[metallicat]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

It's not surprising that a couple of cops might get assaulted at a music festival. It is surprising that a grandfather and pregnant mom would get tasered at a baptism.

It's not surprising? I find it deplorable. People getting way too drunk to be able to control their actions that the assault peace officers. And the police in this particular case in the US are denying she is in fact pregnant.

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

I don't see how playing tit-for-tat with news stories helps though. There should be hundreds of examples daily where cops have done the right thing, thousands even. We don't run news stories about those events because it's what their paid to do. In fact, as the only group in society that really has a monopoly on violence, every single action of theirs should be intensely monitored, discussed, and judged, both by the public and government (internal affairs and such). They're not heroes, they're paid employees, and as their employers (society/government), we should be watching every single incident.

I'm not sure the taser ended up being the greatest idea. If the cops didn't have the taser in that situation, would they have clubbed or shot these people instead? The taser allows a casual level of violence that is too easy for a cop to justify, imo. I'm not worried about the health issues so much as the grotesque authoritarian style of it, just zapping an individual who might be drunk or upset seems (to me) to degrade the civility of our societies.

I don't recall law enforcement being entirely stumped on how to arrest people prior to the taser.

I think that is way too general of a statement to make.