Tasers pose dangers to St. Paul schoolkids

[struggle4progress]

Posted on Thu, Mar. 10, 2005
ROBIN K. MAGEE

In a reckless and ill-considered decision, St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington has armed police officers stationed in middle and high schools with Tasers. By authorizing the use of Tasers on our children, Harrington demonstrates again within a just few months his willingness to capitulate to eagerness of his officers to use force on the most vulnerable.

Tasers have been implicated in the deaths of adults nationwide, up to 85 by some reports. Last year, a St. Paul man died after a police officer repeatedly shocked him with a Taser.

Tasers are not proven safe to use on our children. Tasers have never been tested on children. Tasers hardly have been tested. Before bringing Tasers to market, Taser International only tested the Taser on a pig and a few dogs. Independent tests indicate that Tasers can be deadly. <snip>

Even in Minneapolis, which has a much more restrictive policy regarding the use of Tasers than St. Paul, officers are instructed not to substitute Tasers for deadly force, but to use deadly force when it is required. Thus, an officer will not "Tase" when he would otherwise shoot, although an officer may shoot when he intended just to "Tase. <snip>

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/business/technology/11093671.htm

[tubbacheez]

1. Need variable wattage devices.

Most police tasers are the beefy kind that can convulse a 300 lb. football player wearing a leather jacket.

Those devices would be too strong for a 100 lb. teenager wearing a t-shirt.

[ClintonTyree]

2. Now, tell me that Cops aren't on a "power trip"...............

so many of them just want to HURT somebody SO BAD! They don't care if it's a school kid, an old lady, whatever. They want to use their legal, lethal POWER!

I think it's a sexual thing. I know so many Cops that cheat on their spouses, I really do think it's a sex/power dynamic that makes them do this crap.