02-13-2008, 04:55 PM
Quote: The potential problems I see though, is an over-reliance on tasers and substituting it for verbal\communication techniques, and public focus on the taser as the problem. To me it's not the tool, it's the person (and the policy) and the context of it's use that merits the attention.
Police officers undertake a tremendous amount of training on negotiation.
The problem here and in other similar cases is that citizens feel they don't need to listen to or obey an officer of the law. Fact is that the information the police officer had to go on was that the credit card the customer was using was stolen and that that customer was trying to leave the scene.
I realize she had received disturbing news about her child. I would be distraught as well if I had received a call about my daughter. But this isn't the movies. You can't just run from the police and rescue your child.
How long would it have taken to clear this up versus the time she spent in the emergency room and then jail for resisting arrest? What kind of outcry would there have been if the police officer had listened to her story, let her go and then it turned out that the credit card had been stolen?