Surprise, surprise, a new Taser incident to be investigated.
Unfortunately, those who predicted Taser troubles for EPD and the City of Eugene were ignored. Now the City Council has rushed to dilute the effectiveness of the Civilian Review Board by working to exclude the only effective members and stacking the committee with political zombies. Will there need to be a pile of smoking Tasered corpses before the council adds cameras to the Tasers or abandons the Taser “pilot project” altogether? How many deaths should the council ignore?
Many cities have recently dumped the Tasers because they realized the Taser was oversold and overused by many officers. The Taser situation is a complicated one and the media are informing you about Tasers and police oversight issues with all of the skill of a bunch of second graders. That is why the debate surrounding less lethal weapons is so murky and unproductive. Expect more deaths and multiplying unanswered questions.
When I was shot with less-lethal weapons by the EPD SWAT team in 2003, the media could never get the story straight. Even with the incident captured on video the media ignored it and parroted the lies from the police claiming they had acted in self-defense. Now the shooting can be viewed on YouTube. New weapons now, but the same old story of media incompetence keeps us moving quickly in all the wrong directions. I do not blame the police — I blame the elected officials and the slacker reporters who protect them by goofing off instead of investigating these complex issues.
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