Four RCMPs tasered a defenseless man

[James L]

Just a few personal thoughts:

1) Armchair quarterbacking, of any kind, is beyond stupid. You do not know the whole situation. You know ONLY what the media has fed you, and believe me when I say the media doesn't know the whole situation at this time. I say this not in defense of anyone, but to simply point out that emotional outbursts based on the limited information available to the public are beyond stupid. People who pass judgement based on what they see in 90 second news clips and two column newspaper articles seriously need a reality check.

2) I work personally with police everyday, and I have the utmost respect for them. Most of their armchair critics couldn't walk in their shoes if they tried. Having said that every profession, and every employer, has employees who make bad judgement calls. Processes need to be in place when these bad choices are made. Currently, there is an investigation into the process. I will wait patiently for the results, rather than believe what the media feeds me... which is often incorrect and incomplete.

3) I have personally witnessed dozens of taser episodes, and treated hundreds of people who have been tasered. imho the taser is a much safer tool to use to restrain someone than the baton is, or pepper spray is. Pepper spray is borderline useless on many people, and it always contaminates everyone in the vicinity. Batons eventually work, but it often takes many blows to subdue someone, resulting in broken bones and many other injuries that take time to heal. 99% of the people I have seen tasered (personally, not on tv or on youtube) get up and walk away within minutes. Police officers are tasered in most police academies so they know what it feels like. Reporters have been tasered. I was tasered once during a training course.

Final thoughts:

The police in British Columbia go to hundreds of thousands of calls per year. You only hear about the bad ones on tv. What you see on tv, and on the internet, is NOT the whole story. Rather than armchair quarterbacking wait for the official findings. If these particular officers require retraining or disciplinary action so be it. And, if you can't quit armchair quarterbacking, feel free to become a police officer and see how well you do.

 

[aquajet]

Armchair quarterbacking, of any kind, is beyond stupid.

Since you apparantly haven't noticed, actual video without the newscaster BS is readily available for many of these instances. At least in the case posted by solvs, there really isn't a whole lot to argue about. This same video is the primary piece of evidence which will be used in any formal investigation.

Thanks for you crass comments anyhow.

 

[teflon]

It doesn't matter if someone can't survive a day if they had to be in police officers' shoes. We don't have to, THEY DO. You choose the profession, you have to deal with the consequences and responsibilities. If you can't handle it, switch career. That's like saying people that criticize Bush are stupid because they probably can't survive a day being the president. IT DOESN'T MATTER. They didn't choose the job. I don't need to be able to be a good police officer, if I am, why would I need them? I'm sure a police officer wouldn't be able to walk in a doctor's shoe if they tried. Doesn't mean if a doctor misdiagnosed and/or mistreated them due to utter ignorance and laziness doesn't deserve criticism. I'm not attacking anyone, I understand that if you work with the police and personally know them the points of views would be different. I think most people if not all know that most police are not bad people. But there are some that are and that's what's happened in this case. It doesn't matter if most of them are good, that still doesn't give the right for just a few individual to act irresponsibly.

 

[~David]

This thread is going way out of bounds.

Like I said in my previous post, none of us know what actually happened and we probably won't know for a long time.

So until that time comes, why don't we all just keep to our selves with our opinions and speculation?

 

[solvs]

So until that time comes, why don't we all just keep to our selves with our opinions and speculation?

We'll probably never know more than we've already seen in the videos. I don't know what more needs to be known to see this was over the top though. We can speak our opinions based on what we've seen all we want, that's what forums like these are for. You can disagree, fine, but I would suggest looking more into the story yourself and watching the videos, or watching them again if you have already. It's clear the officers in both situations had other options, but immediately went to the taser without provocation. Then they lie about it. In the first case, until the video came out, the official story was different. In the one I posted, he lies to the officer who comes later, despite the video clearly showing what actually happened. It's the their job to keep things calm in those situations, not make things worse. If we keep it to ourselves, and didn't complain about it, the case wouldn't be investigated and there would be no consequences, allowing to happen again. And again. And no one should want that. There should at least be an investigation. Or, you know, if they didn't do it in the first place.

And again, this is not against all cops, just these particular ones, who make the rest look bad.

 

[Sun Baked]

Well one US police department ordered cop cams for their entire force.

Hopefully these types of handy devices catch on quicker than the dash cams.

 

[Iscariot]

Just a few personal thoughts:

1) Armchair quarterbacking, of any kind, is beyond stupid. You do not know the whole situation. You know ONLY what the media has fed you, and believe me when I say the media doesn't know the whole situation at this time. I say this not in defense of anyone, but to simply point out that emotional outbursts based on the limited information available to the public are beyond stupid. People who pass judgement based on what they see in 90 second news clips and two column newspaper articles seriously need a reality check.

2) I work personally with police everyday, and I have the utmost respect for them. Most of their armchair critics couldn't walk in their shoes if they tried. Having said that every profession, and every employer, has employees who make bad judgement calls. Processes need to be in place when these bad choices are made. Currently, there is an investigation into the process. I will wait patiently for the results, rather than believe what the media feeds me... which is often incorrect and incomplete.

3) I have personally witnessed dozens of taser episodes, and treated hundreds of people who have been tasered. imho the taser is a much safer tool to use to restrain someone than the baton is, or pepper spray is. Pepper spray is borderline useless on many people, and it always contaminates everyone in the vicinity. Batons eventually work, but it often takes many blows to subdue someone, resulting in broken bones and many other injuries that take time to heal. 99% of the people I have seen tasered (personally, not on tv or on youtube) get up and walk away within minutes. Police officers are tasered in most police academies so they know what it feels like. Reporters have been tasered. I was tasered once during a training course.

Final thoughts:

The police in British Columbia go to hundreds of thousands of calls per year. You only hear about the bad ones on tv. What you see on tv, and on the internet, is NOT the whole story. Rather than armchair quarterbacking wait for the official findings. If these particular officers require retraining or disciplinary action so be it. And, if you can't quit armchair quarterbacking, feel free to become a police officer and see how well you do.

And therein lies the problem. People overestimate the safety of tasers, just like they overestimate the safety of a 4 wheel drive vehicle.