Where's Common Sense, Common Decency?

There's been an awful lot in the news about policing agents using Taser guns to excess. They had been enthusiastically adopted by policing agents throughout North America as a promising alternative to more severely-punishing deterrents against violent offenders. Better than a firearm, or a truncheon, fire a Taser and momentarily disable a malefactor.

Trouble is, the electrical impulses that emanate from those Tasers meant to momentarily stun people and put them out of commission long enough for their physical excesses to be controlled, sometimes cause dreadful harm. They've been implicated in causing enough deaths for public concern to be expressed over their use. Canada is still investigating the notorious Taser death of a Polish emigrant to Canada.

And tests undertaken demonstrate that some Tasers deliver a distinctly harmful, higher level of electricity than the manufacturer promises, according to a series of tests on 41 stun guns that was commissioned by CBC News and Radio-Canada. Some scientists have recommended that police stop the use of older versions of the stun guns, that appear to malfunction.

Their manufacturer, Taser International, continues to deny that their product is a safety hazard. The RCMP had announced it planned to sample a random selection of its Tasers, based on the test results of the investigation launched by the CBC.

"Given that you have raised this issue with us, we are taking steps to take CEWs out of our inventory devices that have deployed across the country, we are gathering up samples from each of our divisions, every province and every territory and we will have them independently tested."

Their tests showed their Tasers operated within the manufacturer's specifications.
Yet people continue to be severely injured by the Tasers, and many people, regardless of age, have died as a result of Taser use.

A biomedical engineering professor at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal was responsible for the design of the technical procedures for the CBC's testing. He claims it to be scientifically significant that a good proportion of the tested devices delivered more current than they are designed to produce.

And the controversial stun guns remain in use. Given their reputation, and the verified instances where their use has resulted in dire consequences for far too many people assaulted by those restraint devices, one might imagine they should be withdrawn. Certainly used with greater caution, and only in the most extreme of circumstances.

Yet two Ontario Provincial Police officers Tasered a 14-year-old girl who was in their custody. The girl, from Lac Seul First Nation, born with fetal alcohol syndrome, had been arrested the night before for drunk and disorderly conduct. She is 14 years old, and was bored and miserable in the cell she was placed in. To while away the time, she began peeling the paint off the walls of the cell.

She was ordered to desist and when she resisted she was shot by a Taser, taken to hospital for treatment of burn marks, and left traumatized when her leg became numb and stayed that way for an entire month. Her father has launched a lawsuit against the provincial police force. Claiming that police used unnecessary force in subduing the girl.

Why on earth would two police officers become so fearful at the prospect of an out-of-control young girl that they would use a Taser to immobilize her? Did they feel their lives to be threatened? Appallingly, the OPP's professional standards bureau completed their investigation finding the officers not to have acted wrongly.

Stunningly, the Taser may continue to be used on minors.

Are they completely mad?