Friday, July 11, 2008

When tazers don't cut it ...

Police officers are often confronted with unruly people ... it comes with the territory, but sometimes, the situation gets nasty.

When confronted with a man who charged at them with sharp objects, policemen turned to a taser to subdue their attacker ... to no aveil. Well, the article sais that tasers didn't work, without going into great detail.

Now, instead of turning to normal guns or blunt objects (nightsticks), these policemen had a medical team on standby. They subdued the attacker and gave him an injection with an amnesiac/sedative ... the assailant was then brought to a psychiatry unit of a nearby hospital where he recieved treatment.

Many a people are upset over the practice of injecting people with drugs to be able to subdue them. I can understand that, but I have no more problems with that than with the casual use of tasers, and far less problems than with the use of blunt force or a choke hold. Maybe they will manage to use a subdermal injector in the future, making it accesible to more people ... all of this is a different story however.

Fact of the matter is: a taser can be a wonderfull defensive weapon and law enforcement tool, but it is not guaranteed to work ... they can fail. Guns can fail too, pretty much everything is prone to malfunction in some way I suppose. Point is: if you feel the need to carry a weapon for self defence: pick something dependable and effective.

Now before I finish this up, I'd like to call whatever jackass that let a clearly inebriated man sign a legal document a jackass, and I'd like to commend the arresting officers, who -to the best of my knowledge- showed great restraint and saved at least one life.

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