Pawn Power
13th February 2008, 15:31
Police and Tasers: Hooked on Shock
by Naomi Klein
The past couple of weeks have been rocky on the stock market, but one company that hasnt been suffering too much is Taser International. At the end of January, its stock jumped by an impressive 8 per cent, and its even higher today.
Matthew McKay, a stock analyst at Jeffries & Co. in San Francisco, cites a simple cause: news that the Toronto Police Services Board plans to buy 3,000 new Taser electroshock weapons, at a cost of $8.6 million for gear and training. If the deal goes ahead, tasers would become standard issue weaponry for all of Torontos frontline officers, right next to their handcuffs and batons.
On Wednesday night, I participated in a public forum about the prospect of a fully taser-armed police force, organized by the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition. One speaker, who had a history of psychiatric illness, told the room: Were worried because were the people who are going to get shocked.
Mr. Dziekanskis death also put a spotlight on the other post-taser deaths, the ones not caught on film. According to Amnesty International, 310 people in North America have died after being shocked with a taser since 2001.
Surely it would be wise for Torontos police chief to wait for those findings before ordering a seven-fold taser increase. But something more powerful than reason appears to be at play here, and I believe it has to do with the seductive promise of no-touch policing.
No other method of controlling unruly suspects offers police the same kind of all-encompassing, instant effect. Talking, calming, negotiating are all messier and take time. Other physical techniques put officers own bodies at risk.
Then there is the taser. The company boasts that its technology, which allows electrified darts to be fired from more than 10 meters away, temporarily overrides the command and control systems of the body. At the push of a button, even the strongest, angriest subject drops to the floor. In a way, firing a taser is the maximum power one person can exert over another. As an Ottawa Police officer reportedly said after tasering protesters at the ministry of immigration back in 2003: Less mess, more fun.
[my emphasis]
the whole article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/11/6974/
A scary prospect...but this seems to be the "future" of policing.
what do ya'll think?
by Naomi Klein
The past couple of weeks have been rocky on the stock market, but one company that hasnt been suffering too much is Taser International. At the end of January, its stock jumped by an impressive 8 per cent, and its even higher today.
Matthew McKay, a stock analyst at Jeffries & Co. in San Francisco, cites a simple cause: news that the Toronto Police Services Board plans to buy 3,000 new Taser electroshock weapons, at a cost of $8.6 million for gear and training. If the deal goes ahead, tasers would become standard issue weaponry for all of Torontos frontline officers, right next to their handcuffs and batons.
On Wednesday night, I participated in a public forum about the prospect of a fully taser-armed police force, organized by the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition. One speaker, who had a history of psychiatric illness, told the room: Were worried because were the people who are going to get shocked.
Mr. Dziekanskis death also put a spotlight on the other post-taser deaths, the ones not caught on film. According to Amnesty International, 310 people in North America have died after being shocked with a taser since 2001.
Surely it would be wise for Torontos police chief to wait for those findings before ordering a seven-fold taser increase. But something more powerful than reason appears to be at play here, and I believe it has to do with the seductive promise of no-touch policing.
No other method of controlling unruly suspects offers police the same kind of all-encompassing, instant effect. Talking, calming, negotiating are all messier and take time. Other physical techniques put officers own bodies at risk.
Then there is the taser. The company boasts that its technology, which allows electrified darts to be fired from more than 10 meters away, temporarily overrides the command and control systems of the body. At the push of a button, even the strongest, angriest subject drops to the floor. In a way, firing a taser is the maximum power one person can exert over another. As an Ottawa Police officer reportedly said after tasering protesters at the ministry of immigration back in 2003: Less mess, more fun.
[my emphasis]
the whole article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/11/6974/
A scary prospect...but this seems to be the "future" of policing.
what do ya'll think?