Police to get Taser guns.

[VictorianSqualor]

Story here
What do you think?
Wrong or right?

I'd rather they have tasers than real guns. Maybe Jean Charles de Menezes would still be alive today if the police had already been issued with tasers.

Hmm.
I'm not sure how I feel about it.
Is it just a step closer to all officers ending up with guns?
How long before tasers are as common place as captor spray and batons?

they always look really hard to use. i imagine they'll be alot of 'accidents'

It could just be my perception, but the type of crime committed seems to be getting more violent ... somehow a policeman armed with a baton and pepper spray just doesn't seem a fair fight ...

I have thought that too, at least with regards to youths attacking adults.
Gang mentality (by which I mean a gang of people, not actual Gangs)seems to be, by and large, a lot scarier than when I was a teenager.

Better than guns (and if I were an officer I'd bloody well insist on carrying a machine gun), but they may be more likely to use them since they are (mostly) not fatal and I think getting hit with one is pretty nasty.

Be really careful not to look forrin or shifty.

Pepper spray is quite bad too. I saw a thing on TV where some guy volunteered to be sprayed to demonstrate how non-violent it was. He was in agony and yelling his head off which kind of spoilt the whole thing.

I think the police need something - and at least tasers aren't fatal - I would need a proper gun if I were a policewoman - you think of all the little bastards running around with knifes and such like and all the poor copper has is a wooden stick!

LOL. Not quite a wooden stick but I get your point.
I worry that the moment police officers scale up on their weapons, criminals will do the same and the gun culture is bad enough already.

I think criminals have far worse weapons than the police already.

Its only going to be police who are trained as 'conflict' specialists who are going to have them - ie riot police etc as these are the ones who are most in need of appropriate equipment - it won't just be your average copper on the beat or neighbourhood officer.

Not generally they don't. Your average criminal doesn't carry a gun but the thought of being tasered might encourage them to.

v bad idea imo.
one step closer to real guns.

agree with vs criminals are generally not armed but as soon as the police are the majority of criminals will be.
making it worse for all of us.

Isn't the whole point that the home sec wants them rolled out so it won't just be firearms officers? Very dangerous. Give people weapons and they will be inclined to use them. And I'm sure I recall Amnesty saying Tasers have killed people and caused serious injury in the US - and been used for really trivial stuff, too. We always seem to end up copying the worst ideas from America, rather than the best.

What about pregnant women/people with epilepsy/people who are thrown to the ground and hit their heads? And that's just for starters...

The TImes story says the hOme sec wants them to to to 30,000 officers. And they will use them against drunks - so heaven help any diabetics or people with head injuries.

With DP being a police officer I'm all for the police having things to protect them but it just seems a VERY dangerous thing for them to have.
On one hand I think 'Well, don't commit crimes and get violent towards the officers in the first place and you'll be fine' but on the other I worry about officers that could get a bit taser happy, and as I already said, the way the criminals will react and what will be their next step in the arms race..

An awful lot of criminals do carry weapons though. Not just guns, but many carry various types of knives. Others carry homemade weaons - normally something very heavy to hit someone with if caught or involved with assault type offences. I think I could say that most of my clients have carried or used a weapon at some point.

I don't think police carrying tasers would make criminals more liely to carry more weapons. They don;t seem to think like that. They think they will get away with it, not that they will have to fight off the police. The weapons are for their victims rather than the police.

And I didn;t think it waqs going to be all police who would carry them; just a response type unit who will be trained to use them?

I'd say that your average criminal does carry a weapon of some sort - yes not a gun, but definitely a knife of something similar. I agree the weapons are not for the police but their victims - the police are just viewed by criminals as an inconvenience.

I don't think officers will get trigger happy with them - dh is also a police officer and has yet to use his gas and only had to raise his baton once dispite being in a number of high risk situations. The police use other strategies as well as force/threatening of weapons.

They won't be used willy nilly against drunks etc - it will only be used as a serious response to a genuine danger - either to themselves or those around them.

Was talking to a police officer the other day. Only time she had ever used her baton was to smash someone's door window because he had locked himself out.

I have no problem with the arming of the police - they do a thankless, dangerous job and if a Tazer gun makes the job easier - I am all for it...

What edam said (as usual)

GIVE EM PROPER GUNS shoot people proper i say

Did Jacqui test them out? I think the least she could do is be tasered on TV to demonstrate how safe they are.

people are killed by taser guns

I think my big concern, aside from the general concerns I have about the police and weapons use, would be that because they are percieved as a relatively safe way to subdue people, they would be given to officers with less training. I suspect you'd see a real rise in incidents like the death of Harry Stanley ({here}

Tasers would only be given to officers in specialist roles - ie riot police etc - and those who are already armed - ie traffic police and armed response who have them already.

I imagine that the amount of paperwork that you have to complete if you actually use a taser is enough to put you off using one in the first place.