Tasers!

Via Digby and Loaded Orygun, I wanted to highlight this quote in this Portland Mercury story on Taser use in Portland:

“As more and more people mistakenly believe it’s socially acceptable to publicly challenge the police, it creates an environment where people think that it is okay to ignore a uniformed police officer giving them commands,” Westerman continues. “The environment in Portland allows this more frequently than in other cities.”

Wait, what? In the linked posts this is cited as evidence of mission creep – and while I think that’s true, I also think the use of such a standard military term is telling.  Tasers were originally deployed as an alternative to guns.  Now they are being used as an alternative to words, or simply to force compliance in non-lethal situations.  More than that, even Westerman’s quote indicates that what he really thinks is that people should automatically show deference to police no matter what.

That I even have to note how fucked up this is scares me.  It should probably scare everyone.

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Tags: fuck the police, tasers

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