Birmingham Mayor bans tasers

Loretta Nall checks in with a post on tasers and for a change it's good news, well sort of good since unfortunately another person died in circumstances that suggest taser use at least contributed to an untimely demise. The good news is that shortly thereafter the Mayor of Birmingham has ordered Birmingham police officers to halt the use of Tasers, saying more studies are needed on the impact of the stun guns. This follows a previous order suspending their use in schools.

The local cops predictably complain that they need the stun guns in order to avoid using lethal force. As Loretta points out, that argument rings a little hollow since another prisoner is dead from the use of this "non-lethal" weapon.

Birmingham used the tasers 137 times in the last year. One wonders if they would really have drawn their guns that many times, or whether they would have used other methods to subdue suspects? I can't think of any police department that would have shot 137 suspects without them.