Death by " Misadventure " ?

An inquest into the death of a twenty-one year old Brazilian student, trying to escape arrest by police on the streets of Sydney is raising some interesting questions.   It seems that this usually mild and well mannered young man was having a bad reaction to a LSD tablet that saw him disoriented, suffering delusions and running through the streets bare chested and shoeless.   For unknown reasons, he ran into a convenience store gibbering, jumped the counter and made off with two packets of biscuits, causing the proprietor to alert the police.

LSD is a mind altering psychotic drug which often confers added strength to users.   Police comment that his resistance to their efforts to contain him verged on " super human " and no less than eleven officers tried to bring him under control.   They used capsicum spray, batons - and fired Tasers at him no less than fourteen times.   When he was eventually on the ground and handcuffed, one officer threatened further Taser shots unless he behaved.

Unfortunately, this young man died and despite efforts by paramedics, he could not be revived.  The coroner is now tasked with finding the cause of death and it seems that it may be a combination of his highly agitated state and positioning on the ground causing asphyxia    The precise cause may never be known and this could then be a death by " misadventure ".

The salient point raised by this inquest is the manner in which Taser weapons are now being used by police officers.   When they were introduced, we were assured that they would be a more humane alternative to the use of police firearms.   Critics countered that they would quickly become the " weapon of choice " by the police to avoid the risk of personal injury to officers tasked with taking down a violent offender.    This prediction quickly became fact !

It is inconceivable that given the circumstances of this attempted arrest, the police would have even considered using their firearms - let along blazing away with fourteen shots at an unarmed offender !
In the pre-Taser era, the officers would have waded in with batons and physical force and possibly lost a little skin and hair in the encounter, let alone torn uniforms and damaged equipment. We are now in a  new era.   At the first sign of resistance, the Taser immediately comes into play.

Medical people need to ponder the wisdom of " drive stunning ", the practice of putting a Taser against the skin of a cuffed offender and delivering a high voltage shock to cause pain.  This seems to be a preferred method to abate further resistance, but it is a far extension of Taser use to prevent a fleeing felon from escaping.

This Taser use problem is not restricted to the New South Wales police force.   The increasing use of Tasers  is causing concern in every other Australian state, and in the policing methods of countries across the entire world.

Whatever the outcome of this inquest, the Taser seems here to stay, but it badly needs a firm set of rules to control it's use !