The Guardian 6 December, 2006
Tasers miss the mark
Jules Andrews
A series of horrific misfirings by a police officer in New Zealand brings the use of taser guns
once again into the spotlight.
The incident occurred while the officer was attempting to subdue a man during a domestic violence
dispute.
The officer shot the weapon five times and missed the man he was intending to hit on each
attempt. Instead, he accidentally shot himself in one attempt, and the man's son in another. The
officer then attempted to subdue the man with capsicum spray, again missing the intended target
and spraying the man's daughter in the face instead.
The man was so horrified at the acts of violence committed against his family by the officer that he
voluntarily gave himself up.
The officer had been fully trained in the use of the taser guns.
No toy
Yet these weapons continue to be promoted as a valuable tool in the hands of police across the
world.
A trial of the lethal weapons was announced in February this year by NSW Premier Morris Iemma
and the then Police Minister Carl Scully.
Premier Iemma has continued to promote the trial of the weapon by NSW police, saying that it
could have played an important role in subduing crowds in the race riots at Cronulla Beach in
December 2005.
However, within two weeks of the announcement senior police officials — most notably former
Assistant Commissioner Norm Hazzard — expressed concern over their use.
The concerns expressed are backed up by a growing worldwide database of incidents where the
taser gun has been misused — deliberately or unintentionally — which indicate that the weapon is
not a "subduer" but a deadly killer.
The Premier's "Cronulla" selling tactic has been exposed: the unwieldy weapon would be useless
in a crowd situation.
If one fully trained officer cannot hit a target in a room of five people, dozens of police attempting to
use them in a situation against hundreds of rioters would no doubt leave the victims of the violence
and innocent bystanders at heavy risk of ending up as "collateral damage".
Weapon of mass killings in USA
Amnesty International is collating a database of the weapon's use in the USA.
It says that continuing reports of incidents indicate their excessive use, which in some cases
amount to torture and other "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment".
More than 150 people have died in the US after being struck by tasers since June 2001 — 61 in
2005 alone — and numbers are continuing to rise. Most who died were subjected to multiple or
prolonged shocks.
While in most cases government's continue to attribute the deaths to factors other than the taser,
such as "excited delirium" associated with drug intoxication or violent struggle, in 23 cases
coroners have listed the use of the taser as a cause or a contributory factor in death. In three cases
in 2005, the taser was listed as a primary cause of death.