When you wish upon a (sheriff's) star

Many people, me among them, have long called for the development and distribution of non-lethal weaponry to police. While I've always been against the Taser, others have pushed it as a means to defuse situations that would otherwise turn violent. To those people, I would say be careful what you wish for. From the Miami Herald for November 13:

A Miami-Dade police officer used a Taser to stop an unarmed, 12-year-old girl who was running away from him after she was caught skipping school, police acknowledged Friday night.

The incident happened Nov. 5, just over two weeks after other Miami-Dade officers used a stun gun to restrain a first-grader.

According to the police report, officer William Nelson got a complaint that some hooky-playing kids were swimming in a pool, drinking, and smoking cigars. When he got there he found the girl, apparently drunk, and told her to get dressed so he could take her to school. As they approached his squad car, she took off running. He chased her but being unable to catch her, shot her with his Taser, dropping her with a 50,000 volt shock.

He justified firing "for my safety along with [the girl's] safety." (Brackets in original.)

Right. A drunk 12-year old girl running away from him is a threat to his safety. He must have gotten that from the PBA manual under the heading "defensive maneuvers" - in the chapter "Avoiding Blame for Screwups."

In the earlier case, involving a 6-year old, the police justified the shooting because, they said, the boy was holding a piece of broken glass and threatening to cut himself. Okay, grant the situation at face value. What would the police have done if they didn't have Tasers? Shot him with a gun? Let's say that's unlikely. So what would they have done? Maybe patience? Persuasion? Calling in someone who knew the boy and knew how to handle him? A quick rush to grab him and the glass before he could use it on himself? What?

Whatever it was, why didn't they do it? Why did they resort to the Taser? This reveals the problems with such devices: They become substitutes not only for more violent actions - which is their supposed function - but for less violent ones as well. They become conveniences, something easy to reach for when things don't go easily otherwise. Dealing with a disturbed 6-year old, much less a drunk 12-year old, is difficult and frustrating. So just ZAP! knock them down and problem solved.

Instead of just defusing situations, Tasers become a constant temptation for police to escalate the level of force they employ. I say dump the suckers.

Footnote: I previously posted about Tasers on March 7 and July 26.