Your Thoughts On Non-lethal Weapons

[taki]

Considering what has happened in the past couple of weeks I'm rethinking some ideas I've had for a long time. I have long believed that cops are to well insulated from taking responsibility for their actions and in the interest of them making it home at night a lot of unruly people are not making it home or to jail at night. They are getting a nice comfy slab in the local morgue.

Which brings me to the question of whether cops should resort to using firearms for self defense or should all police be issued non-lethal weapons and policy be changed to force them to respect citizens lives much as they desire theirs to be respected.

As much as I want to see all police make it home to their families each night after work, I want to see each unruly citizen to so as well. Engaging a police officer in a fist fight should not result in a dead civilian. You are trained in self-defense, use your training. Used properly, tasers are quite safe and certainly less dangerous than a bullet.

Life is precious, and even if someone does refuse to cooperate with the police it should not mean that they can expect to be killed for doing so. That is not the society that American's grew up in and frankly I feel that civil war will occur before they accept it.

A way of preventing this would be to switch police policy to use non-lethal force unless a lethal weapon is used against them. Hint - a knife is not a lethal weapon to a cop who has a ranged taser weapon. Tasers are not the only thing that cops can use to engage and subdue unruly or violent citizens without killing them either.

I guess what I am saying is that enough will the killing of someone just because they take a swing at you or refuse to cooperate. Something has to change before what happened in Ferguson happens in a major city and even the national guard won't be able to stop it with out a lot of blood being spilt on both sides..a lot of unnecessary death that could be avoided with just a few policy changes.

I mean no disrespect in anything I have posted, I am just sick of the death and sick of the gun being the first choice in an altercation.

 

[Ricardo187]

Non lethal weapons are surely good for riot controls and such situations but I think they can be dangerous if misused too. There's a lot of discussion around this subject, I'm surprised it's only coming up as a thread now.

 

[Dixons]

Non-lethal weaponry should be used much more than it is now. I've heard some officers aren't even allowed to use non-lethal weaponry and are actually instructed to use their side-arm in situations where it would not be needed.

 

[bala]

They are good for riot controls and most commonly to catch a thief or warding off rapists.Most LAPD patrol cars contain a less lethal shotgun in addition to a shotgun with live rounds,so it sure is gaining popularity with cops and public.

 

[Profit5500]

Non lethal weapons are surely good for riot controls and such situations but I think they can be dangerous if misused too. There's a lot of discussion around this subject, I'm surprised it's only coming up as a thread now.

Many of the protesters during the riot in Ferguson Missouri were hit with the non-lethal beanbag pellets which those were hit received serious wounds. I know that the police say that they have non-lethal gear but I feel that some of those non-lethal gear can be killing weapons when used in a abusive manner.

 

[DancingLady]

I think non-lethal weapons are a much better idea. It is so easy to make a mistake in a tense situation. It would be much better if a person was only injured, and would recover than if they were killed when that was not at all necessary. I hope departments start to re-evaluate their training program, especially with regard to dealing with sensitive issues like race. You have to take into consideration the possible opinions of the other people involved and be sensitive to that in order to deflect hostility.

 

[GemmaRowlands]

I think this is a difficult one, because there is always the chance that you could injure somebody who wasn't actually posing as much of a threat as you thought they were, however on the whole I think that it is important that the police are able to do their jobs without being worried about whether they are going to be harmed or not. By having the weapons, it gives them the best possible chance of doing their own jobs without getting harmed themselves.

 

[Francisco]

Non lethal weapons are surely good for riot controls and such situations but I think they can be dangerous if misused too. There's a lot of discussion around this subject, I'm surprised it's only coming up as a thread now.

It's an interesting topic to discuss. I believe as much as cops can utilize these non-lethal weapons, they should. I don't know about anyone, but I fear having to kill someone someday in self-defense or in any other situation. So, if I were a cop, I would use non-lethal weapons, and then let the courts deal with the rest. Lock them criminals up and throw away the key.

 

[Rainman]

In places where people don't own guns non-lethal weapons would work. In Britain for example, police generally are armed with a nightstick or whatever you call it. In the U.S having police walk around with non-lethal weapons would get murdered by gun-wielding criminals. It's for their safety and the safety of those whom they serve. You don't take a nightstick to a gunfight, right?

 

[js85]

I think most people would be on board with non-lethal weapons. But you have to consider the type of mentality that comes with it. Maybe, since you're under the impression it's non-lethal, you'd use it more frequently in situations that it isn't required. It might be easier to pull the trigger on a taser than a gun, but what happens when you think "I'll taser him, I'll taser them, I'll taser her" when the thought wouldn't have crossed your mind any other time.