Cops get Tasers

Police Association applauds Taser plan
LATEST: The Police Association has welcomed the decision to proceed with Taser use, but says the decision highlights police being used as political pawns. Association president Greg O'Connor said the Taser decision reflected the "politicisation of police" and was a "cynical and calculated attempt to divert police and public attention from the Government's u-turn on the democratic rights of police officers". He was referring to the Government's decision not to support the rights of police officers to stand for local councils.

Incredible, Greg still manages to find time to attack the Government even after they hand him his blessed tasers! This process has been a farce, it was not as Amnesty International points out, a rigorous, independent or impartial inquiry into tasers and it didn’t take into account the 300 deaths following Taser use in North America since their 2001 introduction and Annette King claims Tasers will be used to "subdue a person under the influence of drugs, mentally disordered or in a frenzied psychological state", which are the exact conditions most consistently seen in deaths following Taser use. King says that only trained front line staff will use the Taser, but again as is pointed out in the Police Association’s June 2008 report there is a “disturbing trend” for more sworn officers to be exempt from mandatory training and it highlights “a lack of agreement as to what constitutes frontline” So a murky world already exists as to who will be trained and what constitutes frontline Police, so King’s assurances mean jack shit.