Make No Mistake

Saturday 21 July 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

When law enforcement urges the public to accept a new, non-lethal weapon as part as a means to curb police shootings, what they really mean is that they are wanting to bust out weapons on people they simply couldn’t justify shooting, and that the shootings that were supposed to be avoided by said non-lethal weaponry will continue unabated. The Chicago Tribune:

Police departments in Chicago and the suburbs have embraced the Taser, a device marketed as a tool to reduce shootings by officers.

The weapons’ manufacturer contends that if officers can use electric shocks to prevent dangerous situations from escalating, police might shoot their guns less.

But that hasn’t happened in Chicago.

In 2010, the city armed hundreds more officers with the weapon, fueling a 329 percent jump in Taser use, from 195 incidents in 2009 to 836 in 2011. Yet shootings by police didn’t drop significantly during that period, according to figures from the city’s Independent Police Review Authority.

The numbers raise questions about how often police use the weapons to defuse confrontations that might otherwise escalate to use of deadly force. Civil lawyers and department critics have alleged that, rather than deploying Tasers to subdue dangerous criminals, officers have sometimes drawn them on mildly obstinate suspects.

But what about teh WAR ON COPZZZZZ!!!!

Top-ranking police said they believe officers are using the weapons with restraint, and they gave several explanations as to how skyrocketing Taser use could fail to cut the shooting numbers. Officials initially cited an uptick in attacks on officers, though department statistics indicate that instances of battery of officers actually have dropped (emphasis mine).

Sounds about right. Even though your own numbers designed to give our heroes in blue all benefit of the doubt emphatically show that attacks on the po-po are down, simply lie and tell the public that these aggressive actions are due to more attacks on the po-po.

Someone needs to start hold police accountable for their actions. AT this point, the law sure as fuck doesn’t.

2012-07-21  »  madlibertarianguy