(Globe and Mail) – Giuliano Zaccardelli was the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when tasers were introduced by the force in 2001. He was commissioner during the period of 2002-2005, when it has been shown that three in every four suspects shot with a taser by the RCMP were unarmed. He was commissioner during a subsequent period when cases in which Mounties drew or threatened to draw their tasers rose dramatically from 597 incidents in 2005 to 1,400 times in 2007. So it is perhaps surprising that Mr. Zaccardelli, who resigned under a cloud over his handling of the Maher Arar affair, has now opted to go public with his concerns over tasers.
It is even more surprising that his concern is not focused on the tasers’ ballooning use, or the fact that stun guns are often shot by police at unarmed people, or that people have died after they have been tasered.
In an interview with CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge, Mr. Zaccardelli said he would end the use of tasers because publicity around them has harmed the image of the police force.
Said Mr. Zaccardelli: “After all that I’ve thought about it, I’ve come more and more to the conclusion that I’m not sure that having tasers is worth the negative impact that it has on police forces in terms of public perception. I think we should stop using it.” In other words, Mr. Zaccardelli appears more concerned about image than the fact that people have died after being shot with the stun guns, or because of other abuses of the tasers by police.
He told the CBC that one case during his tenure as commissioner was so abusive that he considered taking the weapon away from officers, but says he was talked out of it by a deputy commissioner. It was not that abuse, then, that finally turned him, nor was it the death of the Polish taser victim Robert Dziekanski at the hands of the RCMP at Vancouver International Airport. While every voice calling for caution on this matter is welcome, it is difficult not to see Mr. Zaccardelli’s comments on the taser as unpersuasive and self-serving.
Yes, it is clear that Mr. CBF has a very poor understanding of the concept of “stopping power”, since it has little to do with its “inferred lethality”.
His use of the comparison to facetiously say that “why have Canadians suddenly turned into such a violent bunch of hardened criminals where they needed to be shot 1,400 times in 2007 alone with .357 Magnums, I mean Tasers” is absolutely asinine. Stopping power != lethality. I can almost gaurantee that 1400 shootings from .357 Magnums would results in an order of magnititude more deaths than the same use of Tasers.
How many rounds of a .357 to stop a bull? One zap from the gizmo does the trick. Check the video…
If anyone wants to give themselves, their family or friends a reality check (or a laugh) go to Taser.org and read this for yourselves ;
“TASER Weapons fire 50,000 Volts up to 15 feet, with more stopping power than a .357 Magnum. Absolutely the best non-lethal protection for your home”.
Taser itself says that the Taser has “more stopping power than a .357 Magnum”.
Who have the RCMP been using Tasers on? Logically, if you were to use Taser’s reasoning, it would be where the RCMP needed more stopping power than a .357 Magnum.
Now look at the people and situations where the RCMP have used Tasers. Going along with Taser’s rationale it should be where they needed more stopping power than a .357 Magnum.
The RCMP have Tasered the physically handicapped , the aged and the infirm. The RCMP have Tasered just about every demographic you can imagine aside from children.
The Taser company itself uses the analogy of a “.357 Magnum”. They don’t say more stopping power than a nightstick. They don’t say more stopping power than pepper spray but use a firearm because of its inferred lethality.
And if a Tasering is equivalent to the force delivered through a .357 Magnum why have Canadians suddenly turned into such a violent bunch of hardened criminals where they needed to be shot 1,400 times in 2007 alone with .357 Magnums, I mean Tasers. Canadians in 2005 needed to be fired upon by .357 Magnums 597 times and in just two short years that had more than doubled to 1,400 times.
It’s starting to look like a real nasty trend is developing. The more the RCMP and police use Tasers the more people disrespect their authority, and the more they disrepect their authority the more they use their .357 Magnums, I mean Tasers.