"INAPPROPRIATE AND EXCESSIVE USE OF TASERS." -- Amnesty Intl, May 2007

"Amnesty International calls on all police departments and authorities to suspend their use of tasers or use them only in situations that would justify use of lethal force under international standards. One of the organization’s concerns – based on its research of cases in the USA and Canada – is that the weapon is used by officers low down the force scale. For example they are <B>often used in routine arrest situations at the first sign of resistance, or in the face of relatively minor resistance</B>, and in situations where lethal force would not be contemplated. <P> <U><I><B>Amnesty International believes that using powerful electro-shock weapons against those already restrained; disturbed, intoxicated but non-dangerous individuals; unruly children and people who are non-compliant but who do not pose a probable threat of serious injury to themselves or others, is an excessive use of force which may also constitute torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment</B></I></U>." <P> here's a good one from Victoria Police Chief Paul Battershill: "philosophical concerns about whether the police 'by themselves' should be defining where the Taser belongs on the force continuum... as various studies rapidly evolve, it may be necessary to change placement in the continuum and I am not convinced this can be done by police 'by themselves'." (he didn't say "should," he said "can")<p>---<br>"George Bush has declared the war on terrorism to be the cause of his generation. The cause of Canadian sovereignty will be ours." - John Godfrey, MP for Don Va