Taser guns 'raised deaths in custody'

Taser guns 'raised deaths in custody'

www.newscientist.com]S ource

SUDDEN deaths among people being held by police in California increased sixfold in the first year after police departments there began using Taser stun guns, according to a survey by the University of California, San Francisco. The finding appears to back Amnesty International's view that Tasers are a threat to life.

Taser International, which makes the weapons, says that the study is flawed because it relies on "suspect data sampling" from a limited number of police departments.

The researchers compared death rates in custody in the five years before and after the Taser was introduced. Death rates returned to previous levels in the second year. The UCSF team says this was probably because police changed the way they used the stun guns after the first year.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 2/5/2009 by semperfortis]

While I hate to be overly cynical, I can't help but struglle not to say the first thing that came to my mind...,

Sadly we see now that the first year of Taser use was a substitute for "Training."

I imagine the paradigm is, "Sorry 'bout the casualties, they weren't deserving of 'non-lethal' restraint anyway, right?"

[/sarcasm]

www.newscientist.com]S ource
(visit the link for the full news article)

Edit to fix links

[edit on 2/5/2009 by semperfortis]

Not sure what happened to the link...?

www.newscientist.com...

I would like to see info on the other side of the coin.

Out of the many times a taser has been used, how many lives have it helped save?

Could it be that Tasers are deemed dangerous because we normally only hear the bad news about tasers?

I am just throwing some questions out there to try to view this issue from different angles. I personally have mixed reviews about this weapon.

reply to post by jam321


Just for reference, this debate Maxmars v Zaimless: The Taser, Should It Be Banned? has some good information in it, Zaimless and I researched our butts of on this subject.

The bottom line is, I believe, that Tasers and the method of their introduction and use in law enforcement bears close scrutiny. The next 'non-lethal' weapon to come around could end in similar results if they haven't learned their lesson about indoctrinating police forces into believing that restraint is a liability.

The problem I am seeing with increasing frequency as of late is the deployment of these electrocution devices as a FIRST means of subduing an individual, when propper training in grappling / joint manipulation could easily subdue many of these people. Since these devices work on short-circuiting and disrupting the electrical impulses in the human body, it goes without saying that the two most important organs that run heavily on electric impulses---the brain and the heart---are succeptable to serious damage when overloaded with an influx of electricity. These weapons should be utilized as only a last resort to an actual GUN, not as a primary subduing tool. We're seeing a lot of the opposite in recent times...

Come on they can't be bad they come in pink and many other designer shapes and colors now. You just have to remeber to give your kids there bullet proof backpack befor they leave for school there cell phone with a keyboard and camera built in and don't forget the pretty pink tazer.