Sunday, June 21, 2009

"Taser Death"

Twice in recent days people have been shocked and have died. The “quick” judgment is that the shock killed him. That is impossible. Stun guns cannot kill. There isn’t enough AMPERAGE to do so. I’d bet that when the autopsy results are in, it will be discovered that both these people had underlying medical problems that killed them, not the stun gun. Of course, family members will not accept this, as the stun gun is a “convenient target.” They’ll say the medical examiner is “part of the system” and ruled to “save” the cop who stunned him. MEs don’t operate that way. They find what’s there and report it. Maybe that has happened in the past, but it’s not “common.” Medical Examiners are THERE as an “oversight” to the cops, and anybody else who might kill someone, accidentally or on purpose. In one case, the man fell to his death AFTER being stunned, but the press STILL called his death as CAUSED by being “tazed.”

I’ll wait until I find out just what killed this man before I blame the stun gun the cop used. (Update: now it has come to light [thanks to Fox News] that he was on a ledge, high above the street when he was shocked, and FELL to his death. He died of “head trauma” caused by his fall. A police lieutenant and the cop who shocked him at a very bad time have been relieved of duty. It was NOT the stun gun that killed him, news reports notwithstanding). Nonetheless, news reports still say this “has brought renewed focus to the use of Tasers by police.” Maybe they ought to teach them not to use them on people precariously perched on ledges, way above the street. One thing is sure: shooting him would not have been better. (Fox News)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A loud, belligerent man is suspended 5 stories above the ground by a rope. A cop cuts the rope with a knife and the man falls to his death. Let's see… it was not the knife that caused the death… it was not the cop that caused the death… it was anything you want it to be! (but not the cop)

Ray Thomas said...

Anon: If the cop willfully cut the rope, knowing it would kill the man, the cop killed him. If the cop shot him and he died, the cop killed him. In this case, the cop screwed up. It is impossible to kill someopne with a stun gun. They use electricity to REVIVE people, fergawdsake! It's high voltage, low amperage. Amperage is what kills. We're talking "apples and oranges." In this case the cop is at fault because he stunned the man while he was in a precarious position and that POSITION killed him. Nonetheless, the cop erred in stunning him in that position. The stun gun was NOT at fault, as the weapons in your other examples are not at fault. Guns do not kill people. PEOPLE kill people, using all kinds of weapons.