Tasers used on KIDS??

[crimresearch]

The concearn over less than lethal weapons is that the police will be trigger happy since they figure no one will get killed.

In Boston after the big Red SOx win the police had to deal with rowdy fans in the street. A women was killed when she was hit in the eye by one of those "usually not leathal" rubber bullets or sumthin. It caused quite a contraversy. Espeically since the cop wasnt trained on how to use the thing. (can you say "lawsuit".)

Where exactly is your link to the information that the officer in Boston wasn't trained?

All I can find is that he was "...certified to train officers on the use of the weapon"

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/rockies/article/0,1299,DRMN_19_3326179,00.html

And "...certified as a trainer to instruct on the use of the weapon."

http://nsnlb.us.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041114/NEWS02/111140070/-1/news

And "An eight-year Boston police veteran who is a certified instructor in the use of a ``less-lethal'' pepper-spray gun..."

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=53869


It would pretty unusual for a major department like Boston to pay for instructor certification for this officer, but to refuse to allow him to be trained on how to use it himself as you allege.

 

[Tmy]

I just remembered the press coverage that the cop wasnt trained. Maybe it was wrong.

Couldve been trained all that good if he hit someone in the face.

 

[kookbreaker]

Nope. I don't understand why they are illegal. Especially since BB guns aren't illegal anywhere, as far as I know, and those are certainly more dangerous, and at a longer range.

The likely answer? I couple of bad cops or bad kids used their tasers to torture a suspect or a kid they didn't like. The media got wind and made a big stink about how these taser things 'can be got anywhere!' and 'don't need regristration like a gun'. The knee jerk reaction is to ban them outright.

There was a similar reaction when some kids filled their super-soakers with bleach and fired at other kids. Ban them! Some cried. Maybe when someone pointed out a bottle of bleach can be splashed at someone with evn more effective results they realised their bleach bottle might become a victim of the ban.

 

[kookbreaker]

Couldve been trained all that good if he hit someone in the face.

Depends, what is the accuracy of such bullets? Can't imagine something low-velocity can be as accurate as a regular bullet.

Also, if he was aiming for the center-of-mass for the average Neanderthal male sports fan, that might end up being face level for a shorter person.

 

[gnome]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Tasers used on KIDS??

Lol. Are you being ironic? America is the land of litigation madness. You can sue for anything, and everyone does. Especially for police actions. We had a local case a few years ago where a family sued the city over the actions of police--the cops shot a guy who was trying to run them down with his car. The guy's family argued it was completely unnecessary, those cops should have let themselves been run over, and can we have twenty million dollars for our loss? And whenever there's a car chase, the cops get in trouble for pursuing the criminals, to the extent that the city actually considered ordering cops to let anyone get away if they began fleeing in a car. Yeah, that'll work.

I am very skeptical of this local incident--and if it's exaggerated, such exaggeration is a pet peeve of mine.

I'll eat my shoe if that's actually what their argument was... got any checkable details? Not every person that files a lawsuit is suing over the stupidest reason possible, and every anecdote that insinuates so, only increases false contempt for the judicial process, and makes legitimate cases more difficult.

Also, did they win? A story like that, intended to provoke, should at least say whether it worked. If it got laughed out of the courtroom, like it should have, that isn't an indictment of the legal system or an indication that cops are screwed in court.

 

[crimresearch]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Tasers used on KIDS??

I am very skeptical of this local incident--and if it's exaggerated, such exaggeration is a pet peeve of mine.

I'll eat my shoe if that's actually what their argument was... got any checkable details? Not every person that files a lawsuit is suing over the stupidest reason possible, and every anecdote that insinuates so, only increases false contempt for the judicial process, and makes legitimate cases more difficult.

Also, did they win? A story like that, intended to provoke, should at least say whether it worked. If it got laughed out of the courtroom, like it should have, that isn't an indictment of the legal system.

The police pursuit cases are verifiable, and numerous, eventually culminating in the Lewis USSC ruling.

As far as what people say that police 'should have done' to the press when filing a lawsuit, a lot of it has to be taken with grains of salt. Press conferences on the courthouse steps don't have the same requirements as the clerk's office.

I recall discussion of a case in Florida where it was *claimed* that a deputy should have shot the tires off of a van trying to run him over, but I doubt if that was accepted by a court.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Tasers used on KIDS??

I am very skeptical of this local incident--and if it's exaggerated, such exaggeration is a pet peeve of mine.

I'll eat my shoe if that's actually what their argument was... got any checkable details? Not every person that files a lawsuit is suing over the stupidest reason possible, and every anecdote that insinuates so, only increases false contempt for the judicial process, and makes legitimate cases more difficult.

Also, did they win? A story like that, intended to provoke, should at least say whether it worked. If it got laughed out of the courtroom, like it should have, that isn't an indictment of the legal system or an indication that cops are screwed in court.

I tried to look for the story online when I posted it, but our crappy local paper doesn't archive things online. It was over a year ago. I think the family was finally persuaded to drop the suit, or else they got a settlement and it all went away quietly. It wasn't news by then, of course. I know they didn't win, although it probably interfered with the cops' careers. Suspensions don't look good, regardless of how they turn out.

Sorry I don't have the details. Feel free to dismiss it as anecdote, I don't mind. Thanks for at least being polite; many on this board would have accused me of deliberately lying, then dissected every post I've ever made, line by line, and heaped abuse and scorn on the monkey.

I tried a bit of Googling, but it's hard to get relevant hits on this. The city was Chesapeake, Virginia, and the kid was a teenager, but without his name or the cops' names, I didn't find it. I'm not even sure when it happened--between 2000 and 2002 is the closest I can narrow it down. Sorry!