Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Biological lobotomies

I have to go with Digby and Charles Pierce on this one, having seen the video, there's not a goddamn reason on earth to tazer this kid.



The kid was a moron -- shocking I know, in a teenaged boy -- but no threat to anyone. Arrest him yes, but he was clearly just being an idiot, which should require punishment BUT NOT TORTURE. And notice, that yes, it goes on a while, but the security guy is aiming the tazer from early on (look at about :07 when he comes into the shot from left), he just couldn't get a shot.

Yeah, he shouldn't be running on the field, but crowd control like this is fucking torture (and yes, it can kill you), not proper security work. Yet too many people cheer it on like a blood(volt) sport.

It is supposed to be a non-lethal option for police -- Let's not even get into why some security guard is packing one at the ballpark. -- to employ when they are threatened. Too often, however, they are being used simply as a method of control. When they are used as such, they become instruments of torture, pure and simple. The guard in Philadelphia wasn't being threatened. He just couldn't catch the kid. "Non-compliance," while inconvenient, is far too baggy a term to be very helpful, and it certainly is not a serious enough offense to warrant having a thousand-odd volts fired into your torso.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's way to much tazering being used on everyone from traffic violators to kids being jerks. Who was being physically threatened by this particular boy? No one.
Tazers are way to easy to use, to get and to deploy. We've had deaths of people in MN from these things that should never have been used in the situation.

-mnkid

Athenawise said...

Aw, c'mon. It's what any red-blooded all-'Murcan law enforcement person would do.

Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs! said...

Psychic prediction--- you heard it here first!

GOPers will remain 100% in favor of Tasering people until some political demonstration in the future when white GOPers get tased by a black cop in Washington DC.

THEN the GOP will be outraged, OUTRAGED, I tell you!

Does that sound about right, OnAn?

Oblio's Cap said...

I'm sick of all of the TV announcers trying to justify the cop's ruthless behaavior.

But this is Amerika, and you only get one screw-up. For which you must pay a disproportional amount of punishment for the rest of your life. Because we're exceptional, Be-atchs!

Elliott said...

In an interview, the kid said he saw that the cop was older so he slowed down a little for him, and for that he got tazed.

pansypoo said...

um. it was amusing, which is why i think cops LOVE using it, TOO MUCH. gives them a bloodless power trip.

Montag said...

When cops start tasering people for being assholes, the Repugs and the teabaggers are in big trouble....

Raoul Paste said...

Huge overreaction by the cop involved.

Now if someone was being threatened, oh, lets say like some harmless ladies counting votes in Florida in 2000 with a bunch of bussed-in thugs screaming and pounding on the door, then I might have a different opinion.

jimmiraybob said...

The kid was a moron --

Redundant much? Having been through the 17 year old stage and survived I'm somewhat empathetic to his plight. Instead of buying the ballpark cops tasers I'd suggest gym memberships.