Tasers shouldn’t be used as compliance tools. They’re not non-lethal, they’re less lethal. People still die from their application and that’s without considering cases where cops “grab the wrong gun”, yet cops continue to blast away with them with impunity.
As if 2012 Amnesty International had tracked 500 deaths after taser applications since 2001. In another report they found 90% of the time when a taser was deployed the person shocked was unarmed. amnestyusa.org/press-releases… 
Our police are militarized and the thin blue line mentality that they’re the last line of defense between civilization and barbarism is an inextricable part of cop culture. They operate like an invading force, terrified of many of the people they’re supposed to be serving.
If we keep hiring people who, and training people to, hate and fear people of color, these outcomes aren’t going to change. How many of these cops are convinced black men are unusually strong and dangerous?
I’m not an abolish the police guy, but I don’t know how much clearer it needs to be that we have to dramatically rethink how we enforce the law. This is a problem that’s much bigger than slapping a little extra training on top of what we already have.
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