TASER Admits Torture

For the first time since its founding, TASER announced yesterday to police departments nationwide the danger of using the TASER stun-gun on people's chest cavities and torso. In a shocking reversal, TASER's admission is further proof that TASER as a non-lethal weapon is untested and unfit for law enforcement use.

TASER now recognizes for the first time the danger of its product, which according to RawStory, Amnesty International reports has caused over 350 deaths since 2001. In classic gaffe fashion, RawStory investigates that TASER's statement warned, "When possible, avoiding chest shots with ECDs (Electronic Control Devices) avoids the controversy about whether ECDs do or do not affect the human heart." Seemingly someone got the message at TASER that their product is just a bit dangerous.

In a slew of high profile taserings since 2007, America has witnessed the tasering of a University of Florida student asking Senator John Kerry a question, a 12 year old boy being ran over and killed while on a bicycle as a Florida police officer attempting to perform a drive-by tasering, and a defiant 70 plus year old grandmother from Austin, Texas, all receiving near-deadly shocks throughout their bodies.

While the TASER devices are promoted as solutions to lethal arbitration with "non-lethal warfare", one has to ask, what did police do before 2000 when TASER wasn't around? Maybe they had to work a little harder in apprehending the few bad apples, but for the vast majority, the threat of TASER maiming or killing innocents is not worth the risk.

Taser is Torture

The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution reads,

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

However, it is becoming all too common for the average on-duty police officer to carry a torture device, and in many cases, get away with murder.

How is it that officers of the law may at their own discretion, inject lethal electric shocks into alleged suspects, often for nothing more than being unruly and hostile to the official?

Shows like COPS have long pushed the idea of giving the police the benefit of the doubt when using force. It is this reign of accepted violence by law enforcement which now hampers real progress on eliminating taser use altogether.

It can be singly agreed that giving people forceful electric shocks to subdue them can by no way be considered humane, and often much more painful and torturous than past ways of subduing out-of-control people. There is no excuse for its need, and defending the use of taser only further legitimizes torture.

Our society has become one of expediency. However, sadly force is often a bridesmaid of expediency. And if we are to sacrifice our values of liberty for such "convenience", soon enough force becomes the norm, and it replaces reason as the ultimate paradigm in our society. Simply put, taser is torture and torture is wrong.