Ferguson: too much or not enough?

[Mister Agenda]

I don't think he should be prosecuted as a murderer. I don't think he should go to jail. I don't even think he should lose his job. What I think is that he should have been trained to to kill unarmed civilians. What I think is, he should have a taser gun on hand at all times. I think that in the future we should start holding our policemen to higher standards. Much higher standards.

Tasers aren't a panacea. When a large man is charging you at a range of less than 40 feet, bullets are the instrument that give the cop the best chance of being alive at the end of the encounter. A taser reliable enough to take a person in motion in a high-stress combat situation down instantly is powerful enough to kill someone, not to mention the officer would only be able to get off one shot with a taser, if that missed, Brown would be in control. Until better less lethal options than tasers are available to the average police officer, it isn't reasonable to expect them to engage in unarmed combat with someone strong enough to take their gun away from them OR try to use a taser for defense instead of subduing someone who is resisting arrest but not actually attacking the officer. Tasers are used to 'gain compliance' not for combat (unless you're a civilian and that's your main tool for self defense). What this cop really needed for a different outcome was a partner (preferably African American). I think that would have changed the whole dynamic.

If Brown was surrendering, the cop is guilty of murder. If Brown was charging him at close range, shooting him is what cops are trained to do, and with current technology, rightly so. We expect cops to risk their lives, not throw them away.