[ OUR OPINION ]
Limit Taser gun use
to serious threats
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The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii raised concerns in letters to Honolulu Police Chief Boisse Correa and Maui Police Chief Thomas Phillips, who has yet to begin a pilot program using the Taser guns. Honolulu police say they have used the Taser guns more than 40 times since acquiring them in May, but Lois Perrin, the ACLU legal director in Hawaii, maintained that they were used in four cases where lethal force would not have been justified, including firing into a crowd, hitting the wrong person, at Aloha Tower Marketplace.
Arizona-based Taser International Inc. maintains that its products have never caused a death or serious injury and have helped save 500 lives by being used instead of firearms. The number of people killed by police in Phoenix, Ariz., declined by 50 percent last year, and Seattle and Miami reported no police-involved shooting for the first time in 15 years.
However, the Arizona Republic, using computer searches, autopsy reports, police reports and media accounts, has identified 71 deaths following police use of Tasers in the United States and Canada since 1999. The Taser was cited as a cause of death in two cases and a contributing factor in four others, according to the newspaper. Many of the other deaths following the use of Tasers were attributed to drug abuse.
The Taser shoots out two wires with darts carrying up to 50,000 volts of electricity. More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, including police departments in most major cities, are equipped with them, and they were approved last week for use by agencies in England and Wales.
Police obviously have found them useful, but too often they have been used in response to low levels of resistance. In Tucson an investigation has begun in the case of police allegedly tasing a handcuffed 9-year-old girl. Taser guns should be used instead of deadly force and not simply to subdue a person who presents no serious threat.
Putin becomes czar
as democracy dies
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After two days of silence following Putin's announcement early last week, President Bush issued a mild rebuke, saying he was "concerned about the decisions that are being made in Russia that could undermine democracy in Russia." The disintegration of democracy began early in Putin's presidency, and the Bush administration was slow to react.
During his first year in office, Putin had the 89 regional governors removed from their seats in the Federation Council, the parliament's upper chamber, leaving the council's members entirely appointive. He then created seven huge federal districts, with governors general appointed by Putin to oversee the regions.
Putin exercised such increased authority that regional officials dared not to challenge it. Those who did were charged with specious criminal charges or disqualified from election ballots on technical grounds.
Putin then reined in the media, beginning by revoking the licenses of several television stations and bringing the three major television stations under Kremlin operation. Although Putin has arrested some print journalists, the newspapers have been relatively free. That could change. During this month's massacre at the Beslan school, Putin fired the editor of the newspaper Izvestia because it had published a photograph of a man carrying a half-naked girl out of the school.
After the horrific school hostage murder, Putin announced that he would deal with terrorism by assuming more authority as president. The plan is to turn the 89 regional governorships into appointive offices, which they essentially had become anyway, to create what he called a "single chain of command."
A more drastic measure will end the election of members of the Duma, the lower house. Russians instead will vote for political parties, and Duma members will be selected from the party rolls, eliminating all dissent. That will complete what will qualify as nothing more than a Potemkin democracy.
