Lovely.
You found one.
"...The autopsy said methamphetamines contributed to Hasse's death.."
"Hasse, a former securities trader who was supposed to go on trial in June in the burial of a body on an Indiana farm, confronted officers in a Chicago high-rise.
Police said they used the Taser on Hasse when he tried to kick and bite officers during a struggle. He also threatened to infect paramedics with HIV."
Well, I guess they should have been required to test the poor
"gardener" for methamphetamines before tasering the lunatic. How tragic.
Ban the taser.
Ban lacrosse.
A kid here on LI suffered a tragic and unlikely death several years ago when a ball hit him right over the heart at exactly the right moment. That kid wasn't even high on meth. The human body sometimes reacts in an unpredictable manner .001% of the time. Surely he wasn't the first kid to get hit in the chest.
You let your 10 year old kid play lacrosse in light of that death? Why? So he can get a college scholarship? Is that worth the risk? Why do you get to decide? How does that benefit the public? Shouldn't lacrosse be banned in light of such risk?
The taser at least is intended to prevent the risk of injuries to the public (or cops) from someone who is acting violently, or resisting arrest. I realize the popular public opinion is that cops should have to get hurt themselves before causing any harm to a crackhead, don't shoot until actually shot at first, etc. But whether you like it or not, I'm not going to let some meth freak blow my acl out while I roll around trying to cuff him.
Those injuries happen all the time to cops. Torn up knees and herniated disks happen far too often. then you get to pay their salaries while they sit home and recuperate. Don't overdo your meth and don't resist = nobody gets tased.
If, like Vioxx, (designed to help), the taser is later shown definitively to do far more harm than good, then I'd agree, ban the taser. Right now, most scientific evidence supports it usefulness. A bullet has the potential to kill every time its used. A "roll around" causes for more injuries to the arrestee, i.e. broken bones, torn ligaments or worse. The injuries suffered by anyone in these cases is probably paid by you. Do you care?
The overwhelming majority of tased "victims" end up with no injuries or less than would have occurred otherwise. Makes sense to me. As usual, you only see half of the story posted on youtube videos and paraded through the media. When things go right, its boring.
That's all I'm going to say about the taser. I know when folks have their minds made up and I can spot an anti-cop bias from a mile away. Mostly, it makes me yawn (like donut jokes - oh, how frickin' original. I've got some lines for those clowns, in person, that regularly have their friends pointing at them and laughing while they run off in shame. What a hoot that is). But usually I don't bother to even waste my breath on this stuff. It's like trying to explain the holocaust to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that prik.
I guess I'm getting antsy for some snow to fly, to run some gates, maybe take another Steep Camp at Jackson followed by a few runs in the JH backcountry, etc. Henceforth, my tasering lesson has ended at this time. I do have skis to wax. More than you can count.