What are the police supposed to do if you resist arrest and try to use a police TASER on the cops?

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

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Video shot by a bystander captures Brooks struggling with two officers on the ground outside the Wendy’s before breaking free and running across the parking lot with what appears to be a police TASER in his hand.

A second videotape from the restaurant’s cameras shows Brooks turning as he runs and possibly aiming the TASER at the pursuing officers before one of them fires his gun and Brooks falls to the ground.

Brooks ran the length of about six cars when he turned back toward an officer and pointed what he had in his hand at the policeman, said Vic Reynolds, director of the GBI at a separate press conference.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-atlanta/protesters-burn-down-wendys-in-atlanta-where-black-man-was-slain-by-police-idUSKBN23K0RI

So is the cop supposed to sit around and get tazed? I thought it was common sense that if you're resisting arrest and trying to taze a cop, the cop is going to neutralize the threat and bring you down. I think using deadly force here was completely justified.

[Emergent, RN]

Call a social worker.

[chare]

8 hours ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

[...]

So is the cop supposed to sit around and get tazed? I thought it was common sense that if you're resisting arrest and trying to taze a cop, the cop is going to neutralize the threat and bring you down. I think using deadly force here was completely justified.

Have you seen video of the shooting? If not, it is available here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/us/videos-rayshard-brooks-shooting-atlanta-police.html.

While I generally try and hold judgement until sufficient evidence is available, it is hard to justify shooting a person in the back as they are running away.

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

I did see the video. And then Brooks was aiming the taser at the cop! What was the cop supposed to do? Just get tased?

Even if you point a toy gun at a cop, they can use lethal force to neutralize what they perceive to be a threat. When seconds count they have to do what's necessary to defend their lives as well as that of innocent bystanders.

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Yes, brooks did aim the taser at the officer, apparently fired it & missed, he then turned & ran away. The officer then shot him in the back. This is not the fraction of a second shoot/not shoot while in the dark alley decision.

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

The officer shot him AFTER he fired the Taser at the officer. Merely pointing it at the officer would have been grounds to neutralize the suspect.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

How about not shooting him in the back while he is running away?

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

No way. You even point a taser at a cop, much less shoot one, and they're going to use lethal force against you. Brooks failed a breathalyzer and then resisted arrest - that alone would have been grounds for multiple charges. If you are going to fire weaponry at a police officer, they have to neutralize the threat to bodily harm against them. Even as a civilian, if you have someone firing a weapon or a taser at you, you have every right to use firearms to defend yourself.

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

6 hours ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

No way. You even point a taser at a cop, much less shoot one, and they're going to use lethal force against you. Brooks failed a breathalyzer and then resisted arrest - that alone would have been grounds for multiple charges. If you are going to fire weaponry at a police officer, they have to neutralize the threat to bodily harm against them. Even as a civilian, if you have someone firing a weapon or a taser at you, you have every right to use firearms to defend yourself.

So you consider a taser to be a lethal weapon that requires the user to be “neutralized”, nice euphemism for being shot & killed by the way. Anyway, what about a non-lethal weapon? Does that require the user to die? I’m talking about things like pepper spray, stun guns & tasers. Yes, tasers are considered a non-lethal weapon.

My source for tasers being non-lethal? A gun dealer - https://www.guntherguns.com/less-lethal-defense-s/1868.htm

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

1 hour ago, emtb2rn said:

So you consider a taser to be a lethal weapon

So if tasers are non-lethal weapons, how do people die from being tased?

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Reuters documented 1,081 cases through the end of 2018 in which people died after being shocked by police with a Taser, the vast majority of them after 2000. At least 32% of those who died were black, and at least 29% were white. African-Americans make up 14% of the U.S. population, and non-Hispanic whites 60%.

Source:

"Black Americans disproportionately die in police Taser confrontations" (Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-tasers-in/black-americans-disproportionately-die-in-police-taser-confrontations-idUSKBN23M16E

[chare]

1 hour ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

So if tasers are non-lethal weapons, how do people die from being tased?

Quote

Reuters documented 1,081 cases through the end of 2018 in which people died after being shocked by police with a Taser, the vast majority of them after 2000. At least 32% of those who died were black, and at least 29% were white. African-Americans make up 14% of the U.S. population, and non-Hispanic whites 60%.

Source:

"Black Americans disproportionately die in police Taser confrontations" (Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-tasers-in/black-americans-disproportionately-die-in-police-taser-confrontations-idUSKBN23M16E

Without knowing the details of these deaths, this is can be somewhat misleading. Did these individuals all die immediately after being Tased. Or, was this the end result of an incident in which an altercation began, the Taser was deployed, the altercation continued, and the application of force escalated resulting in the subsequent death of the victim. From your referenced article:

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[...]

In a series of reports in 2017, however, Reuters identified more than a thousand cases since 2000 in which people died after being shocked by police with the weapons, typically in combination with other forms of force.

[...]

The reports mentioned above can be viewed here: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-taser/

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

As police confront protesters across the United States, they’re turning to rubber bullets, pepper spray, tear gas and other weapons meant to minimize fatalities.

... Tasers drew fresh attention over the weekend after the Friday night death of Rayshard Brooks. A police officer shot the 27-year-old with his handgun after Brooks ran away with an officer’s Taser and pointed it at police following a scuffle, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. A lawyer for the Brooks family, L. Chris Stewart, said Brooks’ wielding of the Taser didn’t justify his shooting, noting that police routinely argue in court that the devices are non-lethal weapons....

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-tasers-in/black-americans-disproportionately-die-in-police-taser-confrontations-idUSKBN23M16E

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U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs: Police Use of Force, Tasers and Other Less-Lethal Weapons

... Injury rates vary widely when officers use force in general, ranging from 17% to 64% for citizens and 10% to 20% for officers.

Use of Tasers and other CEDs can reduce the statistical rate of injury to suspects and officers who might otherwise be involved in more direct, physical conflict. An analysis of 12 agencies and more than 24,000 use-of-force cases “showed the odds of suspect injury decreased by almost 60% when a CED was used.” This finding is not uniform across all agencies, however, and comes with a number of caveats.

A review of fatal Taser incidents found that many involved multiple uses of the device against the suspect in question. Therefore, “caution is urged in using multiple applications.”...http://web.archive.org/web/20150705150851/https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/232215.pdf

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Taser vs. Gun: Why Police Choose Deadly Force Despite Non-Lethal Options

... "Tasers are not for deadly force situations," said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “The only time the police need to be shooting is when there is an absolute matter between life and death. It’s not a tool for apprehension.”...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-tasers-in/black-americans-disproportionately-die-in-police-taser-confrontations-idUSKBN23M16E