Non-Lethal Force

A few thoughts on the use of tasers:

-There are no easy answers.

-The decision to use any kind of force against a person should be carefully made, whether that force is intended to be lethal or non-lethal. The decision to cause a person the kind of pain a blast from a taser brings should not be an easy one, nor should it be hastily made.

-Too many people are dying after receiving taser shocks to keep referring to use of the weapon as non-lethal force, whether or not there were other factors that contributed to the deaths of those people. And speaking of those other factors, police need to find another way to deal with people with who are in the state of delerium described in the article. Do police forces have doctors on call?

-The story that is making news this week about the man who died in the Vancouver airport is a tragedy of epic proportions. That nobody appears to have made an attempt to communicate with the man in a language he knew, that he died in pain, confused, distressed, tired, and alone is heart-breaking.

-The incident in Vancouver, and the incident in the airport in Arizona cause me to wonder if there isn't something wrong with the way that the air travel industry supports passengers in distress.