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Post by Chips on May 20, 2008 10:07:39 GMT 9.5
Lack of tasers not to blame
No, Andrew Scipione: it isn't police access to tasers that would have saved Roni Levi ( "He'd be alive if we had tasers: police chief", May 19). Mr Levi was armed with a knife and was not exactly eyeball to eyeball with the (later disgraced) officers. What would have been wrong with shooting him in the leg or foot? Or shooting the knife itself? Or can police hit a target only if it is the size of a human torso?
Meg Packham Sutherland
Cameron Murphy of the Council for Civil Liberties says it is irresponsible to give tasers to frontline police when they already have an arsenal of weapons at their disposal. Oh, really? Apart from the handcuffs, capsicum spray, pistol, long baton and retractable baton in use when I retired from the force five years ago, what is there? I can only assume this was a conditioned response in the belief that if the coppers get something they want, there must be a problem.
John Pollock Mount Pritchard
The minister is selling the advantages of tasers short. Think of the lives saved as tasers (like all other police weapons) are lost, misplaced or stolen and then used for illegal purposes. I can't wait to hear the minister taking credit for having saved the life of the first service-station attendant shot with a taser during a hold-up.
Luke Fennell Mosman
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Post by Chips on May 21, 2008 10:09:11 GMT 9.5
Tasers not necessarily the silver bullet against crime
Yes, Meg Packham (Letters, May 20), tasers would have given the police on Bondi Beach a non-lethal option to defend themselves from a man wielding a knife. The shooting did not occur at the point the photo accompanying the article was taken, but some time afterwards, when the two officers had been backed up against the wall at the edge of the beach. With nowhere to retreat and in fear of death or injury, they took the recourse of shooting him in order to defend themselves.
Under extreme duress it is extremely difficult to hit a large target with a handgun, let alone a small and moving target such as the knife, a leg or foot. They can do it on TV, but it's a lot harder in the real world.
Also, bear in mind that capsicum spray had not been introduced at the time. That the police in question were later investigated for their extra-curricular activities is irrelevant. In the Levi incident they were found to have acted lawfully and within operational guidelines. By providing police with tasers, cases such as this can be resolved without fatal consequences.
Colin McFarland Bondi
It is an insult to the family of Roni Levi that his death, so patently avoidable, should be used by the NSW Police Commissioner to justify the purchase of a further 229 tasers.
I was diagnosed with manic depression in 1986. Like Mr Levi, I have suffered bouts of delusion but have never threatened violence. My behaviour has, however, alarmed those close to me, and on two occasions police were called. I was never "maced", hit with a stun gun or shot. The police were professional enough to stand back, watch and analyse the situation. It is intelligence and self-control combined with professional training that counts.
On soft sand, Roni Levi was a threat to himself alone. He didn't deserve to be shot and might have been "tasered" only if he threatened self-harm. His is a sad story, and it is sad that the Police Commissioner revisits it in this context.
Andrew McConaghy Killara
The police must be struggling to convince us of the need for tasers if the commissioner needs to use an example from more than a decade ago of frontline officers in a difficult situation. It is time to instil in officers, through training, ways to avoid an escalation of violence, not the opposite. Without proper argument and the evidence to support the introduction of tasers, citizens should be wary.
Joanne Yates Willoughby
"The reason the Government's made this decision [to distribute tasers] is that governments are elected to make decisions," says the Police Minister, David Campbell ("Government backs taser use before report", May 20). His reason not to wait for the Ombudsman's report sounds suspiciously like President Schwarzenegger in The Simpsons Movie - "I was elected to lead, not to read."
Matt Paton Waverton
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