Aggressive common sense, politics and whatever else - as I see it.
The police officers involved in the Andrew Meyer Taser incident at the University of Florida have been reinstated after being cleared of any wrongdoing. So in honer of that I have decided to post the following poll:
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Dear Sirs,
Mr. Meyers may have continued to put his questions to Senator Kerry without paying attention to the appeal to permit an answer with courtesy when Asked.
The Police proceeded to repress his speaking in a manner that was too repressive. Certainly the tasering was too extreme a measure to get his attention. He could have easily been removed without the torture they inflicted upon him. My belief is that he could have actually been allowed to finish his speech even though he was somewhat demonstrative and intent on extenuating his right to keep the floor in making his speech despite appeals for him calm to allow a reasonable response on Senator Kerry’s part. The incident disturbed me because all the people present including Senator Kerry did not act or at least prompted fast enough to prevent the unfortunate and wrongful act of tasering by the Police. He could have been allowed a little longer time to make his statement which I believe would have ended peacably.
Polk,
I think it’s clear that you do not have a full appreciation for the totality of the circumstances. According to witnesses and police reports as well as several different videos, this incident was not as simple as the police grabbing him and subsequently tasering him. IF you check this post you may understand more fully what happened and led to the events.
How can anyone feel that the use of potentially lethal force is justified in this incident? These results concern me.
We just had someone die in Vancouver, B.C. because after having a Taser used on him. It was caught on tape and should never have occurred. Five investigations are now underway but I am sure of one thing, ten years ago this incident would have resulted in bruises not death. Use of the Tazer is draconian and should only be used as a last resort.
David Hunter,
It’s pretty simple really…
The suspect in this incident put himself in a position to have force used on him - it was his choice. The “potentially lethal force” is far from being potentially lethal despite what you may hear on the news. I’ve been tazed, and literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of other people have as well the most any group can even claim are taser related deaths is a couple of hundred. The fact is that there is not a single case where the cause of death was found to be the deployment of the taser. Not a single one. What these deaths al have in common is that someone died sometime after having a taser used on them. Correlation is not causation. If it were you could just as easily say that resisting arrest is what killed them, or possibly handcuffs. I’m sure they were all breathing prior to their death - could it be oxygen that caused them to die?
I know you think I’m stretching these examples, which is fine because I am. The point is that the tasers are much less dangerous than the pepper spray, batons and other methods the officers have at their disposal. Tasers have saved countless lives and their here to stay, maybe someday the media will find something else to freak out about and people like can worry about some other unimportant - blown out of proportion issue that you now nothing about.
As a retired police officer I found the taser to be a law enforcement tool that allowed me to end a potentially violent siuation with a minimum amount of force. Before the taser became standard issue to police officers, the end result of a person who resisted police was usually physical injury. The taser allows a subject to be subdued without the roadrash that often followed rolling around on a city sidewalk with two or three officers. The taser is by far the lesser of two evils.