don't know what it's like to be in a real fight and when you see a guy in uniform winning you get your pink panties all bunched up in your *** crack and scream brutality. Brutality is kicking a guys face into the curb or cracking him across the back of the head with a PR24 a few times. Tasing a resisting asshat is the path of least resistance with no long term effects, and it's usually safest for the officer and offender both. But some folks probably think that officers getting hurt or killed in the line of duty is just part of the package and they get paid for that kind of thing.

Bingo. Geez, I find myself finding common ground with you more and more...who would've thunk it?

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