Activists gather to decry Taser use

News 14 Carolina
Oct. 03, 2005

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Many Charlotte-area police officers are armed with Tasers. But after two separate incidents in the span of a week, a group of concerned citizens are asking police to rethink their policy regarding the high-voltage weapons.

Fifty thousand volts of electricity is enough to stop almost anyone in their tracks. And last week, two Charlotte-Mecklenburg students found that out when school resource officers used the weapons to put an end to what they considered unruly behavior.

School board chair Joe White says he supports whatever measures are necessary to deal with “unacceptable conduct.”

"If this kid needed to be Tasered, then so be it," he said.

But some area residents say there has to be another option. They gathered Sunday at the Government Center calling for officers to reconsider their decisions to use Tasers, saying similar incidents are bound to happen.

"Anyone that has a Taser in their hand, we ask that you think,” said activist John Barnett. “As Bill Cosby says, think, use the three-second rule and think before you initiate the trigger."

Among the demonstrators was the mother of a Charlotte man recently zapped in an uptown nightclub. He was shot at three times with the voltage and two hit their mark. She thinks Taser usage is out of hand.

"We are not here to stir any animosity toward the police department; we understand and appreciate the need for law and order,” Clara Rudsill said. “What we are saying is that we want the city of Charlotte to revisit this issue.”

Rudsill also urged law enforcement officers to find an alternative.

“There should be and there are other means to disengage and bring order to any incident, and we ask that Tasing be the last resort," she said.

But no one at the demonstration offered an idea as to what that last resort should be.

Barnett, an associate of the Rev. Al Sharpton, says Charlotte-Mecklenburg police can contact him and he would offer a suggestion on how Tasers could become unnecessary in the city.

Taser International is now offering consumer Tasers similar to the ones used by police officers for sale to the general public. They are legal in North Carolina.