Audit: Houston police more likely to Taser blacks

[scratched13]

that is priceless!

Pricesless ........... and old. But, yes, priceless .........

[nogginbuster24]

that's interesting.

[nonickname69]

Although Tasers have been an effective tool for Houston police, officers have used the stuns guns most often on black suspects...

The question is are in other groups being tasered less or are they basing it off the higher crime rate that is associated with young black males? Example if 100 black men are committing crimes and 10 get tasered during apprehension and 10 whites are committing crimes and 1 gets tasered are they saying physically more are getting tasered and ignoring the proportion that is the same.

and the stun guns have not lead to a reduction in shootings of civilians, according to an audit released today.

I don't like this, you don't use a taser in a deadly force situation. Until you pull the trigger on your firearm its not a deadly force incident, saying it doesn't reduce shootings is really unfounded. And how do they really know, if someone got tasered how do they know that incident didn't warrant deadly force but the taser was used instead?

The audit, overseen by Controller Annise Parker, examined some 1,400 incidents in which Houston police officers used Tasers during a two and a half year period.

It sounds like they used straight numbers and not the proportion of crimes to race...

"I want this audit to lead to discussions with the minority community and within the Houston Police Department about how and when Tasers should be used," Parker said. "We believe the Taser has been an effective intermediate weapon. ... Our concern is that there may be a disconnect between what the public believes is the way these should be used and how officers are using them."

Maybe they should discuss the uneven proportion of crime rates with minorities. (I know its not an inherent trait of race to commit crime but the social economic class that minorities unfortunately fall into disproportionately.)