We both agree that pain compliance are legit, letal and effect part of the force continuum. Further, based on your recommendation to use pain compliance, you agree that pain compliance was required in this situation. So what is really the disagreement is the use of which technique. Read the article that I supplied. Corotid artery blunt trama has a 23% Mortality rate - that is high enough to take it into the leathal force category. Compare that to the taser http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3800082. The documented mortality rate for taser in this study is <2%.
So lets go back to the force continuum. Use the least amount of force to acheive compliance that causes the least injury or risk of death. That is why there are limits on things like choke holds and sleeper holds. And no, we are not talking about severing the artery. All that was necssary was trama such as the applying of too much blunt force. Taser mortality rates are extreamly low. The mortality rate for corotid artery trama is extreamly high.
I also vigorously disagree that use of a stun gun is lower on the force continuum than the use of a pain compliance hold.
I disagree that the police officer did the right thing in this instance, that he had better options available to him and the reason he did not utilize them was most likely due to not knowing about them i.e. lack of training.
If his training was so poor perhaps it is the best thing for the dept to be eliminated.
I disagree with you referring to me as an armchair quarterback who clearly does not know what they are talking about.
I will be glad to accept your apology on this last point =)