New York’s Finest Get Tasers
Simple Justice:
Tasers are coming to the New York City Police Department, prompted by a RAND Corporation study and such killings as Sean Bell, according to this New York Times editorial.
In 2007, after a Queens man, Sean Bell, was killed by police fire, Mr. Kelly asked RAND to recommend ways to minimize police shooting. The study, released earlier this month, made several suggestions, including training police to avoid indiscriminate firing. The Taser proposal has attracted the most attention.
Well, it’s pretty obvious that training police to avoid indiscriminate firing isn’t going to work, so no point in wasting time with that. Without being facetious, New York has a monster police force of over 37,000 officers. Training notwithstanding, it’s naive to think that training alone will solve anything with that many chances for something to go wrong.
So Ray Kelly has turned to plan B, the Taser panacea. Given the options,…