...he had already "submitted" a number of times only to renew his struggles at a higher level as soon as the cops relaxed. I don't see how the cops could safely take the chance that this (the last) time was for real. Five cops and one perp in close quarters? One wildly swung elbow could have all so easily turn that confrontation into something very unpleasant.

I read "Don't taze me, bro!" as something far closer to the utterances of Brer Rabbit than an expression of submission. And I wasn't the only one at the time who thought so.

I know it gave the arsehole what he wanted, but I don't really see what other choices the cops had but to go along and concede the floor and venue to the disruptor, or escalating physical confrontation and possible injury. Actually I think the cops waited to tase him, so as to make it clear to the audience that he wasn't leaving them with any choice but to knock him on his arse and do it hard enough to keep him down.

Indeed attacking the victim is a common "defense method" of those holding the moral low ground. And there are at least one or two here on DU, guilty of the same crime and quite a few more that are capable of attacking the man in general if they don't like his message.

Am I guilty? I don't think so. I did form my opinion very quickly while watching the vid, thinking: "This bloke's asking for trouble. He's going to get it. And it's the cops who will be wrongfully blamed." I was waiting for it to turn into something really ugly and was quite surprised and relieved when it ended so cleanly. I think the kid's an idiot. But it's what he did that I have my problem with.


Indeed people have died as a result of police takedown methods. But I have a very strong feeling the numbers of fatalities would stack up quite favourably for tasers against the others. (I don't like that sort of research and I don't do it very well, so I'll wait for someone to prove me wrong and reverse myself if necessary. )

It certainly started that way, but when people immediately weigh in with shite like: "The report is wrong, because cops are bastards."; And "Tasers are evil because they cause incapacitating pain." It's going to take arguments on the merits of the taser to counter those people. I don't really expect to change their minds, but I hope to prevent the spread of their poison to the minds of others.

Any tool can be misused. One major merit of this one, is that in the event of it's misuse it's highly unlikely to prove lethal to the person it is misused against. Of course, that relative safety probably increases the likely hood that tasers get used unnecessarily and/or excessively. I happen to think the trade off is worth it.

Part of the problem may indeed be bad cops. But a good deal more is down to the criminals they are up against. Criminals who behave like it's "The American Way" to fight back and make the cops fear for their lives. And incidentally give the true bad cops a smokescreen behind which they can be bad with near impunity.