Over the last couple of years numerous stories have come out about taser abuse and the "non-lethal" weapon's ability to kill a small but sizable percentage of it's victims. Compared to being punctured by a bullet, tasers are a better alternative yet sometimes, the advocates of the device take it too far, such as into schools with young children around.
From The Tribune-Review:
The president of a school safety consulting firm said districts like Uniontown Area, which is considering arming its police officers with Tasers, have to take a conservative approach to their deployment and develop a comprehensive policy.But an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said it's hard for him even to see a need for Tasers in a school setting.
Uniontown school officials intend to draft a Taser policy for their school police officers that might be discussed as soon as the school board's Aug. 18 meeting and could be considered for adoption next month.
The school's director of security says giving the district's three officers the option of using a Taser is more about providing the safest possible conditions for children, staff and visitors than as a weapon "directed at the students."
The director may say that the weapons will not be directed at students, but when the taser is in the hands of a school police officer, bad news (or tragic news) is just around the corner. As the Tribune notes, a 17 year old boy died last month in Winnipeg after officers used a taser on him after seeing him wield a knife. Another 17 year old kid was killed in North Carolina for throwing groceries at the store manager and advancing on the cops. Instead of being used as an alternative only to deadly force, the taser is used in all sorts of circumstances and many officers take advantage of the device.
What makes it worse is that too many poorly-conducted studies show the taser is safe, allowing for the companies that make the weapons secure more contracts while society is saturated with it and forced to accept this sometimes lethal non-lethal device.
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