Did you know that Tasers have been involved in more than three hundred deaths?
Dozens of others have suffered Taser-related injuries. I respect that sometimes force is needed to subdue a non-compliant suspect. And I'm not suggesting that police shouldn't defend themselves against violent attacks.
However, because Tasers are classified as "non-lethal" they are not routinely used to protect cops from deadly force – guns do that.
You shouldn't have to die because you're being unruly. We are a better country than that...
Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have long argued that most of the deaths associated with Tasers are related to multiple uses or prolonged usage of the weapon on the same person. Since 2001, there have been over 300 deaths that Amnesty has studied where Tasers were involved - a significant number involved either multiple uses or prolonged usage of the Taser. In over 20 of those cases, coroners have listed Tasers as the contributing factor. In only 10 percent of the cases was the Tasered individual actually carrying a weapon.
We are not against Taser use as an alternative to deadly force. We are however against Taser abuse by rogue cops who consider the Taser an apartheid electrocution whip of the 21st century
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It stuns me that anyone would think that the police are justified in killing this young man. He did not have a weapon. Police said Turner had been threatening the officer after having disagreement with his employer. It just seems that the penalty for disagreeing with your Food Lion boss should not be execution
1. "Threatening an officer" is not exactly a smart move on anyone's part! No matter how angry a person may be, threatening a police officer is a sure recipe to get tasered or otherwise put out of commission. Mr. Turner's death is regretable certainly, but perhaps it will serve as notice to other angry people to be cautious about what you say or do to a police officer.
Censored All the Time at 12:38PM on Jul 15th 2008