Monday, March 31, 2008

Rummies gettin' tased.

Everyone normally thinks of Canada as a pretty laid back place. The home of Maple Syrup (yum!), hockey (fuck yeah!), and curling... Anyways, it turns out that Canada isn't that great if you're that loud and disorderly kind of drunk. A recently revealed report on taser usage showed that there is a pattern emerging of Canuck cops routinely using tasers as a first line to subdue boisterous rummies.

A Canadian Press analysis last November of 563 cases between 2002 and 2005 found three in four suspects Tasered by the RCMP were unarmed.

Several of those reports suggested a pattern of stun-gun use as a convenient means of keeping drunk or rowdy people in line, rather than to defuse major clashes.

- Source


Now, I understand the need for cops to control people when they're getting out of hand. I've seen my share of out-of-hand drunks. I've even been one of them before. A few times... Ahem. But it seems that tasers have become somewhat of a crutch for many cops. If a subject simply will not comply (such as Andrew Meyer) then the use of a taser is justified, and usually much better in the long run. Numerous subjects have died because they refused to submit causing an escalation of needed force. The taser gives that easy way to force submission without exerting extreme physical pressure. The problem becomes when law enforcement thinks it can be used as an immediate form to create instant compliance. Either way, if you're drunk in Canada, behave yourself.

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