On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 18:29:34 -0600, "KLC Lewis"
wrote:

Rick, one of the things that concerns me is from your previous post in which
you said that, during Tazer training, some of the cops made comments such as
"When are you going to turn it on?" while others were left screaming.
Doesn't this indicate that the impact of being Tazed is wholly subjective,
and that what might be a mild tickle to one person might be sheer agony to
another? Seems to me that by calling the Tazer a "safe" way to enforce
compliance from us mere Citizens, it is inevitable that some of us will, in
fact, be "tortured," and someone, sooner or later, is going to be killed.
But if it prevents a cop from getting bruised, I guess that's a small price
to pay.

Well, pain is one of the concepts behind controlling the subject. In
fact there's a whole class on "pain compliance". In surveys of
officers going through the training every one of them, even the Tased
screaming ones (remember the screaming and flopping is a result of the
electrical stimulation, not from pain or concious effort), stated if
given a choice they would choose being Tased over OC spray. Man, Taser
me 10 times in a row instead of OC in the eyes!!! Now that is some BAD
stuff, but even with OC a very few are totally unaffected and some are
really hurting and suffer physical "burn" injury. OC is OleoCapasin
(SP?), or pepper in a solution. Some sprays are OC and CS (tear gas).
Let me see if I remember right. The hottest Jalpino pepper (I KNOW SP
is wrong) is 5,000 S Units; OTC spray for civilians is 500,000 SU and
law enforcement is up to 5,000,000 SU. (The latter two might be 50,000
and 500,000???) Anyway it's strong stuff.

Getting hit with a baton hurts pretty much too. Hurts some more than
others. BTW, batons are used only on specific strike pressure points
to disable, not to injure. A fist in the gut will disable some in
agonizing pain, while others will laugh it off. And everything in
between. Pain itself is wholly subjective. Thing is pain is a
byproduct of the Taser and it's designed to minimize that pain as much
as possible. We all wish there was a spray you could use from up to 30
feet or so that would instantly "knock out" someone painlessly for at
least 10 seconds. Maybe one day....

I've got to protest the term "tortured". Torture is deliberatly
inflicting extreme pain for gain, ie to get information, or for the
torturer's pleasure or for punishment. Torture is illegal in the US
and most places.

As above pain is a tool, however it's administered. A tool that is
only used when necessary and then only as much pain as required. The
Taser in most cases is the least painful. Recovery is instant after
the power goes off, unlike spray which requires decontaminating. It's
not used on "mere citizens", it's used on people who are presenting a
danger to the officer, others or themselves. Cops, just like everyone
else, don't like "getting bruised". Also getting broken, stabbed,
concussed, blunt trama'ed or killed. Our goal is to go home at the end
of shift.

Tasers have saved lives. Of the subject. In cases where an officer, in
multiple officer situations, had a Taser and the subject threatened
and/or acted upon deadly force. ie the subject had a knife or a
baseball bat or an axe. No Taser = gun and use of deadly force.

I'm not saying Tasers are perfect or ideal. They're good tools in the
proper situation, just as are all the tools of the trade. You'd no
more use a Taser on a falling down drunk than you'd use a storm jib on
a 5-knot day.

Gotta' go for a bit. I've got to hit work in the middle of the night
and do a bunch of overtime.

Rick