Tasers and the Elderly

[Deleted]

Events like this have become far too frequent anywhere tasers are used. I think they should be banned. People are being maimed or killed. And don't even get me started on Sammy Yatim or or Robert Dziekanski. Canada's police forces are out of control.

[Deleted]

I don't think that the police have understood yet that there are a lot of people out on the street who just don't understand what they are saying, and not just due to speaking a foreign language.

Even when my mother was still walking around, the police could have shouted at her "Stop or I'll shoot!" ten times in a row and it would not have fazed her at all. But they would be protected by the concept of having having given "due warning" properly according to their police manual.

[Deleted]

There was an incident that happened here right after Katrina.
A gentleman was "acting strangely" in a local pharmacy where he was trying to procure his medication.
N.O.P.D. was called to the scene and they used a taser on him and the man died.
It was most awful and I have abhorred their use ever since.

[lagatta]

Yes, it is terrible. Not only dementia or foreign-language speakers, but some people are deaf, eh? And I don't think the old lady was toting a gun. What on earth could she have done, anyway?

This could very well kill her, or render her invalid until death. One of my grandfathers was a country doctor, and died after slipping on ice in the wintertime and fracturing a hip, visiting a patient (still part of their job, back then).

Casimira, your gentleman could have been diabetic, or many other things.

[Deleted]

On the "bright side" many policemen probably have this sort thing in their own families now, so I suppose that understanding of the problem is growing.

[Deleted]

The gentleman I posted of had a history of a mental disorder, more specifically, schizophrenia, and he was only trying to replenish his medication...