{"id":26012,"date":"2020-06-15T22:38:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T05:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=26012"},"modified":"2020-06-15T22:38:51","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T05:38:51","slug":"the-case-against-stun-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=26012","title":{"rendered":"THE CASE AGAINST STUN GUNS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People killed by police use of stun guns are disproportionately African American, a Reuters <a href=\"http:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/fgrrtcqzyddwpcpdwbjyywrryqwldqdffnyzcglyqyjqr_rrkcggnrnpcglrrgwgwl.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/fgrrtcqzyddwpcpdwbjyywrryqwldqdffnyzcglyqyjqr_rrkcggnrnpcglrrgwgwl.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1592371777412000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFmq4jicfgkIqrrIEF5f9axSs2axA\">analysis of fatalities<\/a>\u00a0through 2018 found.<\/p>\n<p>The news service analyzed 1,081 cases in which people died after police shocked them with a stun gun, the majority occurring after 2000, when the weapon came into widespread usage by police departments. The analysis found that the plurality of deaths \u2014 at least 32 percent \u2014 were African American, compared to at least 29 percent white. African Americans comprise about 14 percent of the U.S. population.<\/p>\n<p>Thirteen percent of deaths were listed as involving Hispanic people but did not list race, while another 26 percent listed neither race nor ethnicity, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese racial disparities in Taser deaths are horrifying but unsurprising,\u201d Carl Takei, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the news service. \u201cPolice violence is a leading cause of death for black people in America, in large part because over-policing of black and brown communities results in unnecessary police contacts and unnecessary use of force.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While stun guns have frequently been promoted as a nonlethal method of subduing suspects, officers are reportedly often not properly trained on their use. About 94 percent, or just under 17,000, of the nation\u2019s 18,000 police departments issue stun guns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a dangerous weapon,\u201d Michael Leonesio, a retired police officer who oversaw the Oakland, Calif., Police Department\u2019s Taser program and who has served as an expert witness in lawsuits against Taser manufacturer Axon, told Reuters. \u201cThe more it\u2019s used, the more people are going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People killed by police use of&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26013,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26012\/revisions\/26013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}