Mercurynews.com reports that the San Francisco Police Commission has just said no to Tasers. After hearing from officers and researchers who wanted to sing the perps’ bodies electric, the commission voted 4-3 against arming the po-po with stun guns. Apparently, the stewards of California’s twelfth most populous city figured Tasers could be lethal. As opposed to chemicals that foul the air for everyone and rifles and shotguns that plant flowers, mostly. The Commission pulled the plug on their police chief’s electric dreams—despite the fact that Jaafar Jackson finds the weapons system ideal for sibling rivalry duty and the manufacturer’s emphasis on target safety. For example, “the Taser X3 probes that connect the TASER wire to the subject are optimized to preferentially deliver the NMI pulses to the surface of the body rather than through the tip of the probe when fully inserted into the body. This provides enhanced safety margins when the probes are fully inserted near the heart, channeling electric charge toward the surface of the body and away from the internal organs.” As opposed to bullets and shotgun pellets, which don’t give a damn, really.
