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Police Tasers
Playing Russian Roulette with the heartbeat cycle
In 2015, a black man, wielding a knife, was killed by San Francisco police officers. The incident started a Taser controversy. However, the San Francisco police officers didn’t use Tasers. They actually shot and killed the man.
Back in 2015, San Francisco police officers were restricted from carrying Tasers. The police chief and his three predecessors failed to get The San Francisco Police Commission to authorize the use of Tasers. The San Francisco Police Commission didn’t want officers carrying Tasers because the weapon could kill or maim suspects, especially those with heart conditions.
A 2012 study published in Circulation, The American Heart Association’s journal, confirmed Tasers, which deliver a 50,000-volt shock, can cause cardiac arrest and death. Cardiologists at the University of California, San Francisco explained Tasers were dangerous because a jolt of electricity, at just the right moment in the heartbeat cycle, can cause cardiac arrhythmia, leading to heart attack or death in minutes by ventricular fibrillation.
After the fatal shooting of the black man with the knife, the police chief renewed his request for San Francisco police officers to carry Tasers.
The police chief stated that the shooting could have been avoided if the officers involved had been…