Posted on 09/17/2007 10:30:43 PM PDT by neverdem
Advocates for the use of stun guns by police departments like to point to evidence that they are a generally safe way to subdue aggressive suspects.
But they could probably find a better spokesman than an officer in North Carolina who volunteered to be shocked at a training class. The officer ended up in the emergency room with two spinal fractures.
The incident, involving a Taser, is described online by The Annals of Emergency Medicine. The authors of the report say it is the sole case like it they could find.
The officer was described as a healthy 38-year-old who volunteered to receive a standard five-second Taser discharge. The device usually fires two darts into its target.
But in this case, to avoid puncturing the officer’s skin, the Taser charge was conveyed through two alligator clips, said an author of the report, James E. Winslow of Wake Forest University.
Two other officers supported the volunteer as he was shocked, to make sure that he did not fall. At first, everything appeared normal, with the officer experiencing the usual pain and muscle contractions.
But he continued to suffer severe back pain, and when an ambulance took him to a hospital, doctors found two fractured vertebrae. The fractures were caused by intense muscle contractions, the report said.
Nine weeks later, the officer reported considerable continuing pain and told doctors that he had been able to return to work just part-time and at a desk job.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Just a guess, but I wonder if the officer had any underlying pathology.
Would it be better if we went back back to .38's.
Well, this settles it. Time to get rid rid of these Tasers, they are too dangerous. I guess they’ll just have to go back to using real bullets. Having a perps’ torso ripped apart by three bullets is MUCH safer than the possibility of receiving a Taser-induced spinal injury. What were we thinking??
I don’t think that this guy would be as quick to volunteer as a test subject for a five bullet .38 discharge.
This headline is pretty misleading, since he suffered fractured vertebrae due to muscle contractions, while the headline implies that he had his spinal chord severed.
I know many people who have been tased in demos like this with no permanent effects. It is still better than being shot with a few .40cal rounds or even being hit repeatedly with a baton.
Tasers are evil. time to go back to the .45 flat-nosed slugs
This is true, however if it (and it appears that it is, IE; disruptive 12 YO kids being tasered that would NEVER be shot) then it needs a second look...
I agree, but I am not really that impressed with tasers. I am not in law enforcement though and if they like them then they must be a useful tool.
If it were me I’d want a cattle prod/baton combo, M-16 and a .40 S&W for my sidearm, but that’s just me. :)
That's a good question. Abuse of anabolic steroids as well as chronic illness was associated with lower BMD(bone mineral density).
Or, to subdue a college student who dares to ask John "efin'" sKerry a question.....
Uh, where might that be? Different agencies have different policies on this, but the agency I'm most familiar with puts it in the "assualtive-high risk" category -- right there with baton strikes and personal weapons.
IE, "above" OC spray, but below deadly force.
Myself, I'd rather be TASERed than OC'd, any day. They are not perfect, but are probably the biggest advance in police work since the portable radio...
So cops should be allowed to randomly Tazer people without knowing what it feels like? If it’s so “harmless”, why shouldn’t cops be tazed in training?
Five Seconds??? That's an eternity. One second is enough to put most people down. It certainly should have been plenty for a demonstration.
Heads should roll over that incident.
Because it's not "harmelss", just less dangerous than a gun. While it's not very dangerous, it is dangerous. It seems its more dangerous for folks that are in good shape and muscular, as most young police officers are.
As someone else pointed out, you don't shoot 'em with their service sidearm to show them what *that* feels like either, not even wearing a bullet resistant vest. Nor do you beat them with a baton or asp.
Here in FL it goes like this:
1) Command presence “just being there”
2) Communication “dialogue & directions”
3) Physical control “cuffing and OC spray”
4) Intermediate weapons “Taser before ASP”
5) Incapacitation “Fists and boots”
6) Deadly force “Pistols and shotguns”
OC sucks badly (it’s not as bad as CS), but I’d rather not get Tasered.
I wouldn’t be surprised if different agencies place the Taser at slightly different levels. One county here in FL goes to the Taser *before* OC. Despite the anomalies, the FDLE has the above as the “official” version.
Hell no! Re-read my post please. I believe the Taser is bad because it minimizes the damage that desperately needs to be done to the scumbag criminal (He's *earned* his ass-beating, after all...) AND is used by cops, on cops, as a hazing ritual that is euphemistically called "training".
Once was quite enough, for me!
Do disagree about CS, vs. OC, though. But, you don't have to choose anymore. This stuff: http://www.aerko.com/aerosolweapons/freeze+p.htm is a tasty mix of both. You get the immediate effect of the CS and the long-term pain of the OC, all in one handy little canister...
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