You give tasers a bad name In a nation obsessed with pop culture and political correctness, we overlook substance

CITIZENS BANK PARK, PA—Tasers made their Major League Baseball debut during a May 3^rd game when a 17 year-old male wearing a red Phillies shirt and khaki shorts ran into the outfield looping about.

It is presumably the first time a taser has been used during an MLB game but not the first time a taser has been used to subdue someone perpetrating a criminal act (it is against the law to run onto a field during play of a game and the youth will be charged with criminal trespass).

Tasers are an alternative to much more brutal force, yet they have a stigma attached to them as being cruel or unnecessary. What seems to be overlooked is the actually totality of events—if the seventeen year old had run onto the field and was pepper-sprayed, would the tone of reporting be different? Or is he was piled-on and put into a choke hold?

Its an interesting thing to see how the story is reported, the focus put on the instrument rather than the criminal behavior. Of course bad behavior makes for good copy and tasering a hell of an image—especially when there is video footage.

-- Killswitch Politick

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