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Unlike you, the police are a service.....their only reason to exist is to serve society.

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Extension of the court my ass

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ORIGINAL: Alumbrado

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Extension of the court my ass

Really... when was the last time you saw a judge make their own arrests?

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ORIGINAL: Archer

Going to side issue this ost with a pet peeve of mine.
The woman was not Tazed.

She was shocked with a stun gun an entirely different thing.
Stun Gun is the thing you have to be within arms reach and make contact with the person's body to have it work.
Tazer is a gun that fires little darts that each have a wire and that shocks the person, thus making it a short distance but non contact weapon. Nothing like a little accuracy from the media.

The neck as placement for the stun gun was dictated by the fact of heavy clothing clearly evident on the woman. A thin layer of clothing will not bock the shock but a heavy coat will.

Now as to was it justifiable to use it in this case? I'm having trouble seeing it as justified, and that's saying something because I'm pretty easy to convince when it comes to cops doing the job.

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ORIGINAL: Alumbrado

Not quite completely separate. Neutral yes. Administered separately, yes...as a part of the executive branch.
But they can have duties within the court system, such as compelling a person to appear, providing testimony, etc.

No doubt some places do it differently, but the protective/service function was originally private, is still heavily private, and the USSC has ruled that the police have no protective obligation in the bodyguard sense.

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ORIGINAL: laurell3

Because apparently she came in saying she couldn't care for the kid then tried to leave with him.  At that point they have to at least investigate whether she is fit.

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ORIGINAL: laurell3

Here at least they have a requirement of certification to carry them.  The cerfitication includes training from the Department of Health on the effects and unknown, non-visible health risks for people with certain types of medical problems/histories.  Having observed that training several years ago, I am quite positive they are instructed here that tasers can be lethal.

I used to live in a smaller city with around only 30k population at the time, and before tasers the cops had large maglight flashlights.  When they got into struggles they used themand/or the person they were attempting to detain used them and those things are pretty disasterous as a weapon.  The chief of police there took them away and gave them smaller flashlights because of several incidents and because of the additional weight they were carrying.  They have tasers now, but he's placed a heavy paperwork burden on them for every single use of one and they have had no serious incidents of health issues.  They have detailed, written procedure for the use of tasers in only extraordinary circumstances.  I'm sure all departments do, it is a liability issue to protect the tax payers. 

Officers are trained, however, NOT to get in a physical struggle with people IF it can be avoided because of the access others get to their firearm when they do.  Now, whether a pregnant woman facedown on the floor is such a risk is the question.  They are also trained not to allow an agitated person or someone under arrest to return to their vehicle (previous thread and video) because of access to any weapons they might have there. 

Unfortunately, not all police departments are that small and that well maintained/trained and accidents do happen and people take a risk when they resist that they will get injured.   In that department merely being unprofessional to a citizen would result in consequences. He just did not tolerate it at all.  He also did not tolerate others being rude to them in the political arena and supported them overall on a daily basis. 

In my opinion those of you that repeatedly say that in every post about law enforcement that all cops are corrupt or wrong are, in my opinion, ill-advised and paranoid fools.  These men and women do a job that NONE of us would do and the majority of them are comitted to what they do and yes, like all of us, they make mistakes occasionally in their jobs.  However, a police department anywhere is only as good as it's management and accountability.  There's always the possiblity of someone getting in that shouldn't be there even in a good department. 

I would be willing to bet that the officer in this video did not follow the written procedure for that department when using this taser.  Whether that procedure is actually enforced is again, a question of management.