I am resonding to Gabriel Cassady Nehl’s guest commentary “Putting Tasers in the hands of DPS would be a mistake” published on Jun 9th. She was completely ignorant about the topic of tasers. According to the KATU news report (Mar. 24) about her cousin’s death, the taser shocks had nothing to do with his death; he died of a cocaine overdose, had the taser caused the death it would have been instantaneous whereas he was talking to the police officers after they tased him. Toxicology reports show his cocaine level at 588 nanograms per milliliter, the test sensitivity level set by the National Institute on Drug Abuse is 300 nanograms per milliliter. As far as the Amnesty International, a human rights movement, reports are concerned they are notoriously biased.
Ms. Nehl also states concerns over student tasing. This is totally unfounded. The same fear was brought up when the campus Officers were issued pepper spray; to my knowledge it has never been used on a student. Most students that are contacted on campus are very compliant even when they are breaking the law and the worst they get is a citation and a fine. There are many policies dictating the use of force and our officers follow them to the letter. If the person does not warrant use of force they are not going to get it.
Ms. Nehl states that the use of pepper spray or batons is sufficient. This has been proven false. There are people who are naturally immune to pepper spray and it is more likely to cause a fatality due to an allergic reaction than tasers are to cause the heart to stop, and that chance is very slim; somewhere near one in a million. Batons are extremely ineffective due to many people’s high pain tolerance, especially people who live and fight on the streets on a regular bases. Both pepper spray and batons can be worthless against people on high levels of narcotics.
Tasers are a safe and effective tool that will one day save someone’s life on campus, be it an officer or a student. There were two camps officers attacked and nearly drowned in March of this year. Attacks like these are likely to become more common as crime gets worse in the area. The officers need tasers in order to effectively protect the students, the faculty and themselves. Ms. Nehl please get your facts strait before writing an obviously biased commentary.
Jared Mills
University student