Word: stunnings
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What Harvard did do was thrash Western Michigan at home in the NCAA quarterfinals and stun top-ranked Denver in the NCAA semifinals at the Providence Civic Center...
...Antonio a sheriff's lieutenant was just sentenced to two years' probation for repeatedly zapping a handcuffed suspect last summer. In April in Dallas, another worry of stun-gun critics became reality when a pair of robbers used one to disable a clerk in a Safeway supermarket. In Los Angeles, the county coroner is investigating the death four weeks ago of a suspected PCP drug user who was zapped by police. It was the second such fatality in two years, though PCP is considered more likely to have been responsible for the deaths than the zappings...
This string of incidents has stun-gun manufacturers on the defensive, though sales continue to soar. If the alleged police assailants had not had stun guns, "a traditional method--burning cigarettes or whatever--would have been used," argues James McCourt of Nova Technologies. Nova has sold more than 100,000 of its $85 XR-5000s in the past two years. The lightweight 6-in. shock stick is powered by a nine-volt rechargeable battery. When triggered while pressed against a person's body, it sends out 50,000 volts but, Nova claims, just .00006 of an amp, a tiny fraction...
Police supporters of the stun guns contend that they solve an old problem: how to avoid serious harm while capturing suspects who are a danger more to themselves than to others. The Houston officers who serve commitment warrants on the mentally disturbed use Tasers regularly and gratefully; injuries are down. The XR-5000, says Police Chief Conrad Teller of Southampton, N.Y., "sets them on their fanny nice and quiet. So far as we can see, it's the most humane way to do it." There are police complaints, however. The devices do not always work. Large and aggressive suspects sometimes...
...Taser is considered a firearm (because it shoots darts), and its sale is somewhat restricted by federal law, while a handful of states have tougher rules that ban both Tasers and Novas, or limit them to police. Many civil libertarians are cautious supporters of stun guns on the ground that police are more likely to injure suspects with a gun or a nightstick. But the new charges of stun-gun abuse have sharpened their concerns. "The risks are the same as the advantages," answers Greg Thomas, a Washington police researcher. "It all comes back to the judgment and discretion...