Theres a movement starting to removed police from using tasers. Opponents sited 150 supposed deaths since their widespread use.
Tasers came to be universally used because the same people that are now whining about tasers whined about nightsticks, billyclubs, truncheons, batons whatever you want to call them and wanted police to stop using them, so police went to tasers. Police have to physically deal with people every day, they need a non lethal method of getting into custody and securing individuals that are OUT OF CONTROL and violent.
Some people have such hatred of police that they refused to even try to understand what they really do daily. The lionshare of police are ALONE in a patrol care and initially respond ALONE to any 911 calls in thier zone if they use the zone system. Its unreasonable to expect officers that are ARMED to resort to constant physical altercations to individuals that are out of control, mentally ill, on drugs, drunk or just outright violent.
Many physical altercations with police involve the officer protecting his Weapon rather than himself to keep the person from taking his gun.
In the age of reduced qualifications in size for Police and having many female officers its outrageus for people to want to disarm their non lethal ability to control. It will resort in more police shootings, more police shootings of citizens and cost cities a FORTUNE in officer injuries and resulting pay for recovery and disability lawsuits.
So what do we replace tasers with ? go back to batons ? lead slappers ? or how would citizens love to pay more taxs to go back to 2 police officers in every vehicle. Do we provide every officer with other non lethal projectile launchers, sand, rubber rounds.
In the end people must realize police are out there night and day dealing with everything everyone else does not want to. They deal with people having mental episodes of violence. Bath salt users that eat faces and can withstand 5 40caliber rounds and still move forward.
They must have a less lethal means for control and self defense. There is nothing that is non-lethal, there are means that are far less lethal
If we took the number of tasered individuals and compare it to the number of deaths its miniscule. I realize that any death is meaningful and unfortunate but we must understand the entire circumstances and the environement they are used