why i prefer shopping online December 26, 2007
Read this horrifying story from Digby: Torture Me Elmo
Actually, I didn’t do any online shopping this year, but I stayed away from big-box stores except for one trip to Target. I already hate going into those places for my own quirky reasons. Does anyone else’s holiday shopping mood take a dive when you enter a store and all of a sudden the security equipment is screeching at you? I mean, I haven’t been in your store yet, how could I steal anything? And if it’s going to screech at everyone who enters, what is the freakin’ point? Can’t we just go back to greeting the customers with the Johnny Mathis Christmas Song? So, anyway, it’s not hard to lure me to any place else. I ended up buying most of my gifts at the Freret Street art market that is held every Saturday.
In reference to the link above, I’m getting a very creepy feeling about all the people who are getting tasered. Having recently seen it done to people, let me tell you that is a very serious remedy for a police officer to inflict on someone who “disrupted business.” I thought these tasers were supposed to be reserved for occasions when police reasonably felt in fear for their lives or safety.Â
The parameters for the use of tasers have obviously been expanded to include occasions when people are simply not cooperating with police commands. Can I just say that if I ever fail to cooperate with the police for whatever my nutty, misguided, senile reasons might be, I would much, much rather be thrown face down on the ground, handcuffed and taken to jail than to be shot with 30,000 volts of electricity? They can even rough me up with the nightstick, I’m sure the pain can’t compare to the taser.
I have no doubt that there are cowboy (and cowgirl) cops out there who are taser-happy, and I hope they are being properly disciplined when they taser someone who is obviously not a threat. But disciplining the police after the fact does little to help a person who has been hit with 30,000 volts. I wonder if enough cops realize the pain they are inflicting on people? Should police training include a “mild” jolt from a taser, so that they can feel the kind of pain they are administering? Would that help them to remember to hold their fire until they are absolutely sure the person in front of them is dangerous?
- Posted in : main, new orleans
- Author : dangerblond
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