Not Dixon of Dock Green.

[Gromit]

// The 59-year-old farmer was shot several times with the stun gun after struggling with three officers who were trying to help section him under the Mental Health Act.

Mrs Russell, a mother-of-two, criticised the behaviour of doctors and police officers. She spoke out "to prevent other families suffering the same needless ordeal".

"There was no need to use the Taser," she told the Daily Mail.
"If he was a wife beater or an armed robber then I could understand it but this is someone who will stop his tractor when ploughing a field and move a nest of mice to the side."

She added: "He was fighting them off because he didn't want to go to hospital. He was petrified and scared. I remember saying: 'It's the Alzheimer's'.

"He had not been armed and wasn't about to kill himself, they should not have tasered him." Mrs Russell said she may lodge a formal complaint to police.

The Alzheimer's Society is very alarmed at the use of a Taser gun on a vulnerable person with early onset dementia, which must have been a particularly distressing experience for the gentleman concerned. //

http://www.telegraph....58-several-times.html

Surely this is not what these weapons were introduced for?

[hc4361]

We don't know the manner in which he was fighting them off.
I assume the wife called the police because he was refusing to go in to hospital and she couldn't persuade him.

He was so ill he had to be sectioned. That shows he was not rational and may have been posing a threat to himself or others.

I don't know.

[Gromit]

Did you read the link/

// police were responding to a call for help from a doctor. //

// a vulnerable person with early onset dementia //

[hc4361]

I did.

I also read that it had been going on for hours, the doctors called the police because he was out of control, ambulance staff couldn't persuade him to get in the ambulance so they left, 2 police officers suffered minor injuries whilst he suffered none (apart from the tasering).

He was in no way a weak or feeble man.

[Kiki-frog]

My dad had Alzheimer's and on a couple of occasions when he flipped he did a lot of damage to his surroundings and to himself. He was in his 80s, so I hate to think what a fit 59-year-old would be capable of.

Using a taser seems a bit OTT, though. But then again, would it be any more distressing than any other way of overpowering him? Poor man, I feel so sorry for him and his family.

[anotheoldgit]

Easy for a person sitting safely behind a computer to criticise, and who has never been in a threatening situation.

How would you have controlled him Gromit?

[Gromit]

AOG

This must not be the first Alzheimer sufferer to be sectioned. The Police have had to deal with this situation for decades. They did so somehow without resorting to electric stun guns.

But now the Police have Tazers so they use them. We were told they were for violent criminals and unruly mobs. Would we have accepted them so readily if we had known they would be used to make old men go to hospital?

[Davethedog]

I have no side to this, but it is entirely one sided. There is no explanation from the police.

However tasers were introduced to subdue violent people without injury to the police. It should be noted that he didn't suffer injury.

So the unasked questions.

1) Why were the police there i.e who called them?
2) What provoked the use of the Taser?
3) Were the police entitled to deploy it? (I would suggest from the tone of the senior police officer quoted, nothing untoward occurred)
4) Why his wife needed to go to the papers?

[sp1814]

Also - he's a farmer...who knows whether he had access to firearms!

Long shot, admittedly.

[Gromit]

1) Why were the police there i.e who called them?
- The Doctor [i

2) What provoked the use of the Taser?
- [i] It was used to save time. [i]

3) Were the police entitled to deploy it? (I would suggest from the tone of the senior police officer quoted, nothing untoward occurred)
- [i] Need more info [i]

4) Why his wife needed to go to the papers?
- [i] To get publicity to stop it happening to others ]

[hc4361]

Yes, Gromit, by restraining them the old fashioned way.

Quick whack to the back of the knee with a truncheon, another whack to the arm, on the floor on his front with an officer sitting across his legs whilst he is handcuffed.

[Gromit]

I think I will stop using the italicising function as it just creates a mess.

[Davethedog]

Right read it again properly.

Missed the Doctor. It doesn't state why it was deployed but it does state that he ripped the darts out and that two officers received minor injurys. Whih seems to indicate he was laying about the cops and he is a very large gentleman (could be wrong)

As I stated this is entirly reported from one stand point, there is no balance, nobody can make any form of honest opinion as we lack the facts.

As it happened over 2 months I would say its a none story.

[anotheoldgit]

Just a observation which has nothing to do with the question.

Reading Gromits last answer, I notice that the italic problem has yet to sorted?

[Gromit]

I'm sticking to the

// AOG method //

from now on.

[sp1814]

The italics are working[i however, you have to be really careful about spaces.

If you have spaces between the italic symbol, you get this?

[i] non-italics ]

But if you ensure there's not space between the first italic symbol and the word to be italicised, you should be okay, like this:

italics

[sp1814]

Bugger.

[Old_Geezer]

As I understood it, when introduced in the states, this fireable cattle prod weapon was supposed to be a substitute for shooting the target with a firearm. As usual function creep occurred and now it's justified for some for use in all sorts of situations.

And when it was decided that shocking with high voltage is an acceptable thing to inflict on UK citizens, we have the same issue. It's just so easy to use violence on that individual you are dealing with to save yourself risk than it is to use your training and handle the situation in a calm manner. But that is today's society where everyone will jump for fear of authority. Judge Dread alive & well ?

[ELVIS68]

Zak Dingle beware!

It's quicker to use the tazer than sod around having a four hour stand off, they should've used one on the idiot at Tottenham Court Rd the other week.