is it apparent that when people who r on drugs or have heart trouble are tazered it sometimes kills them?

Question

When people are tazered and die everyone always says they were on drugs. Is it now ok to use a device that kills people on drugs or with heart trouble. People are being tazered for just trying to walk away from police. Very many of the people who have died were unarmed. I think if a person pulled a gun or something like that on the police they have a right to shoot them with a regular gun, but this tazer thing is just cruel and being used when a person does not comply with verbal commands.before people put stupid answers and jokes on here think about if it were a person you loved died in alful pain from being tazered

don't you people get what i'm asking people r being tazerd for mudane reasons . Like crazy people walking off while an officer is talking to them. Things like that. Blind people , people in wheele chairs. If you don't believe it search tazer death. These are actual news and media reports

Answer 1

I think 167 deaths in the US since 1999 from being tasered is far too many!! People here are not understanding the gravity of the situation, they are unresearched and just going by what taser international says to support their product.

My sympathies go out to you and his family.
And you don't have to be on drugs for it to happen, you just have to have heart problems or be shot in the chest.

Answer 2

Yes, there have been a few cases of people who have been hit by a tazer and have died later, always from some preexisting condition, whether medical or self-induced (drugs). Yes, there is a certain amount of electrical current that is sent through the body, that can sometimes worsen the strain that the preexisting condition puts on the heart. So what is the percentage of people who have been tazed that die from complications later that are attributed to the tazing? Approximately 0.5%. How many of these people died directly from the tazing and how many deaths just happened to coincide with the timeframe of a tazing? Nobody knows. Several of these "tazer related deaths" have occurred several days after the tazing. Would they have died even without being tazed the week before? Your guess is as good as mine. As far as I know, none of these cases died immediately upon being tazed. So, they didn't "die in awful pain from being tazered".

If there was any evidence at all that tazing caused these deaths, police departments would not subject their officers to being tazed, as they all do before they let the officer carry a tazer. If there was any evidence it might have caused any lasting damage, I would not have let the police department I work for taze me. Twice. That is part of what the company that makes tazers requires to grant the certification. And an officer has to be certified to carry a tazer.

The tazer causes no lasting physical damage and it lasts only 5 seconds. I have seen the use of a tazer save lives several times. Without being able to temporarily incompacitate them with a tazer, there are many people out there who the police would have had to shoot with a "regular" gun. And I would venture to say that the number of lives saved by tazers is far greater than the number of deaths "caused" by tazers.

The only time a tazer is used is when a person has committed a crime or is causing an officer to fear for his safety. The police don't just walk around tazing people for the hell of it. There is always a reason.

Answer 3

Imagine this scenario: You are a police officer, you pull someone over for a routine traffic stop, and the person goes berserk for no apparent reason. He is huge and you are of average build, what do you do? Now if the perp is aggressive and beligerent and threatening the officer, and has the potential to kill or do serious bodily harm to the officer, what do you do? You would be justified in drawing your firearm and using lethal force to protect yourself. You don't want to, but you're not going to stand there and take a beating or worse. You're not going to risk your wife becoming a widow and your children fatherless, are you? So, technology has come up with a device whereby you do not have to use lethal force. You simply shock the suspect if he gets out of hand. The effects wear off and no one is really hurt. There was use of a night stick not too long ago. The public made a lot of noise over the use of billy clubs and batons. But tell me, you are an officer. Your jurisdiction has spent a great deal of time, money and effort in training you. You are equipped to deal with difficult situations. Occaisionally you may have to do that which every police officer dreads. You may have to kill somebody. Which is the preferred outcome? You or the perp being injured or killed? I don't mean to belabor the point, but if the offender has a pace maker, or severe heart condition, or any other physical or mental impairment (including drug use) then it is the responsibility of the suspect to comply with the lawful orders of the officer and not make any threatening gestures. I've been there, my daughter is there now. If it comes down to her needing to use deadly tactics on an unreasonable and belligerant subject for her own protection, then I pray she would not hesitate.

Answer 4

The taser is not designed to be a lethal device. When it is used, the police are trying not to kill someone. If someone decides to use drugs and then are incapacitated to the point they do not obey the lawful orders of the police, THEY are limiting the options the police can use. This is not the fault of the police. The use of the drugs was a choice the subject made. The police have no idea if the person is armed or not at the time. They just know that a person on drugs is very erratic and it is impossible to know how they will react. As most others have pointed out, the next alternative is to use their guns. You choose.

Answer 5

If the suspect is clearly under the influence of a controlled substance and is not complying with the officers commands then said person is subject to non-lethal subjigatioin. If said person dies from a heart attack when tazed by the officer and the cause of the heart attack was induced by the tazer after the suspect was using drugs such as meth-amphetamine, it is not the officer's fault. the suspect chose to use the drugs and dissobey an order from an officer of the law, and therefore it is the suspect's fault for his own death.

And as for it being someone I love, no one I love uses any drugs

Answer 6

There is a medical cause for these deaths, but it is often triggered by the shock. We have had 2 taser deaths in Escambia Co. Jail in the past 2 months. One man was a schizophrenic and the other had claustrophobia. Neither were on drugs. A little boy 6 was tasered and died in FL for fighting w/ another little boy. A man who's car overheated on the way to the beach was tasered because he became upset and agitated. Definition of COP: Under-educated criminal with the power of the judicial system behind them.

Answer 7

I have heard of 2 cases in our state of people dying after being tazered. Both of the men were on drugs at the time. Both were high on meth at the time the tazering happened and both had heart attacks.

Answer 8

I've been Tasered (training class). Great tool for Law Enforcement as the alternative is greater risk for injury to officers and for suspects.
If you look at the TASER website and follow the stock and company news, TASER has repeatedly (and consistantly) been shown to be safe when used on subjects that are neither under the influence of drugs (stimulants) and have normal cardiac function. Period.
My suggestion... if you fear the wire, just comply so the nice officer doesn't NEED to TASER you.

Answer 9

a tazer is alot safer even with the few deaths, than spraying them with mace ( which you can't always use due to wind or inside a building)

So beating them with a baton is most certainly more dangerous. And I would say that the people are not "just" walking away but they are resisting arrest, refusing to obey the lawful orders of an officer.

So you would rather, someone beat them with with clubs untill they start obeying ??

Answer 10

Yes, innocent people walking down the street are just tasered out of the blue and killed all the time.

Perhaps you'd prefer if the police officer using this taser pulled out his gun? A lot more people would lose their lives that way.