... Heston was hardly a kid. He was 40 years old when he died.

I guess the main question I have is how the jury let the cops off the hook. What, because Taser didn't send them a memo saying their non-lethal weapon might possibly cause death if it's being as overutilized as the Salinas PD put it to use? According to the paper, they were tasing the guy as he lay prostrate on the ground. So, I'm guessing if the cops began wacking Heston on the head with truncheons until his head was mashed to a pulp they would have gotten a pass because the Acme Truncheon Company didn't tell them if you mash someone's head into an unrecognizable pulp it might kill him.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

used with less oversight

Only if the city is cheap. There are Tasers which come with built-in digital cameras, whic snap a time-stamped shot every time the trigger is pulled. So again, this is not a problem with the company or the device.

Furthermore (and worst in my opinion), because it's seen as not dangerous or damaging, its used in situations where even a nightstick would not be used.

Now police wouldn't use truncheons, no. That's because decades of court cases have been decided against nightstick-wielding police, who have since turned to "immobilization techniques". It should be no surprise that using physical restraint also can, and does, cause death -- with both a greater frequency than Tasers, and upon a wider variety of citizens. With Tasers, at least, one generally needs to have a heart condition for the shock(s) to be fatal; but anyone with a neck and chest is at risk choking and suffocation. And of course, that's not counting the frequency of non-fatal, but still medically insurable, physical damage to the police.

With Tasers, at least, one generally needs to have a heart condition for the shock(s) to be fatal; but anyone with a neck and chest is at risk choking and suffocation.

Will the police now be getting people to sign a consent form along the lines of:

I do not have a heart condition, nor am I currently on any drugs or other forms of medication, and acknowledge the right of the police officer to administer 50,000 volts of electricity.  I will not sue the state nor the Taser company if I should be harmed or die during such an administration of electricity.

A lot of it isn't the voltage but where the probes land.  Whichever muscles in between the probes are the ones affected, which is why you can get a 500K volt stun gun and just shock your leg all day, the probes are like 2 inches apart.  I've taken probably over a hundred (voluntary) charges from contact stun guns at 500K and over to the extremities and body and even several at 300K behind the ear.  Especially when you know it's coming you'd be surprised how little it hurts/affects you.  Again, because you're only affecting a small area of usually one large muscle.  Although behind the ear you can feel the juice lighting up the veins and stuff in your neck.  Mostly due to very stupid drinking games when I was a little younger & a lot dumber.

Anyway, an actual taser will spread the darts out to be more effective, and when you're shooting a target its a silhouette of a torso facing you head on; but in practice nobody's just going to be standing head on and waiting to get shocked.  No stats have been released, but I'd wager most of the adverse effects or falls and what-not is from different muscle groups being affected when the guy is in a different position.  I'll use some funny stun belt videos to illustrate the difference:

See here's a shock on the arm on some little lawyer, electrodes close and on extremity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGONqdwm1uo

Here's a shock on a big cop across the back from one kidney to the other
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBoxUH9kJxQ

Now that cop was overacting (the legs give it away, enough juice and you can't move them independently like that) but it's still a big difference.

I guess I wasn't making my position as clear as I thought.  I didn't mean to blame the company or the product, but the way in which it's used; much like I don't blame Glock when a cop unloads a couple dozen rounds into Diallo.  They did for many years claim it was nearly harmless, though; and also didn't run a very intensive certification program for police Taser instructors.  

Never seen a camera-equipped Taser but it sounds like a good idea*, the ones I'm familiar with have this little confetti in the air cartridge with a serial number on each one- but that's to catch civilians using them.  In prison, SORT just has one guy (or more commonly the one girl they have on SORT to avoid discrimination complaints) in the back of the stack with a video camera.  If you ever see shaky video of a cell extraction that's what's happening- when it "jostles" away from the action for a split second, that's when someone's skull just got cracked on the wall/floor, btw.

*I think a really good invention in recent times is the dashboard camera in cruisers, it (ostensibly) keeps cops in check and also exonerates good cops if someone raises up and needs a beat-down and then goes and cries brutality.

You can kill anyone with enough taser shocks.  It's easy.  No underlying medical condition is required.  It's death by lactic acid poisoning.  Tasers make the victim's muscles contract and generate lactic acid long after they would otherwise have become exhausted and stopped.  The medical examiners who know what they're doing label taser deaths as due to metabolic acidosis.

But, really, is taking a chance of killing someone with an underlying medical condition because you don't want to bother taking the time it would take to argue with them is OK?  Because that seems to be the prevalent attitude among police forces.

The way CCW instructors explain it is "aim for center of mass and fire until he's no longer a threat."  With a medium caliber handgun like 9mm or .40, you could put half the magazine in the guy before he's laying down.  The way cops explain it to me off the record is "make damn sure he's dead."  

In practice, you're right, it's hard to prove anything; but of course in a home-defense situation the only witnesses will be your family and a dead criminal.  If he is only wounded, or anything else goes wrong, just remember the magic phrases: "it all happened so fast," "he said he was going to kill me/I thought he was trying to kill me," and "I was just so scared."  

Honestly, before I had my kid if someone broke in I'd probably just help him carry my TV out to his car.  I don't really own anything worth killing over, to say nothing of missing weeks off work for court and the huge legal expense.  Then too, I have priors so I'd catch a charge just for having the piece even if it was a good shoot.  If the baby was in danger then I'd take my chances; although a bright light will disorient someone at night to the point where you can just stab them or beat the dogshit out of them.  Remember, at night in unfamiliar surroundings and then blinded, you will have a huge advantage over the guy.  If I did have the firearm option on the table, I probably wouldn't advertise it on the Internet, since it's tantamount to admitting to a crime; but the choice between a gun charge and harm to your kid is an easy decision.

In any case, then as now, I prefer passive measures to defeat robbery.  Upgraded locks, reinforced door jamb, security door, window bars, live on the second floor, things like that.  I can't own a dog here, but that would be another good measure.  Passive measures work even when you're not home, or sick in bed, or in the bath or whatever.  It doesn't make your home invulnerable, but it does make it more of a hassle for the guy.  He just wants to get in & out and get high as soon as possible, so he sees all this bullshit on your house, he's just going to go to the next one.  He ain't got time for all that stuff, he wants the easy target.

One of my friend complained that the only reason Sean Taylor died was because he had a machete since his parole prevented him from having a gun.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

Well if he saw the guy and he wasn't armed, yet Taylor was still in fear of his life; it's strange that he didn't just decap him.  Taylor wasn't your average Joe, he was a large, strong, and violent dude at the top level of a sport that selects for aggression, split-second decisions in high-stress situations and explosive power.  Plus he had a machete and at indoor range it's impossible to draw and fire a fatal shot against a charging guy with a knife, much less a fast dude in essentially peak physical condition.  Even trained police officers can't do it against a knife, and that's with proper a holster designed to facilitate quick engagement.  Taylor had an extra 2 feet of reach and superior speed.

Another scenario:  Taylor sees the guy with the gun already out, grabs the steel and runs in which case he would have been dead anyway- there's no way he could have out-drawn the dude before he pulled the trigger.

Might have been a hit, but maybe not- for hit I would have expected more shots and kill the witness; or just wait till off-season and get him in a car leaving a club.

The theory someone posted on another board (which I find plausible) is

What I expect happened was that the guy figured Taylor had just played earlier in the day in DC, consequently was unlikely to be home, broke in, heard Taylor probably saying "I'm gonna cut you up with this machete, motherfucker" and fired in defense of his own life.  Could depend upon the circumstances... if the "loud noise" was the guy bashing on the bedroom door, then it was a hit.

A gun would have upped Taylor's odds to be sure; but probably only slightly.

Sad that he died; especially since with all his millions and there having been previous threats that there wasn't more passive security at his home.

First sentence should have clarified that if Taylor saw him and didn't see that he was armed.  He did (obviously) turn out to be armed.

Then too, I have priors so I'd catch a charge just for having the piece even if it was a good shoot.

You ever try the process of asking for a pardon since your trouble was years and years ago? What with Bush '43 leaving in a few months I am sure the floodgates will soon open. Isn't it traditional for Presidents to go nuts with the pardons on their last days in office?

Every 6 months, big guy!

Perhaps you weren't wording it in the right way. Forget legalese. What about just saying "I was simply trying to follow the example of a great American leader who engaged in harmless, victimless use of recreational pharmaceuticals while a member of the armed forces. Unfortunately I was nabbed by liberal extremists and convicted by a jury of left wing sympathizers. Regrettably this conviction impacts my ability  to vote straight Republican in upcoming elections."

It's a wonderful system we have, too.  In this state, you automatically your voting rights back after your first felony, and your gun rights are only a simple application away; for all but the most extreme violent felonies (and domestic violence- hospitalize a dude in a bar fight and get your guns back, throw a dish at your husband and don't).  But that's if you had a state charge.  Military or federal charges the gun rights applications used to be handed by some subsidiary office of the Supreme Court (or DOJ?) ims, but in the mid-90's a bill was passed that assigned the processing of the applications to BATF- and the same bill suspended any funding or manpower allocation to process them.  You can send an application, but it goes into permanent backlog until such time as Congress passes the "spend tax dollars to provide guns for federal felons" bill.  Its ingenious because a denied application can be appealed, but if its never processed there's nothing to appeal.  So twice a year I beg Dubya.

I don't even want a full pardon, just the restoration of gun rights- I don't think that my stuff should just be excused since I knew it was wrong when I did it; but pardons are all or nothing.  As a bonus, even a Presidential pardon won't remove my name from the NICS instant check, so I wouldn't be able to buy from a shop or dealer; it would have to be private party sale.  No CCW license either.  Won't show up on the local police computer either, which means if something happened I'd still be arrested and have to sit in jail until I could show a judge proof of the pardon.  Fun times.  Weird about the local cops, though; I've had my info run a couple times and it never shows up.  Neither did it show up when employers have done background checks (I still tell them just in case).

As an aside my Dishonorable Discharge has already been upgraded to Bad Conduct on appeal (they reduced my sentence too, but the decision wasn't handed down until after I got out).  It was pretty obvious to the appellate court that my sentence was inappropriately severe- let alone the shoddy police work, weak defense representation, and prosecutorial theatrics.  So even though I don't have a DD to prevent me from possessing, I still spent more than a year inside and disqualified based on that.  There really isn't a lot of precedence for situations like mine, most felons by definition don't care about laws, carry anyway, and just play the odds on not getting caught.  I don't roll like that, though; I'm lucky in that I have a lot to lose.

Question: When was the last time a law enforcement officer broke into a locked house without probable cause?

You're probably right...but I wonder how many times the cops have broken into the wrong house while serving a warrant?

"What?  The house number was 96 and not 69?  Ooops.  Bummer that guy died in a hail of bullets...but we did have probable cause to enter someone's house"

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

This article from the Cato Institute names three and this article from the New York Times names a fourth. Those are just from the first page of a two second google search.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

Bob Villa in "This Old Bunker"

"That's right Steve, Plexiglas will repel most hand thrown projectiles such as flash-bangs and smoke grenades. But many police departments are moving to RPGs these days.  Now, these louvers with titanium cladding might cost a little more, but they will defeat anything short of an 100mm HEAT round AND they'll let in light and air.  Let's watch as Norm explains the installation process."  

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

Forget lexan. Just get this. It will keep out the casual home invader or smash and grab crackhead. If anything else worse occurs, they'll eventually find some way in.

I was quite shocked when the local security company said they don't offer that, nor did my glass guy.

That's a really good idea, and a lot cheaper/easier than Lexan.  I'd known of this stuff before, but for some reason it slipped my mind.  Seems like you'd need to be extremely assiduous in your prep (especially the cleaning) to get 100% effectiveness.  Probably the best way would be to pull the glass out, then clean and apply, then re-install.  

A hell of a lot better looking cosmetically than window bars as well. But you hardly ever hear of people installing it. Try selling your house with window bars and a fence topped with razor wire. Not gonna happen. I'd rather attempt to do so with the window film. You probably couldn't even tell it was there unless you got up close.

"Try selling your house with window bars and a fence topped with razor wire." No, it wasn't that. It was the machine gun turrets and the moat filled with alligators that was the turnoff.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Try selling your house with window bars and a fence topped with razor wire.

I dunno, in your area that would probably be a selling point, wouldn't it?

Possibly. You know what I am also noticing a lot of? A lot of those ~$150 wireless security cameras you get at walmart or target mounted on the outside of people homes, usually pointed at the front of their yard or something.

Anybody else seeing that?

Seeing window bars on almost every home out here in Los Angeles was a bit of shock at first. Some of them still look bad with them but for the most I hardly notice them anymore.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

That's the thing. Here it is kind of 50-50. Since in my city you can be on one street and have that block be nice (mine) but the next one over looks like Falujah with burned out hulks, junk cars, people loitering around and smashed up glass everywhere it's not just the 'bad' streets with window bars. So it's kind of random.

Then you have places that take it waaay too far. Like this warehouse about 3 blocks from me that has two layers of bars on top of block glass windows and it surrounded by this hardcore fence. Personally I think the lawnscaping supply company signs are just a front for some kind of urban survivalist commando group who are waiting for a zombie uprising. Or the DEA. Or both.

Zombie DEA agents?