On Tasers and “Disorderly Conduct”

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When I was a kid I used to watch “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” with some regularity, and learned that tranquilizer darts could stop large angry charging animals (lions, elephants, hippos) as well as much smaller critters very quickly in their tracks.   When I heard about police shootings on the news, I   wondered why police officers didn’t use guns that show   tranquilizer darts, instead of bullets. That way if the person was innocent, or even guilty of something less than a death penalty offense, they’d still be alive after they got shot and fell to the ground unconscious, eliminating whatever dangers (if any) they were posing to others. I hadn’t thought about that question in decades, but this post (which links to this article) reminded me of my childhood musings.   Violet is right: “If that had been a gun, the cop wouldn’t have fired it. If it had been a billy club, he wouldn’t have knocked the woman upside the head with it. But it was a taser, and so Mr. Asshole Cop decided to get all SWAT team.” If the same cop had had tranquilizer darts instead of a taser, would he have used them too? Below is the video of the event:

Deputy Tasers Woman In Minivan

This article reports:


Here’s Harmon’s description of that day:


















The article says the woman, repeatedly described as “a mom,” is a school bus driver, but doesn’t discuss whether her job might have been jeopardized if she got a speeding ticket. I doubt many bloggers or media outlets (or President Obama) are going to see this as important, since she is not a Harvard professor. But it is.

–Ann Bartow

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