Shocking Allegations

The big story of the past couple of weeks has been over Tasers and whether or not they should be used by police. This comes after the death of a Polish man at Vancouver airport after he was allegedly shocked by police. Let's start with the basics. Taser is a brand name for a device that's commonly referred to as a stun gun. The device sends 20,000 volts of electricity into a person's body via two electrodes causing muscle contractions and rendering a person immobile. Getting shocked hurts a lot but doesn't cause any lasting effects. That's because the amperage is too low to cause any damage. It works on the same principle as an electric fence. Tests by various safety auditors have show the Taser to be relatively safe. Police officers themselves are shocked as part of training to use the device. Still, some people have died from being shocked by a Taser.

By now, you've probably all seen the video of the Polish man. Judging by his facial expressions, he did not appear to be in a normal mental state. He tried to attack police and that's when they shocked him. Unfortunately, he died shortly after the shock was administered. This has sparked an outcry from the man's family, the government of Poland, and several advocacy groups. They now want Taser use by police banned and are demanding a full public inquiry regarding the issue. I can say now that such an inquiry, like most public inquiries, will be a complete waste of tax payer dollars. Interestingly enough, as one Toronto radio show pointed out, many of the people now calling for the banning of stun guns were the same people who called them to be brought in. The gun itself is a method of non-lethal force designed to control people who are violently resisting arrest. The two benefits are that it gives police something else to resort too other than their firearm, and it drastically reduces risk of injury to the officer and the criminal. Between 2001 and 2007, some 245 deaths occurred after an individual was shocked with the weapon world wide. Of those, only seven were believed to have been directly caused by the device itself. Based on these statistics, it cannot be proven that the device kills people. Doctors in BC aren't sure the Taser caused the Polish man's death. He could have had an underlying heart condition that nobody was aware of. In a situation of danger, can we really expect police to ask if some person is medically fit for the device to be used on them? Of course not. Should there be restrictions on the use of tasers? Of course. They should not be used on individuals who are not resisting police, on minors under 14, on the elderly, or as a method of torture. These are common sense. The fact is that the device does give police an alternative to using force that could harm someone. You can either shoot someone running away from police in the leg, which would cause permanent damage, or you can shock them. The police aren't out there using the device to randomly oppress and torture the public. That's not their job and they'd be fired it they did. Police need alternatives, and seven deaths world wide in six years is not enough to justify a ban.