unfortunately, i dont think all cops are competent enough physically to get those techniques down. I'm sure youve come across some people that may have learned the moves, but just werent very good at putting them into action. That may be why it's easier/better to instruct all officers to go to the tazer more quickly than having some use restraint holds and some not.
I bet if your dojo instructor had a taser he woulda used it in THIS situation 10 times out of 10. Why risk it? He's already shown that he's willing to do a lot to hurt someone. They just arrived.. they don't know what he's got on him. Even if the only risk is some bruises.. why risk even that?? Tasers are relatively HARMLESS.
I don't know whether he would've used a tazer if he had one but I doubt it would've been 10 times out of 10. I talked to him about these sort of things and he pretty much agreed with me that cops these days seem to reach for the tazer too quickly. I will say that this case the use of the tazer seems more justified than some of the other cases where it is used a compliance device rather than for apprehension.
That might be the case but I don't think that bodes well for cops. I brought this up in the thread about the kid running on the field in Philly but that cop really seemed out of shape and resorting to the tazer because he couldn't keep on up with the kid. Tazers aren't completely harmless and it seems to me like if cops just treat them as a convenience there is both a chance for abuse and also that cops are getting softer as they rely on a tazer more than physical skill. At the same time there have been cases of tazers not working. We had a case in MPLS a few years ago where cops tried to taze someone who was wearing a heavy coat and it didn't work. They ended up shooting him.
