Give me your thoughts, and I will let you know what I believe after we have collected about 24 hours of comments.

Are you surprised?

Is this the right verdict?

Was it motivated by a fear of riots?

Should he have been convicted or murder?

Thanks and look forward to hearing your input!

Anyhow, one outstanding video blog is located here.  In particular, watch this video (which would not embed for some reason.)  Somevideos just have to be shared. This is freakin hilarious.

What do you think: Fake or real?

However as a Canadian officer correctly points out, the alternative is often the use of a firearm — deadly force to be sure. Taser’s own website (admittedly a for-profit company) indicates numbers that are so drastically in favor of TASER deployment, that argument is difficult.

If you don’t trust the company that makes them, how about the departments that use them. In almost all major police departments, the TASER is considered “intermediate” force. That means it can be used when someone is fighting, charging, threatening to injure or kill, or displaying a non-deadly weapon at the police. With the TASER, that individual is immediately and effectively incapacitated. I was “TASERED” in the police academy. It hurt. But one minute later I was fine. The same could not be said of a steel baton to the knee (guaranteed lifetime injury), a bite by a police dog (arrgh), or a gunshot (duh!).

Watch the video here, and ask yourself the single, key, and only question about TASERS: Would I rather get hit with this, or one of the alternatives. The dog in the background of this video is ready to take care of business. I think the suspect himself explains the benefits of the TASER better than I ever could. That should settle the argument.

Sometimes police work is ugly. That is the suspects’ fault, not the cops’. Remember my favorite quote:

“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

Sleep well.

They have most likely been trained that the TASER (click here for their website) is for subduing “aggressive and/or combative individuals.” That means people who do more than disobey verbal orders, but not so much that they are a threat to life. It doesn’t look pretty, but is actually considerably easier on the suspect than prior methods.

So this genius refuses to leave when his time is up. No big deal. Then they attempt to escort him out, one cop on each side. Fine. Then he decides to physically struggle, and that struggle lands on the ground.

Every cop knows that once you are on the ground, the threat to your safety has gone up exponentially. The TASER, while hated throughout the anti-cop world, is a humane and quick way to dispense with an aggressive suspect. There are no long-lasting effects in the VAST majority of cases, and its effectiveness is untouchable.

So before we hang those cops out to dry, remember that before we had the TASER, the only choice would have been to beat him silly in front of all those cameras with a wooden baton. Then what would people say?

What if the suspect had eventually produced a firearm and used it? Then I think the pundits would ask why on earth the cops did not TASER the man. I doubt they would be congratulating the cops for not using that horrible TASER. We can’t win for losing.

I say follow the officers’ directions in the first place and you won’t get hurt. Why doesn’t anyone ever blame the suspect for these situations? Why is it always the cops fault? What are your thoughts?