Tased

I got tased today, a new qualification. That was one of the damndest experiences of my LEO career. The gun they used on us was the Advanced Taser M26.

Imagine that all your muscles lock up. All of them. You can't move, you can't scream, and you're in extreme pain. You can feel the muscles lock and you can feel the electric shock rippling along the muscle mass that's been affected. My buddies had me under the arm and lowered me to the mat, but if I were alone I would have fallen immediately, stiff as a board, into the waiting mat.

Then suddenly it's over. Like someone flipped a switch, which I suppose is a true enough analogy, the ride is over. And I'm fine. Better than fine; I'm happy it is over. I've ridden the pulsed wave and come out the other side and I'm fine. Only I know what it's like and I never, never, never want that experience again.

This is probably the finest law enforcement tool to come along in the last fifty years. There is no telling how many lives could be saved if more of these were on the streets. While not an end-all, or a do-all, it is certainly another tool in the continuum of options we have available to us. It certainly doesn't take the place of a functioning brain, and good judgement is always the best law enforcement tool, this little device makes it totally feasable that a 100 lb female officer could subdue a 350 lb drunk all by herself. Or, that a 54 year old fat cop like myself could take down a 225 pound athlete without danger of injury to either of us.

While this isn't a Phaser, which would be the ultimate law enforcement weapon, it's certainly useful. Personally, I want one of these.