Guess the brain storm in the police is they get to SHOOT SOMETHING, WITH SOMETHING and cant wait for any oportunity to do so. Problem was they did not test the devices enough prior to using them and the shock was DEATH for many relatively inocent people. At least when they just had their guns they worked harder at talking. I have known police who have never shot their weapons in many years of service. It seems to me that some of the new young police cant wait for the day to draw and use their weapons.

I would like to see the guy that owns taser international take five long hits. That would make for an interesting video.

I think the RCMP should have more public awareness regarding their training methods. It seems to me that they are being told that whenever anyone makes an aggressive maneuver with any kind of weapon at all, they are supposed to use the taser for a 'safe' method of takedown.

Perhaps if the public know how the RCMP will react, there will be less conflict. Although perhaps not...

I am certainly not condoning the use of tasers, It seems to me that they were put into circulation way too early before enough research was done.

But as shellshadow said above, is the new mandate shoot something with something? If it is, then shouldnt they announce a new policy, so people are more aware to stay out of the way.

Although at the same time, when an officer is ordering you to do something, why would you not do it?

There are a lot of things to be sorted out here...

How can it be construed to be self defense when a person is shot in the back of the head, (by the RCMP) like the young hockey player was here a while back?.... An officer of the law can do the same thing a criminal can and get away with it if there are no witness's and no camera footage to tell the the real story. This kind of makes you want to re-think the incident that occurred in Williams lake here a while back also doesn't it.
If you were accosted by a stapler welding man/woman and did not have a gun or a taser would you not try to defend yourself using your own personal communication abilities first and if that was not working use your own wits, strength or knowledge to try to control the situation before you attempted to control the situation using deadly force. I think that the RCMP should have all their security blankets (weapons) taken away from them so they can learn how to deal with situations like this in a smarter manner.
By the way, it is also very obvious that the long winded document and the lie detector tests that are used to filter recruits does not work.
My children were watching the news the other day when this segment came on and they had a lot of very good questions that they needed answered after they heard this incident explained on the news. It is an unfortunate thing to have to try to explain to your children why this happened and why the RCMP lied about what they had done and that they can not trust that the RCMP will make the right decisions in stressful situations.
The law enforcement officers at the scene of this incident should be treated the same way criminals would be treated in the same type of situation, if not even harsher.

I'm just very very very happy that tasers weren't used by the RCMP 30 years ago