Whether it is nobler to send 50,000 volts slinging through human bodies, or take arms against a sea of autistic, mentally ill, drugged, drunk, deaf, pregnant, and/or homeless people who more often than statistically plausible tend to be minorities will be debated. The issue of whether it is better to (gasp) de-escalate the situation is not on the agenda, but might be brought up by some intrepid public speakers.
On October 6th, at 5:30 PM, the Berkeley City Council will hold a special meeting to consider a report on the possible acquisition of Tasers by the Berkeley Police Department. Currently BPD officers (as well as San Francisco's police) do not have tasers. The report was commissioned a year and a half ago by the Berkeley City Council, and was written by the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.
The report can be found here, starting on page 5 (PDF).
The report makes no recommendation one way or another. It delves into studies, concluding often that "more study is needed" and that results are generally inconclusive as to the benefits or detriments of police departments acquiring tasers (generically known as ECW's). It notes that much of the research out there was funded by Taser International. (!)
Nonetheless, it is expected that Berkeley Police will be present in force, claiming that they absolutely must have Tasers to prevent what would otherwise be police killings - despite the fact that the report states that there is no basis for concluding that Tasers reduce deadly force incidents. They will demand tasers regardless of the report's repeated warning that tasing people on drugs, who are drunk, who are mentally ill or otherwise not it good heath, is not safe, when we know that a significant fraction of Berkeley police encounters are with people who fall into those categories.
The report has lots of statistics and analyses of studies. What the report doesn't go into is the human cost of tasering. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of news stories and Youtube videos out there reporting on and graphically visualizing the sadistic, and sometimes fatal, use of Tasers by police on the citizenry.
The report makes only a casual allusion to Amnesty International's observation:
"Tasers have become tools of the lazy cop who wants a suspect down in an instant, a tool that police have been told so often is "nonlethal" that they have come to use it without much regard for why they're firing it or where they're aiming." But the truth of that is in the stories and the videos.The rest of this diary will "rectify" the study's omission. If you do not wish to read gut-wrenching and sometimes make-you-livid-with-rage descriptions of citizen encounters with tasering police, go no further. Either way, note again that these are just samples from hundreds, if not thousands, of incidents reported in the news and, occasionally, here on Daily Kos. While the events span a few years, they were culled from articles, diaries and twitter feeds over the last year and a half.