Quote:
Originally Posted by SassyLeo
In general, I do not support overzealous Police Officers tasering or shooting anyone, but this just happened in Portland yesterday...
http://www.kptv.com/video/23460539/
I'd rather he be tasered than shot...
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That man is lucky to be alive. If he'd been black, he would've been dead. The year I moved here there were *three* shootings, by cops, of motorists in the course of routine traffic stops and all three of the folks shot were black.
That said, I think that it really depends upon the situation. Someone running out onto a sports field does not actually rise to the occasion in my book. There are other ways to get the person to desist. Now, if the situation is such that another life is on the line, then whatever force the police have at their disposal should be used. So if the kid ran onto the field with a knife and all that happens is that he gets hit with a taser then he should consider himself lucky.
I think that armed officers (whether security guards or police) can be a little taser happy but I'm glad that they have a (generally) non-lethal way of stopping someone. And yes, I know that people do die from tasers however, given that the *next* level of escalation is a firearm, I'd rather unarmed but potentially violent perps be tased than be shot.