UPDATE: After hearing from Police Chief Tony Facos and about a dozen members of the public, the council voted to postpone consideration of the decision, probably to their December 7 meeting.
If you've been following the Taser story in Montpelier you'll want to be at City Hall tonight. That's because the Montpelier City Council is holding a public hearing on the proposed purchase of Tasers for the Montpelier Police Department.
The Taser issue has been a contentious one in the capital city, with dozens of residents speaking out at previous public hearings, mostly opposed to the purchase. Last week the Council received the report of the committee it appointed to study and make recommendations on the issue. The report came out strongly against the purchase, with one dissenting voice.
Experience elsewhere indicates that police who are given Tasers tend to use them, sometimes with fatal results. If you're new to the issue, a good place to start is the report done by 60 Minutes last Sunday.
Come out tonight and let your Council representatives know your views on this important controversy.
Another thing the Montpelier City Council needs to consider is the safety of the city police. I don’t know if this has ever happened, but it would seem to me that dependence on tasers may lead to an incident someday where a police officer is gunned-down trying to taser the wrong person, or depend on the taser in the wrong situation.
Public Safety and the Safety of the City’s employees. Imagine a lawsuit wherein it is argued that a city council (thus the city itself) is held liable for equipping its employees with tools that create a mortal hazard to those employees’ lives.
Spend the money on undercover or investigative work relating to Montpelier’s growing drug problem. The shooting on Baldwin St. last week was supposedly drug and ‘gang’ related. A taser up against an armed ‘drug gang’ member? Not a good situation. HELLO?
The sword that cuts both ways.
just another impersonal mechanism for our local Peace officers to deliver the fire hose or dog bite that became so popular in Alabama or Mississippi. Add in a dose of pepper spray and a quote or two from Karl Roverboy and another piece of the individuals constitutional rights goes down the tube.
If you are a cop and you feel you can’t do your job without getting within 10 feet of your public, or you need the feeling of supreme power, you need to find another line of work.
Non lethal force my ass.
The mother of a schizophrenic bipolar man called police for assistance in calming her 29 year old son. The police had trouble, pepper sprayed and tasered him twice…
And here too http://digbysblog.blogspot.com…
I hope they decided that, in these times of Corporate Economic Oppression, Montpelier has better ways to use its budget.