http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=0a7c7451-7b81-43ef-9bb3-9a9b3edd5e57

Unfortunate and unneccesary. I’m in the Oxford community, it will be interesting to see what happens here.

It seems to me that the question needs to be:
1) Is any force reasonable?
2) What is the least amount of force that should be used?

If this is accurate, Piskura was already much less of a danger when he was tased.

Also, there’s presumably a typo in the article here: shouldn’t it be “the man who was tased?

OTOH, they are within their rights to get drunk.

You take your victim as you find him, thin skull and all, and I’ve never heard that it matters if the thin skull was by the victim’s own choice. If the cop can quickly determine that the suspect is drunk, as is often the case when it’s against the suspect’s interest, then he should know that the weapon he is about to use is even more likely to be lethal than otherwise.

by the time you figure out you’re up against a MMA fighter, it’ll be too late to use the taser or any other weapon. Hope your getting all you can out of weaponless defense…

An electronic weapon should never be used to punish a smart-ass or someone who runs from an officer (I believe this happens more than we would like). As a public safety officer, you should be prepared to deal with douche bags and ready to chase fleeing suspects. Cases involving a suspect that is actively resisting but unarmed (the suspect in this story probably fits into this category), are more complicated. If the suspect is much larger than the officer or has advanced martial arts training, the officer might be justified in Tasering this person. Otherwise, I agree with “Against Stupidity’s” standard for Taser deployment. “Kwix” is correct that a large percentage of Taser-related fatalities involved intoxicated individuals. While I sympathize with considering this condition to be a conrtaindication for Taser use, I must point out that the suspects made the choice to get intoxicated. If the situation is serious enough, officers should not be held to standard this inflexible.

As a prospective police recruit, I have had to participate in relatively challenging physical agility tests. If the Taser is the end all and be all, why have I been subjected to such tests? Police officers should be sharp enough to de-escalate many situations by talking to suspects. In the case of intoxicated subjects or others who aren’t interested in listening to reason, officers should be fit enough and well trained enough to physically subdue most suspects without having to rely on the tools on their belts. In extreme situations though, even those of us who are critical of Tasers should have the integrity to acknowledge that they have saved numerous lives.

Not all degrees of uncertainty are equal. The potential for killing someone is higher with a gun than a Taser, but a properly used night stick is probably less risky as is the proper use of physical force. If you notice, as the risk of lethality goes down the risk to the officer goes up.

Also, the information in the article is limited and it reads to me like he attempted to get up off the ground after being ordered to stay down, drunks are notoriously stupid, so the officer tased him. Its only justified if the potential lethality was relatively low. How low is low enough? I don’t think a taser was.

The Taser should be the last resort before using lethal force and not a tool to pacify combative suspects. The police should not be afraid to physically subdue a mean drunk.

If a Taser is used to pacify or punish and a death results, it should be classified as a wrongful death and the officer and department should be held to the appropriate standard.

An Oxford bicycle officer allegedly warned both men to stop fighting. According to police, the friend complied but Piskura did not. That is when police tased Piskura”

But this is really beside the point. Tasers have killed enough people (heart conditions notwithstanding) that their classification and use as a “non-lethal” weapon is laughable.

Still, I feel bad for the kid…such a horrible way to go.

From a legal situation, those who argue that they were unjustly tasered can point to this case as evidence that use of the taser is capable of killing even healthy young men.

The cop used what he truely believed to be a non leathal means of stoping a fight.

When a police officer procliams an end to a bar fight, it should be over.