Posted on 03/07/2004 5:37:40 AM PST by Born Conservative
SEATTLE -- The police here have had their share of high-profile violent or deadly run-ins with protesters, mentally ill suspects and other lawbreakers. But in 2003, for the first time in 15 years, no one here was shot and killed by the police.
Miami, a city with a long history of police shootings and ensuing civil unrest, had no police shootings last year, fatal or otherwise, for the first time in 14 years. In Phoenix, where over the last several years such shootings reached a level that far outpaced the rates of much larger cities, deadly police shootings fell sharply in 2003, to their lowest rate in 14 years.
In these cities and in a fast-growing number of the nation's police departments, officers are carrying a slick new weapon, the Taser gun, which looks a lot like a pistol but does not shoot to kill.
Though officials say the Taser gun, which fires a stunning jolt of electricity, is not solely responsible for a decline in police killings, many departments say it has made a huge difference. Its supporters say the Taser is saving lives, protecting officers and suspects in stand-offs that might otherwise have left someone dead or seriously injured.
"This is 100 percent more humane," said officer Tom Burns, who has carried a Taser gun for the past two and a half years on bicycle patrol in Seattle.
But as the Taser spreads rapidly, it is raising questions about whether the weapon, which also can be applied directly to the skin as a stun gun, could be abused by the police. The Taser zaps suspects with 50,000 volts of electricity...
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
I don't believe the NYT was part of the settlement with FR. The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times were two, but not the NYT.
Just FYI.
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