Monday, April 26, 2010

Can You Do ANYTHING While Black?

Digby has the latest taser horror story. It starts out like this...police see a black man riding a bicycle without a headlight.

It ends with a DOA at the hospital.

Digby sums up perfectly:
I think tasers are unconstitutional, authoritarian torture weapons that have no place in a civilized society. No government should have the power to electrocute citizens and cause them great pain -- even briefly -- in order to make them comply on nothing more than a policeman's whim.

(I haven't had the chance to weigh in on the bullshit new law in Arizona, but this is very likely to be the type of unintended consequence that could result in unnecessary, aggressive policing of the populace there.)

2 comments:

Noah said...

Who the fuck are we??

steves said...

I think that tasers can be used in a reasonable manner, but the problem is that there are a certain percentage of people in LE that enjoy power and are just waiting for the chance to hurt someone. If you took away the taser, these same cops would just go all Rodney King with their nightsticks or just shoot them with their sidearms.

I think a better goal should be to identify these assholes and get them kicked out police work.