by arthur Weinreb,
November 24, 2004
The Toronto Police Service currently has 24 Tasers--a stun gun that can send up to 50,000 volts of electricity into a subject that police officers are trying to subdue. Toronto police recently went before the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) to request an additional 500 Tasers; 50 for training purposes and the rest to be given to supervising sergeants. While Tasers are not used that often, the police argument for needing more is that that when officers need them, it takes too long for the Emergency Task Force, the only unit that currently has them, to arrive on scene.
Needless to say, the majority of lefties on Mayor David Miller’s Board said no. They didn’t actually say no; they said they were going to request further studies, a common tactic used by municipal politicians to avoid actually making a decision. Board Chair Pam McConnell said that it is not a minor step and she wanted to go slow. The TPSB then requested that the Toronto Medical Officer of Health conduct a study into the long term effect of being Tasered. Where was Ms. Pammy’s go slow approach a few years ago when she was racking up the miles in her city paid-for limo?
The left, with the usual suspects such as amnesty International (aI) are against the use of Tasers. according to aI there have been 9 Taser-related deaths in Canada in the past 18 months. Evidence so far has shown no one has died from a Taser per se, but death can result to those who have pre-existing conditions such as heart problems or quantities of drugs in their system. The weapon is not totally non lethal.
The reality is that if a person dies after being Tasered where there is nothing to suggest he would have otherwise died at that moment then the death is caused by the stun gun. It is a weapon but that is not a reason to deny its use to police officers. Much to the chagrin of many, police are allowed to carry weapons.
Toronto Deputy Chief, Steve Reesor appeared before the Toronto Police Services Board to argue for the acquisition of the additional Tasers. Reesor even offered to have himself Tasered in front of the Board to demonstrate the use of the weapon. The Board declined Reesor’s offer but it is interesting to speculate what the TPSB would have said if Reesor had offered to put a loaded Glock in his mouth and pull the trigger, but I digress.
Reesor had difficulty understanding what the problem was. as the Taser is not as lethal as a gun that fires bullets, even if some deaths could be attributed to the stun gun, less people would be killed that would die from being shot by police-issued revolvers. Reesor obviously thinks that being able to subdue suspects by using a Taser rather than a gun would cause less deaths and serious injuries and would therefore be, as a famous convicted felon, 55170-54, might say, a good thing.
Reesor’s mistake is that he is trying to apply common sense and logical thinking to the actions of the likes of Toronto councillors such as Pam McConnell and John Filion. The leftist TPSB members don’t really care about how many people die from actions that are taken by the police. People aren’t important--their “cause” is important.
at least amnesty International was candid enough to come out with the real reason. aI has stated that they don’t trust the police; if they are issued with less lethal weapons, they will be tempted to use Tasers more than they would guns if they had to rely on those weapons. If amnesty International spent less time worrying about how North american police operate and devoted that time to speaking out against torture in the Middle East, their favourite part of the world, they would be a lot better off.
If the police actually cut down on the number of people that they were required to shoot with lethal weapons, the cop-haters would have less to complain about. The last thing that McConnell and her fellow travellers want is less ammunition (pardon the pun) to have to criticize the police for. The decision of the Toronto Police Services Board has absolutely nothing to do with people who may end up being shot when they could have been successfully Tasered. It’s simply a matter of ideology.