Death by Taser: Coming to a Street Near You

Meanwhile, in other police news, Coppers in Birmingham are being armed with Tasers as a matter of course. Until recently, only firearms officers were so equipped. Sadly, this means that it’s only a matter of time before someone is killed by one of these things. That’s what happens when you start flinging 50,000 volt charges about.

This isn’t a question of if but of when. It will happen. What’s more, I strongly suspect that handing more weapons  – even of the supposedly non-lethal type – actually makes everyone less safe. When the police are encouraged to think of themselves as paramilitaries then we shouldn’t be surprised when they start acting in a thuggish fashion. We aren’t nearly as far down this road as they are in the United States of course but we’re headed in the same direction. An armed police force is a dangerous police force.

And look, last weekend brought news