I have been following the stories of police tasing various people see (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…) for a while now, and even cases where police were fired for not tasing. So it is not surprising that after tasing pregnant women, police would also tase a deaf man.
It is every deaf person’s nightmare to be in that scenario, with a tase- or gun-happy police officer who has to make a snap judgment whether to kill you or listen to your pleas that you can’t hear. Pleas which a hearing person can very well make too.
However what is more troubling is that tasers are revealing how police tend to err on the side of stepping on our civil liberties versus putting themselves at the slightest risk. Tase first, ask questions later, seems to be the mantra here. Police seem to be encouraged to apply force in more and more situations, rather than speak softly.
That said, its my opinion that tasers are better than nightsticks (see picture). Tasers have less impact on the body, no blood, and the pain only lasts as long as the officer has his finger on the button — with a maxmium duration of 30 seconds. A broken bone lasts months.
Also, tasers have accountability — they leave a trail of evidence and record video that make it much easier to review an officer’s conduct.
Would you rather be beat up with a nightstick or zapped with a taser? I’ll pick the taser anytime.
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31 Comments
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I have a cochlear implant, as do many deaf people. A taser might be fatal for us. I hope never to come in contact with a taser-happy cop.
Taser is considered fatal for some people, because of electrical jolt, that comes with high voltage. People who were tased do die. Some Deaf people has additional disabilities, especially with heart problems or significant health issues, can be more vulnerable with tasering/electrical contact.
I rather not to be harmed in any form, and just wanted to be respected by police.
Tasers have high voltage, but as with all electricity, that isn’t what hurts. It’s the amperage that causes damage, and tasers have very, very little amperage. They cause the muscles to tighten up, and it lasts for 5 seconds.
Aren’t you aware of multiple deaths caused by tasers? It can be lethal and manufacturers producing tasers are being sued more than ever. I know of a case where a developmentally challenged deaf man was tasered, I think seven times. He ended up badly traumatized, not knowing what went wrong. The sad thing is that he never did anything wrong and this was an overreaction on the cop’s side, unaware that he is deaf.
Yes, I’m aware of that, but I believe there are more deaths using guns…so tasers vs guns…not a difficult decision. However, like I said in my blog, police are exercising poor judgment when using tasers. Still better than beatings or guns.
I agreed with you. But they would not know what your heart condition or disabled. I think Taser is safety.. but not gun or assulted. It still combine into pro and con situation. But! The cops sometime lied to his supervisor that it is more safety. Still STUPIDEST and LAME OF EXCUSE!
Once time in Seattle, The cops tasered deaf man and he was wait for door to open when he is working for that place. the cops tasered him for no reason. he was say “Wait and I am deaf.” but they don’t beleive him.. After incident, his supervisor was saw and angry toward to the cops for not beleive him. The reason it need to cut down for lying.
Taser-related bad news are more likely to get reported than good news about tasers saving the public from crazy bogeypeople.
I’m not convinced that the recent spate of articles online screaming about rising taser deaths reflect a similar situation in meatspace. Reddit reality does not equate real-world reality.
Adam Stone is exactly right.
I don’t always agree that police are using “poor judgment”. Whether they come to a strange residence, car, or other environments, they have to not only think about their own safety but others including their colleagues.
People argue that policemen need training and education. I agree. I also agree that we all need a bit of common sense ourselves. If a policeman comes to you pointing a gun or taser towards you and he is screaming something at you – the worst thing you can do to scream back or move your hands quickly especially if you are screaming something that is intelligible. Neither action makes the situation better. Just either stand still or just drop down and fold your arms across your head. You may not like it but after a few minutes, the policeman will realize that you’re deaf and readjust.
Does my advice sound terrible? Yes. But I’ll argue that it’s realistic. If nothing else – try to imagine that you’re in a foreign country and a policeman is coming to you barking something that you don’t understand. What would you do? Move around rapidly or just stay still? Answer: stay still and just keep calm instead of getting agitated or angry which only makes the policeman even more nervous and he decides that it’s safer to use the taser against you.
I dont think your advice “sounds terrible.” Its common sense, people need to stand down when a police approaches. Why do people give police officers a reason to grab for their guns or tasers.
While police officers may need more education in certain situations, in geral they are trained to use the equipment theyhave.
Regardless if a police officer is approaching you with the biggest smile this side of the south, or a gun or a taser. A sensible person would stand down.
Dont do anything hasty or stupid… Which is why most get tased or shot because they are acting without any sense and in such cases getting tased might be the lesson theyneed in life.
terrible? no, i absolutely agree! i watch a lot of courtTV and i think in most of the videos where cops are shown behaving ‘badly’, they are provoked to do so by the individual they are trying to detain. a person’s refusal to listen to the cop’s command to get down or release a weapon always results in violent actions by the cops. so i’m pretty damn positive if a cop’s trying to order a deaf person to do something but gets unintelligble screaming or hands flying in return, no doubt that cop’s gonna kick some ass!
so i agree with you. just get the hell down on the ground and put your hands on your head!
but as i typed that, i imagined that happening.. and i know cops will immediately slap on handcuffs once a person does that. how can a deaf person communicate at that point? cops will start questioning and what’s the person gonna do? shake his/her head? try to voice out ‘i am deaf!’ huh?
well, alas! they should be trained, though.. like i’m sure they’re trained to identify mental illness, intoxication, and whatnot. they should be trained in identifying signs that a person is deaf and how to properly deal with a deaf person. if they already are, something’s wrong. it’s not working!
Good points here. Remember the law says that you don’t have to talk to the police at all, it’s your right to remain silent. So silence here is not necessarily a bad thing. They’ll eventually realize that you’re deaf if you’re in handcuffs and can’t communicate that.
I don’t believe the cops are well-trained. In my state we had a woman driving erratically. She was pulled over. She slurred her words, so the cops thought she was drunk and put her in a holding cell. She tried to explain she was diabetic, and needed medical attention because she was having a reaction, but they didn’t listen. She nearly died at their oversight. She sued them later.
What happens sometimes is people panic. They see the guns and they can’t help it, they start shouting or they run. I honestly don’t know the answer.
We must remember that cops panic too. Criminals lie about being deaf, then pull out guns and shoot. We’re all just people.
Better watch out on cops…You know that cops are hunting with triller feeling…eagar to catch. We (Deaf citzens) are Deaf Watch Cops.
I am totally against Taser because it can affect our health in a long run and even in a short term. Also, it could affect other’s heart who have problem with it. Police should take anger management course AND also are required to take ASL and Deaf Culture/History to undertand better about our culture/community.
Perhaps we should have a sticker on the rear window to let the police know we’re deaf? You know the hearing impaired symbol sticker that has blue and white across the ear? That could be a useful tool for the police.
If you are against tasers, then are you against nightsticks and guns? I would think getting shot can affect your health. Or getting a love tap from a nighstick?
It’s easier to wield a nightclub at a person before striking since it would appear as a psychological deterrence for the wielder to prepare to strike at a targeted person, hoping that person would react in fear of being hit by one. However, nightclubs can seriously bruise people or break bones when repeated strikings. One “lovetap” won’t do much but several…ouch! You can avoid being hit by one when you move around to get away but can you dodge a bullet fired from a gun? No.
If you’re against tasers, how would you deal with a situation where a 300 pound drug addict is running around erratically on the streets?
Shoot ‘em like a rogue water buffalo and THEN ask questions.
Simple, just stay out of his way and let him expire himself from exhaustion on the street.
Keep in mind the difference between: a police officer holding and pointing a live firearm and a taser at a person. The cop pointing a live firearm at a person can be restrained from shooting outright and can only give advanced warnings to a person that he will shoot if that person doesn’t stand down, since the cop KNOWS that a live firearm can seriously harm or kill that person.
On the other hand, the cop pointing a Taser at a person may shoot it outright, with little or no advanced warning at a person to stand down since the cop would ASSUME that a Taser will not kill that person and would only subdue him/her onto the ground for the duration of an electrical discharge (for as long as 30 seconds).
The general assumption for most police officers using Tasers is that it doesn’t kill people right away while live firearms does. The difference depends on the cop’s quick decisive deployment of a live weapon against a person in any situation. The problem is that SOME police officers think that using Taser is much more a convenient way to bring down a person without due cause or common sense, leading to more unnecessary application of excessive forceful usage and abuse of Tasers against people who may not appear to be threatening or reacted with panic or simply confused in any situation.
I’ve actually watched a video of cops at the police station tasered a HANDCUFFED woman who refused to cooperate with the officers and was within her right to remain silent. They forced her into a situation that she doesn’t wanted to be in and one cop just tasered her while she was handcuffed and was knocked out cold after falling down. Heartless, insensitive action by these cops.
Bad boys, bad boys whatcha want
Whatcha gonna do when sherrif John Brown
come for you tell me whatcha gonna do.
Bad boys bad boys
Watcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
when they come for you
Bad boys, bad boys
Watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do
when they come for you
When you were eight
And you had bad traits
You go to school and you learn the golden rule
So why are you acting like a bloody fool
If you get hot you must get cool
Bad boys, bad boys
Watcha gonna do whatcha gonna do
When they come for you (repeat)
You chuck it on this one
You chuck it on this one
You chuck it on mother and
You chuck it on you father
You chuck it on you brother and
You chuck it on you sister
You chuck it on that one and you chuck it on me
Nobody naw give you no break
Police naw give you no break
Soldier naw give you no break
Not even you idren naw give you no break
Why did you have to act so mean don’t you know
You’re a human being born of a mother with
The love of a father reflections come and reflections go
I know sometimes you want to let go
I know sometimes you want to let go
A “Cops” watcher, I see.
Because people can have medical problems or be seriously hurt by falling down, we need to have strict rules on cops about tasering. Some cops are in the job for the wrong reasons and may use tasers instead of using persuasion, communication or common sense.
Tasing a naked man who only has a towel shows lack of common sense. So is tasing a pregnant woman. The other situations could have been read better.
Tasing should only be used if the cop is physically threatened and never to simply force down a person that otherwise poses no risk. Tasing should never be used on a child, a small person that is unarmed, women likewise, or elderly people. Such general rules could reduce the number of deaths related to tasers.
To force cops to regard tasers as deadly weapons, there should be a review board of both police and citizens with powers to suspend or punish reckless use. As well, there should be civil suits made possible in cases of injury or death.
Dianrez,
I agree your comment seem accurate. I feel that cop doesn’t have a enough training about deaf person to deal with situation. They really need to training about deaf person, That’s depend on what?
It seem likely more deaf victims caught in wrong time and wrong place.
Huh?? You prefer a taser than others? Well, one day in the future, the cop uses the taser on you for bad or good reasons, will you die? Who knows!
I don’t agree any cop carries the taser. If the taser NEVER kill a person in history, probably, it is ok with me. But the tasers DID kill some. *head shakes*
With that logic, you’d say that cops shouldn’t carry guns either… hmmm.
Comments:
-Yup, there will always be more “bad” tasering stories in the media than “good” ones. Same goes for everything you see on the news. The expression, “There’s no truth in the news, no news in the truth” comes to mind here.
-Yup, there are some cops out there on a power trip…but there are a lot of good cops as well.
-Yup, there are a lot of idiots out there that just provoke the cops. It’s really simple for me..I have never ever been arrested..when a cop comes up to me, I am all like, “Yes, Sir”. You save your talk for the judge & lawyers. Don’t give cops a reason to arrest you.
-I guess I’d rather to be tasered than clubbed…but I can’t really say until I have experienced being tasered…(not that I have ever been clubbed..but I think I have a good idea of what its like.)
Don’t tase me, bro!
I think we should go back to the old days. Just give the cops a 6 shooter and a shot of Johnny Walker Red.
Kill em all, let God sort em out.
Bobby Cox,
Why spell “tased” or “tasing”? What’s wrong with “taserized” or “tasered”? The wording of tased sound like a soft punch.
We ought to see taser as a tool of fascism which it is really about. The law enforcement officers nowaday seem have low ebbs of patience and human empathy. Just taser the person and get over with it!
I wonder if that is legal for civilians to own the Taser guns for their own protections.
RLM
I recently learned that civilians could possess stun guns and taser guns and other kinds of electronic mechanism defense (EMD) in seven states -
CT, FL, IL, NC, ND and WA, but comes with subject to restrictions.
One county in OH allows civilians to possess EMDs.
There are other kinds of EMDs - cell phone “stun gun”
stun batons
flashlight “stun gun”
New home protection EMD device - Taser C2 gun along with the new Advanced Taser EMD for many law enforcement officers.
Not many people realize that the taser guns have two metal barbs/probes coming out of this EMD gun to any uncooperative person.
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) issued the recommendations for operational procedures and policy specifications within the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to define the roles and responsibilities of law enforcement officers and security guards with respect to the use of EMD weapons.
IACP and PERF already issue the prohibitions of using the taser/stun guns on following individuals -
passive subject
pregnant women
elderly persons
young children
handcuffed persons
fleeing suspects
mentally-challenged persons
people to force compliance
people with known or visible impairments indicating
compromised health
Law enforcement officers and civilians with possessions of stun/taser guns are required to issue clear warnings before discharging the EMD weapons on anyone.
IACP and PERF prohibit the officers/civilians to fire taser guns at heads, necks and gentials. The medical examiners are only authorized to remove taser metal darts from affected individuals.
43 countries already possess taser guns.
Annapolis, Baltimore, Chicago, Howard County, MD, Lynn County, OH, NYC, Philly and Washington, DC law enforcement officers have taser guns in their arensals.
We ought to appeal to the IACP and PERF and other law enforcement officers associations to add deaf individuals to the list of individual protections due to questionable communication barriers.
More info, check out http://www.icap.org/research
We could see too many inapporiate uses of taser guns on pregnant lady, deaf individuals and elderly man.
How can we be fully assured that either of us will be not unfairly taserized due to our physical limitations?
I have metal components in my right leg since last summer from being struck by the jeep. I wonder if I will be electrocued by any of the EMD weapons.
I keep asking my othropeditic physician to give me an official certification of metal parts in me. I never get it.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)