Phillies fan tasered: Why police are using Tasers more often

Many police officers argue that cultural criticism of the Taser is largely unfounded since its benefits – the relative safety of the device weighed against fewer injuries to the police officer – are greater than the possibilities for abuse.

"We didn't get this [negative] reaction when nightsticks were used to split heads open, but because of the technology and what it does, the media have really exacerbated the issue of the Taser," former Boca Raton, Fla. police chief Andrew Scott told the Monitor in 2008.

A number of recent cases have tested the legality of using the Taser on unarmed suspects, but so far the constitutionality of its use has not been firmly established. Notably, the US Supreme Court last year refused to take up a case of a handcuffed Florida motorist who was tased three times because he disobeyed a deputy sheriff's command to stand up and walk to a patrol car.

The question in many such cases is to what extent police can use a Taser against someone who is passively refusing to obey a police command. Such passive refusal is considered by many officers to be a form of resisting arrest, clearing the way to pull out the Taser. In the Phillies fan tasering incident, the lanky youth was clearly resisting arrest.

"In the end it is all going to come down to a question of reasonableness under the circumstances," Tallahassee lawyer John Jolly told the Monitor last year. "If a reasonable person would think that use of force is going to accomplish a lawful objective and make it less likely that somebody gets hurt, they can do it."

But is the definition of reasonable Taser use shifting in light of the tasering of the Phillies fan?

If it is, Ms. Rapping blames much of it on the media, where a predilection for focusing on crime and out of control citizens "leads people to think that the most dangerous people in the world are young kids at a baseball game, when really the most dangerous people are CEOs and government regulators who endanger lives and jobs [with their failings,]" she says. "We've got our values wrong. We're policing the wrong people."

Related:

Federal court in California limits police use of Tasers

Police Tasers: excessive force or necessary tool?

Britain abuzz over a new plan to arm bobbies with Tasers

Are stun guns too deadly? Louisiana case adds to debate.

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