http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ussCHoQttyQ

I don't like the attitude US police seem to have to tasers, and I think they're overused in general. Sure there's the danger that he might hurt someone, but the job of the police is to assess dangers like that rather than electrocute anything that moves. And what about the danger that tasering can seriously cripple or even kill someone? They should be used more sparingly.

Ya know, I think the problem is people have gotten too soft and PC. What if the story was this kid prancing around the field pulled out a gun and shot all the guards/cops before killing himself. What would some of you have said?

How is the guard/cop supposed to know what this person's intentions are? Does he have ESP? Is every single case going to be a textbook case? The level of respect shown towards cops here is disconcerting.

Bah. Probably normal according to US standards, but I say that's definitely a case of excessive use of force.





Everything in these two posts is true. Tasering used to be an alternative for using deadly force, not a way for lazy and incompetent policemen to bring down an idiot teenager. Let's be serious, how big is the chance that he carried a gun and intended to use it? It was just a very enthousiastic fan who wanted some attention. Crazy paranoid Americans.

Totally unnecessary. Using a potentially lethal taser gun (yes they have killed people) on a kid running around a football pitch :nono:

Sounds like a typical trigger-happy yeehaw cop playing up for the crowd

Fine by me.Don't run on the field and ruin the game for everyone.Maybe the cop was thinking about the attempted car bombing in New York over the weekend?

Considering the whole car bomb in New York city recently, I can understand why his unauthorized prescence on the field caused the reaction it did.
It's also common damn sense to stay the hell off the field while a major league baseball game is underway. Unless you want to be hit in the head with a spherical projectile missile going in excess of 60mph.
Those cops actually kept him from getting potentially seriously injured, althouth culling the herd might not have been a bad thing.


Oh, I'm so damn sorry for being a crazy paranoid american, subject to constant ridicule on the behavior of my fellow countrymen, politicans, law enforcement, day in, day out, fodder for the rest of the world to feel free to comment on. Can't remember the last time I dissed someone else's country.

If my partner went around electrocuting everyone or even anyone she had to arrest she would be out of a job very quickly. And yes, she is a police officer. And I love her. And try not think about where she's going every time she leaves the house.

My apologies, I shouldn't have said that. It's just that most of the really trigger-happy people on this forum tend to be Americans, and it fits in the common stereotype. To me personally it does look like the US has a larger percentage of trigger-happy crazy paranoid people than Europe, but of course not all Americans are like that. Probably just a very vocal minority, and the Texans of course . Again I'm sorry, I shouldn't have made such a gross generalization.

I don't see what the fuss is about, a taser hurts like [censored], but it's not the worst thing that can happen to you. Besides, if you're dumb enough to run onto the field you've got only yourself to blame.

Well, it's important to consider that the most well know terrorist attack, 9/11 obviously, took place in New York city, not Paris or London. I'm not saying that Europe hasn't been affected, I know it had, but the incidents in the US seem to get more press and hype.

The kid was being stupid. In hindsight, he posed no threat, but the officer didn't know that at the time. I remember a women's tennis star getting stabbed by a fan during a match. I'm not sure if I agree with the use of a taser, but it's not my job to decide. I guess we'll see if he gets reprimanded for using it.

Based on what little information was given, I am of the opinion that this was a use of excessive force. The use of a weapon, originally adopted for neutralising armed or violent suspects, against somebody who is at worst a public nuisance is inappropriate.


I'm not really sure of what your intentions are either. You may just pull a gun and start shooting people on the street, but without evidence it'd hardly be appropriate for the cops to bust in and shoot you with ten thousand volts. Acting without probable cause is illegal, hence why every time the police use weapons an investigation takes place to decide if it was justified. From what I've seen, there was nothing to indicate this kid had a weapon or intended physical harm to anybody. He was simply acting like an idiot.


On an unrelated note, now you shall call me MASTER!

Idiot. Next time use a bayonet.

Tennis like basketball is played courtside.Her attacker just leaned over the barrier and stabbed her from behind with a nine-inch knife, because he wanted Steffi Graff to win the tournament. No taser in the world is going to protect her. He was pronounced insane and received treatment rather than punishment, which probably was one of the reasons Monica Seles gave up her ambitions. Nothing to do with tasering though.

Some people have the attitude that "Well, if you break the law you deserve whatever the cops do". These are usually the same people that justify any excessive police force whatsoever, even in cases where unarmed prisoners have been shot, or gleefully condemn all criminals and say things like "The whole lot of them should be shot, it'll save on prison space" etc.

Basically these people scare the crap out of me. Lawbreakers are people too. And by the sound of it, far more human than these people are. Sometimes I feel I'd be in much better company in a jail cell, as opposed to hanging with the people who pass judgement on them.

Anyway give the guy a break, running across sports fields is a pastime. Kinda silly true, but that doesn't justify tasering nor us taking sadistic glee in it.

The Security doesn't commit error.

I don't think the tazer was needed. They could have caught him anyway, if not the police then I'm sure the players could easily catch up to him.

Not to mention it could have killed the guy.

Meh, we need inhuman people to keep us safe sometimes.

Fair enough, but then who keeps us safe from them?

I would appreciate a definition of most of the words in that sentence. 'We', 'us', 'safe' and 'sometimes'. Because that is worrying.

And the "inhuman" part. Machines, perhaps? Worrying indeed.

The criminals. They form a symbiotic relationship.



"we" and "us" being the law abiding people, "safe" being the deterrent effect of tasers on future prospective pitch-runners, and sometimes being when criminal behaviour reaches epidemic proportions.

I didn't vote.
Where's the option for "He's an idiot with self control issues and I don't care "?

The cop or the kid?

the kid
climbs a fence meant as a barrier, he knew better.