Quote:
Originally Posted by oilers_fan
They were trying to arrest him you guys. Did you think all of that wrestling was just so that they could tase him? Give me a break. The guy was obviously actively resisting and defying orders.
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So... defy orders and the next step is the taser?
I don't think so. Tasers are actually pretty dangerous--hundreds of people have died from it, and it can cause respiratory distress or cardiac arrhythmia.
Think of it this way: if they didn't have tasers, would you be okay with them beating the crap out of this guy with their nightsticks? Didn't think so: because we don't live in a fascist state where police can apply whatever force they want to regardless of the nature of the threat.
No-one's saying "don't arrest him." I'm just saying--three cops can easily slap cuffs on a guy and lead him away without risking injury or death with a taser. He's a doughy street magician, not a grizzly bear.
And an important issue to consider here is this: No-one was being threatened, no-one was in danger. If it takes a few extra minutes to secure the arrest, then that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Tasers are not an implement of convenience--they're a tool for subduing suspects that could be dangerous. In other words: they should be applied when the danger to the suspect is outweighed by the threat to public safety that the suspect represents.
Pretty simple. This incident, as much as we may all want to make fun of the dude's anatomy, doesn't meet that very basic test. It would be different if he was behaving lewdly, or attacking someone, or something that made the threat a bit more urgent. But he wasn't; he was just standing there in the buff like a big doughy weirdo. Clearly, cooler heads should have prevailed.