Last Updated on: 18th May 2017, 10:42 am
After I published my earlier post, I got to thinking about Colin Farmer.
Farmer, you may recall, was the victim the last time we wrote about British police making a Taser-related oopsie. Yes, he was the blind fellow in his 60s walking to a pub using his white cane when he was attacked by an officer who thought he was a crazy man swinging a Samurai sword. There had been talk of a lawsuit, but I pretty well lost track of things after that.
So today I looked it up, and it turns out that there was a lawsuit, one which Farmer won in 2015.
Mr Farmer brought legal action against Lancashire police for false imprisonment, assault and battery, and breach of the Human Rights Act. The claim has been settled for an undisclosed sum, said his lawyer Sophie Khan.
Lancashire police admitted that the officer used unreasonable force and did not carry out a proper risk assessment before firing, said Ms Khan.
“This should be a clear example of why Tasers have no place in policing,” said Ms Khan. “We just don’t need them. The experiment with Tasers has failed and they should be shelved now.”
Lancashire police declined to comment.
Hmmm I’m confused by that comment about tasers should be shelved. So if they didn’t have that, would they have shot him? Beat him with a baton? It’s not the weapon, it’s the ill-informed human holding it that’s the problem. Or is she saying that since some police see tasers as less lethal, they’re way too quick to fire them and if their weapon was going to kill someone they’d be more careful? Granted I didn’t read the article so I could be a great big idiot. Wish I knew how much he won.
I doubt they’d have shot him since it’s England and I’m pretty sure it’s still the case there that most of the police aren’t armed. But I think the point was supposed to be that rather than shooting or shocking or beating the crap out of people that the cops should be using their old fashioned cop skills to solve things.
I know what you mean. I know why they do the undisclosed sum thing all the time, but it only makes me more curious.