I cannot contain my joy and excitement: BART is buying 130 new Tasers so every cop can have one! Imagine -- more ways for the not-ready-for-prime-time police force to hurt people!
I'm dubious about BART police carrying guns -- the seem to shoot the wrong people pretty often. And this new policy won't replace lethal weapons with "less lethal" ones -- the idea is to give the BART cops TWO ways to shoot people.
As we all know, "less lethal" is like "a little bit pregnant." Either a weapon kills you or it doesn't. Tasers are known to kill people.
But the larger point is that cops with Tasers are going to use them -- and use them in circumstances where other alternatives tha don't involve shooting anyone with anything were also possible. Tasers are a shortcut, an easy way to subdue a suspect. And I don't care how much training the BART cops get; there are going to be mistakes, possibly deadly mistakes.
Why is the BART Board allowing this to happen?