Is tasering torture?

[Bullitt]

That idiot kid was drive stunned, not shot with the taser. There's a significant difference.

[queequeger]

that second video your posted was FUCKED UP, rex. That's precisely when not to use a taser... when the 120 lb woman is on the ground already...

Get out of the car or I'm going to tase you!? Fuck that. I hope that cop lost his job.

[ZenGum]

New Scientist has a discussion page about what you can do to lessen the effect of tasers.

Not much, it seems, although a thick, very conductive jacket might do the trick. And you can, it seems, build up a resistance to it. Being on PCP helps.

But folks point out that if you do thwart the taser, the next step for the cop is the 9mm.

[Undertoad]

The UN sez tasers are torture!

TASER electronic stun guns are a form of torture that can kill, a UN committee has declared after several recent deaths in North America.

"The use of these weapons causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture,'' the UN's Committee against Torture said.

"In certain cases, they can even cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life events,'' the committee of 10 experts said.

[Cloud]

it's kind of a stupid argument to me. a taser is a weapon, just like a gun or a knife. A weapon does not mean the same thing as torture.

i.e., tasers don't torture people, people do.

[Aliantha]

Well if the UN says it, it must be true huh?

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Cloud

it's kind of a stupid argument to me. a taser is a weapon, just like a gun or a knife. A weapon does not mean the same thing as torture.

i.e., tasers don't torture people, people do.

That's true. Any weapon, even non-lethal ones, can be used as instruments of torture. Shooting someone in the kneecaps when they do not pose a threat is torture.

I think the UN is trying to make the point that since tasers are 'non-lethal', police feel freer to keep zapping suspects even after they are down as an active restraint. This is in spite of the fact that most police departments make officers experience a taser as part of their training.

[binky]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Or foreplay.

my kinda guy

[Sundae]

Re Rexmons 3rd clip:
Wow - that's the best video clip I've seen yet of Don't Tase Me Bro - although it missed out what prompted the attempted removal from the hall.

It backs up my opinion that the security guards (?police?) were completely right in their actions. I understand from another thread here that if he had been tased he would have been unable to get up (unless he was on crack) therefore the whole issue is null and void as after shouting "Owwww! Owww! Owww!" etc he was escorted off the premises on his own two feet.

Anyone why carries on screaming and shouting at security guard/ police and therefore doesn't hear what they are being asked to do, deserves the sated penalty in the same way as if they are deliberately disobeying the request.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by queequeger

that second video your posted was FUCKED UP, rex...

Get out of the car or I'm going to tase you!? Fuck that. I hope that cop lost his job.

Nope, again, seems reasonable to me. She could have been on the phone to anyone. Her licence is suspended, she has a broken tail-light, her windscreen is cracked and she was speeding. She is now not co-operating with a reasonable request to get off the phone and step out of the car. She could have been alerting someone nearby to come by and shoot. She could have had a gun in the car herself, or her passenger (I think I heard her talking to one) could have.

She wasn't tased until she didn't respond to reasonable requests and was warned at least three times that she would be tased. Sorry but you know when your licence has been suspended, even if I accept some people don't realise they've been speeding. She's already a criminal, the police could not know what to expect.

I would not want to see this scene in England where car drivers do not routinely carry guns, or cannot easily phone people who do. But in the US I think it's a viable way to save wounding and death for the police.

The 1st video was fucked up, yes. But I suspect it was heavily cropped.

[wolfd]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

The UN sez tasers are torture!

.... and I say :

Guns with bullets hurt even more.

[DanaC]

Bit of a daft question really. Kind of like saying 'is knifing torture?'

Depends on what you are doing with the knife. If you've stabbed someone through the heart then it isn't torture, it's killing. If you've slashed at someone to keep them from attacking you, it's self defence. If you've tied them to a chair and started cutting them again and again in different places until they tell you what you want to know, it's torture.

[Elspode]

The woman in the first video was an ignorant bitch. She might as well have begged the cop to tase her. *I* wanted to tase her.

If she follows police instructions, she doesn't get tased. If she felt that she'd been unjustly detained, call a lawyer afterward, but the woman was operating her vehicle in apparent violation of at least a couple of laws (broken windshield, taillight out, no seat belt, and probably didn't have insurance or registration proof, from the sound of it), she became argumentative and verbally combative, and directly defied the orders of a police officer...multiple times. There wasn't one damn thing the guy said to her that she didn't argue about. She was begging to be detained and arrested. What was the cop supposed to do, physically drag her out of the car, risking greater injury to both the subject and himself? Or should he have just walked away and said, "Nevermind, lady. You've convinced me that it isn't worth the trouble"?

Looks to me like she was trying to provoke a situation whereby she might be able to sue and get a settlement somehow. Fucking waste of human space.

Sorry. Not feeling very socially tolerant this morning.

[TheMercenary]

I agree spode.

I still contend that with the proper adjustments on those things they could be used for foreplay at a much lower voltage.

[lookout123]

i'm no fan of cops, but in all honesty i was rooting for them to just shoot the stupid fuckers in the 2nd and 3rd videos. i find them guilty of wasting my oxygen.