Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

November 29, 2007

Taser International, the company that manufactures the supposedly non-lethal stun guns used by police, has a tax-exempt foundation to support the families of officers killed in the line of duty. Admirable as this is, the company really ought to consider establishing a similar fund to care for the victims of unjustifiable Taser use by trigger-happy police.

Although categorized as non-lethal, the Taser is more properly described as an occasionally lethal implement of torture. Most police agencies have policies authorizing Taser use in situations involving potentially deadly peril to officers, suspects, or bystanders. But police are increasingly employing the Taser as a ?pain compliance? tactic to punish uncooperative suspects, including motorists who object to traffic stops.

Police in Alabama recently used Tasers on a driver who was suffering a diabetic seizure. The driver's inability to obey police instructions supposedly constituted ?combative? behavior. This incident is typical of the promiscuous police use of Tasers, and the growing case file of needless death and injury to harmless people.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.