# Merseyside Police to get Tasers



## soulman (Sep 7, 2005)

If Merseyside Chief Constable Bernard Hogan Howe gets his way every cunstable on the beat will be carrying a 50,000 volt taser as standard issue - http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/...reds-of-fingers-on-the-trigger-name_page.html


Better get used to this


----------



## friedaweed (Sep 8, 2005)

That's shocking  




gets coat


----------



## stereotypical (Sep 9, 2005)

I dunno about this one.  On the one hand I have no love for the police and could see plenty of 'defenders of gotham city' type coppers using this nasty weapon without just cause.  On the other hand I can understand that Liverpool is a dangerous city and maybe this may make the pig's job a lot easier.

If there's one thing thats changed in the past 10 years about the city centre at nite its the increase in relative safety as a consequence of the overwhelming police presence, although this may be a bit police state ish, on the whole I think its a good thing.


----------



## rosa (Sep 9, 2005)

> On the other hand I can understand that Liverpool is a dangerous city and maybe this may make the pig's job a lot easier.


 It's no more or less dangerous than anywhere else. To be honest the police being given any more new toys makes me nervous,i still don't like the fact that they appear to be walking around the city centre with huge fuck-off wooden sticks.


----------



## stereotypical (Sep 9, 2005)

rosa said:
			
		

> It's no more or less dangerous than anywhere else. To be honest the police being given any more new toys makes me nervous,i still don't like the fact that they appear to be walking around the city centre with huge fuck-off wooden sticks.



Yeah I know what you mean, they do look a bit rough with them big sticks.  At the end of the day though i'd be more worried bout some beer boy scally twat aving a go than the coppers


----------



## Wookey (Sep 11, 2005)

Anthing that delays the introduction of arms is a good thing, and I think tasers do that to some extent.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Sep 11, 2005)

tasers _are_ 'arms'


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Sep 11, 2005)

Wookey said:
			
		

> Anthing that delays the introduction of arms is a good thing, and I think tasers do that to some extent.



http://www.rense.com/general60/sspp.htm

http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/canada/document.do?id=7F09B4FC0365A02A80256F1700532244


----------



## Bernie Gunther (Sep 11, 2005)

rosa said:
			
		

> It's no more or less dangerous than anywhere else. To be honest the police being given any more new toys makes me nervous,i still don't like the fact that they appear to be walking around the city centre with huge fuck-off wooden sticks.


 They've had those long sticks in Liverpool since I were a lad, back in the late 1960's and early 70's. They didn't have 'em in Birkenhead (jewel of the North) so I remember noticing them and asking about them ... 

Quote from my late karate instructor (a kiwi) "Even scousers who can't fight want to"


----------



## Wookey (Sep 11, 2005)

> tasers are 'arms'



Are they? They're a weapon, sure. But not the same as a gun, which was the distinction I was making.



> http://www.rense.com/general60/sspp.htm



I see Johnny, but if you die from a taser shot you have to be unlucky, or have a  heart complaint, surely? The Taser's job is not to kill you, it's to avoid you being killed. A method of restraint.

The gun's job, once fired, is usually to kill you.

Given the choice between guns and tasers, I'd plump for tasers every time. Police are up against armed, dangerous, violent people - we can't put them in that position without the tools to apprehend and disarm dangerous people. The taser is the best example of a non-lethal method of doing this that I can see.

Unless someone knows differently?

After a bit of digging, it appears that the peer reviewed Emergency Medical Journal states that new-type taser guns are essentially safe when used on healthy subjects. It's the presence of drugs such as PCP in the US subjects that complicates the death, that and cardiac disease.

http://emj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/21/2/136


----------



## Kidda (Sep 12, 2005)

i think it should read




			
				Wookey said:
			
		

> *Police are  armed, dangerous, violent people *


----------



## Wookey (Sep 12, 2005)

> Police are armed, dangerous, violent people



...and as long as I obey the law, they're on _my_ side.....


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 12, 2005)

It's a good way of getting people to calm down though innit? Eh? Eh?


----------



## Kidda (Sep 12, 2005)

as for the tazer being able to kill debate

what do the police care 

how many people have died at the hands of the police and how many pigs got away with it?





			
				Wookey said:
			
		

> ...and as long as I obey the law, they're on _my_ side.....



thats what they want you to think


----------



## In Bloom (Sep 12, 2005)

Wookey said:
			
		

> ...and as long as I obey the law, they're on _my_ side.....


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1343572.stm

Surely if the police have "non-leathal" (or rather less likely to be leathal) weapons, they're likely to use them more often?


----------



## Wookey (Sep 12, 2005)

> Surely if the police have "non-leathal" (or rather less likely to be leathal) weapons, they're likely to use them more often?



One would imagine. 

The point is I think for the police that there is an operational gap between the truncheon, which is non-lethal and limited, and the gun, which is mostly lethal. They need to fill this gap with an incapacitating method which does not kill.

Machete beats truncheon, taser beats machete, gun beats taser.

Sad though the shooting of  Harry Stanley certainly was, I don't see at as proof of anything. What do you mean?
 

Also, to compare the US police and UK police is folly - our police are far better trained, and far less scared of being shot on regular duty.


----------



## FruitandNut (Sep 27, 2005)

soulman said:
			
		

> If Merseyside Chief Constable Bernard Hogan Howe gets his way every cunstable on the beat will be carrying a 50,000 volt taser as standard issue - http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/...reds-of-fingers-on-the-trigger-name_page.html
> 
> 
> Better get used to this



Well isn't it the wild west that side of the Rockies, oops, I mean Pennines; so what would you expect the sheriff to tote around the saloons of Liver City on a Saturday night?

ps.  Who rides rides shotgun on your set of wheels when you park up?


----------



## soulman (Sep 28, 2005)

FruitandNut said:
			
		

> Well isn't it the wild west that side of the Rockies, oops, I mean Pennines; so what would you expect the sheriff to tote around the saloons of Liver City on a Saturday night?
> 
> ps.  Who rides rides shotgun on your set of wheels when you park up?



Can you put this in language I can actually understand. Especially that ps. bit.


----------

