- The Chicago Police Department plans to own as many as 6,900 Tasers by the end of 2017, a ninefold increase from just two years ago and enough to give every officer on patrol an electric shock weapon that can drop a person in an instant.
Seriously? In the very first paragraph, they set cops up by praising this SUPER WEAPON! that can drop a person in an instant. ::Snap!:: Just like that! How many readers can come up with a story where a Taser didn't work? Just off the top of our heads, we personally can come up with dozens of instances among our writers where the Taser probes (a) missed, (b) bad contacts, (c) merely slowed someone down, and worst case (d) the subject fought through the SUPER WEAPON and had to be re-tasered/mechanically subdued/escaped. The Taser is only a tool - a tool that fails at times.
- Saying Tasers were part of his plan to "ensure the safety of every resident," Mayor Rahm Emanuel embraced the devices as an alternative to guns after Laquan McDonald's fatal shooting by an officer sparked widespread outrage in late 2015.
But a Chicago Tribune examination of thousands of pages of city records and data on about 4,700 Taser uses over the last decade has raised questions about the department's reliance on the weapon.
We can hardly wait to see the Tribune examination that will make officers even more hesitant to use any force on any subject lest they become the subject of IPRA/COPA investigations, second-guessing by bosses who have never worked the street, prosecutors looking to make a name for themselves or media witch hunts.
- Among the findings:
•Some officers have used Tasers with unusual regularity. Cops who deployed a Taser did so twice on average, but 16 officers each used a Taser 15 or more times over the last decade.
First of all, those using it twice - was that two different occasions or shocking twice with one discharge or using both cartridges? Because the "reporters" never specify. The current Taser has two sets of probes. The previous Taser allowed multiple cycles to be generated with one set of probes. This is a number that means nothing without context.
Fifteen times in ten years? So once every eight months? This is a big deal? What Districts did they work in? What shift? Where's the context? And if it's 16 different officers - we'll do the math out loud as a courtesy to Einstein - 16 individual officers, divided by the supposed strength of 10,000 officers, equals 0.0016. Multiply the result by 100 in order to express it as a percentage and you get 0.16% - sixteen-hundredths-of-one-percent. Again, this is a big deal why? (Hint - it isn't.)
- •In a department that has historically disregarded red flags suggesting misconduct or excessive force, some of the heaviest Taser users also racked up complaints and shootings. One officer who used a Taser 18 times also fired his gun at people on five separate occasions, wounding three. He also shot and wounded a dog.
Again, context. District? Watch? Assignment? Someone in a unit tasked with apprehending known, wanted felons with a history of carrying guns and exhibiting violent behavior is going to rack up weapon usage. The Tribune says "some" but doesn't note if this single officers is one of the same 16 who use their Taser once every eight months or someone else. And 1 out of 10,000 is 0.01% (one-hundredth-of-one-percent) - a picture of restraint for the rest of the Department.
- •The city's police disciplinary agency fully investigated few Taser uses, leaving the task largely to a Police Department whose reviews of nonlethal force were criticized by the U.S. Department of Justice in January as cursory. A closer look at about 100 Taser incidents by some of the most frequent users found that command officers held that the use of force complied with department policy in every instance.
Again, context. And what a testament to the training of our Department that the Use of Force is so strictly adhered to. Take THAT Dept. of Justice!
- •A Tribune review of city Law Department data as well as court records found that the city has paid or agreed to pay at least $23.1 million in lawsuits involving Taser use since 2005.
And did the City fight a single one of these lawsuits in a Court of Law where evidence can be presented, both sides heard and blame assessed by a judge and jury? The Tribune helpfully left all that out in case it interfered with the bias they're attempting to inject into their "reporting."
- •At least eight people have died since 2005 after Chicago police used Tasers on them. Drug use or other factors were ruled the cause of death in all but one of those cases, however.
Underlying health problems become a lot less underlying when you exert yourself running, climbing, fighting to get away from jail or prison time.
Here's our favorite part though:
- •Nearly three-fourths of those targeted with Tasers were black, though African-Americans comprise about one-third of the city's residents. The racial disparity in Taser use mirrors other forms of police contact with citizens, including street stops, and a department spokesman noted that police activity is heavier in violent neighborhoods, some with large African-American populations. The Tribune, however, found that officers have disproportionately used the weapons against black people even in largely white neighborhoods.
Can we assume that 100% of those "targeted" by Tasers were active resistors or assailants? Because the Tribune makes no allegation of Tasers being used improperly to torture or punish, which would have led the article if they had a single instance at all.
In any event, has the Tribune availed themselves of the fine website known as HeyJackass.com? You'll never guess what the citywide racial breakdown of victims in shootings ends up being. It's 78.5% black. And as we have no media coverage of roving bands of pale-skinned gunmen shooting up the hood, we can safely assume that the assailants are in the same percentage ranges (citywide).
The "reporters" also rely on the fully-debunked liberal trope that crime stats should mirror the population (i.e. since one third of the population is black, one third of the street stops should be black.) This is so much horseshit. Neighborhoods, let along police districts, aren't divided up one-third black, one-third white and one third brown. It isn't reality. And unfortunately, reality is that well over two-thirds of the identified criminals in Chicago are of one race.
And that last sentence - The Tribune, however, found that officers have disproportionately used the weapons against black people even in largely white neighborhoods - has the Tribune availed itself of another fine website? The Crime in Wrigleyville and Boystown site? They cover crime in a semi-diverse part of town, where the robbery offenders, rapists, shooters seem to congregate due to the belief that there are large numbers of persons who won't fight back.
Guess who those offenders are, percentage-wise?
The Tribune then goes on about the asshole who died after breaking free of officers, running, being Tasered and falling into a pole (pause for laughter here). We don't see where that is even remotely the fault of police or the Taser for that matter. Everything that occurred was directly attributable to the actions of the criminal. Period. Full stop. End of story.
You can read the rest of the article at the link up top. It repeats and rehashes most of what we covered here, concentrating on supposed "racial disparities" without once citing the racial reality of Chicago. That would cloud the message you know - that police are bad. And the only logical result is further disengagement by the police, leaving the "community" to continue its increasing speed down the slippery slope, aided and abetted by the leftist media. Stay fetal.
Labels: media, un-fucking-believable
