Tasers kill in very rare cases.
Not so rare. So far it seems we're up to 758 or more.
If the officers had tried to man-handle this lady, that could also result in death. Just as unlikely.
Nowhere near. Find me a statistic that says police officers have killed 750+ people by picking them up and force-walking them to the squad car. This is a quote that's often bandied around, but it has no substance - weasel words like "could" creep in so that the intent of the phrase is actually to mislead rather than communicate.
But man-handling could very likely cause non-lethal injury to both her and the officers. That's why I said that the officers were in a no-win situation. The blame here, from what is known, should be solely on the suspect. She refused to leave. She wrestled with the officers as they attempted to handcuff her. Once she was finally in custody, she was bailed out and sent home. It was her choice to refuse to leave. It was her choice to resist arrest. I saw news footage of her at home that very night, she's fine. Of course she's playing it up as best she can, I'm sure she'll be filing law suits any day now.
As she should. There should never be a need for two heavily armed and well-trained men to electrocute one small woman in order to get her second arm into handcuffs.
"You are *not* supposed to use them like glorified cattle prods[.]"
There's nothing to indicate the police used the taser for such a reason. They used it to subdue a subject that was physically resisting arrest. That's what they're for.
No. It's not. These weapons are replacements for when an officer would otherwise shoot the suspect, they are still lethal weapons, they just don't kill as often as bullets do. That was their stated benefit. The slippery slope was too much, and now they're used *exactly* as I described - as cattle prods to subdue anyone making the police officers job anything but simple.
It doesn't appear that she was harmed, otherwise the footage that night would have been from a hospital bed.
Which is irrelevant. It is the principle that is outrageous here, not the specific case.
The officers don't appear to have been harmed either. The device worked.
Your anecdote adds little. We don't know precisely what led to the take-down. The video that circulated conveniently left that part out. For all we know, the officers did attempt to take control the same way you describe. That approach isn't always going to work, especially if she intended to cause trouble. The taser was the officer's truncheon. I'd argue it's less violent, there's no impact.
You're missing my point completely. The UK police *carry* truncheons as a part of the symbol of their authority. They very rarely get *used*. The US police appear to electrocute people who they really have no reason to. There is a massive difference there.
As for violence, the violence of the act has nothing to do with the impact potential, it has to do with the potential for damage. Strangling someone is seen as worse than breaking their leg. Being electrocuted is worse than getting a bruised arm (bones are significantly harder to break than you seem to think) because of the much greater possibility of killing the suspect.
Electric shock isn't fun, but any effects dissipate rapidly.
Sure. If it doesn't kill you.
As for firearms, that was not an element of the story, so why even bring it up? Makes me think you might be participating in this discussion mostly because you don't agree with the way our society functions. You should understand that to many of us, your officers running around without firearms is probably as appalling as you view our own. I have no issue with a well-armed citizenry. I fear a government that forbids it.
The firearms was relevant in the context of the other site, but be that as it may, I fail to see how an unarmed policeman who can't (and won't) electrocute you is appalling compared to an armed policeman who can and does.
You're correct, by the way. I used to be far more pro- the USA than I am having lived here for almost a decade. At the moment, I'm not really sure your society does function. It gets by, and from my perspective it seems to be eating itself to do so. I'm presumably someone the US wants very much to stay here - I pay a lot of taxes for example, but I'm seriously starting to think about the exit strategy. Maybe the year coming, maybe the year after, but I'm not long for this place.