Thank you for Tasering

Last night, around the 8th inning, a fan ran onto the field at Citizen's Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. He eluded security, running around in the outfield until a police officer fired a taser at him, dropping him.

Police say the teen is charged with defiant trespass, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.



I applaud the use of a taser in this situation. There have been some situations that are kinda questionable (the old lady getting tased at a traffic stop or the imfamous "Don't Tase Me Bro!").



Now, should that guy have gotten tased? I say yes. Should they have tried to remove him in the first place? I don't really know.

But this thing with the fans is a totally different situation. Oddly enough, the kid called his dad before hand and asked permission to do it. Dad said "I don't think that's a good idea." Good call dad.

This fan was obviously being defiant and it did not appear he was going to give up readily on his own accord. The other option, and the one used for a long time by security personnel in these situations, is to tackle the individual. This creates a dangerous safety threat to both the tackler and the person being tackled.

Like you see here...



or here...



If you tase them, the only danger is to the fan. Granted, I generally don't want to see fans in danger, but this is an exception. They are being reckless with their presence and, dare I say, probably intoxicated. Their actions are not rationale and it is probably a dumb idea to just see what the fan does first and THEN tackle or tase. That fan has already demonstrated poor judgement.

If someone runs onto the field, they know right then they aren't suppose to be there. It's extremely obvious that's not where you are suppose to be and there really is no question that it's the wrong thing to do. With that in mind, I would recommend all security agencies immediately change their policies to have police immediately tase anyone who purposefully goes onto the field during a game.

Here's a YouTube video of some guys that did the same thing at a Braves game during my first season.



Now, they were apparently intoxicated and obviously pushed on by their "friends", but if the standard was to tase plus jail plus a ban from returning to the ballpark, do you think there would be a different thought process? My guess is they would have been deterred.

It's true, there are rare exceptions to the rule about fans just giving up. Like this fan at Cowboys Stadium during warmups.



This is pretty rare. Most fans taunt or run until subdued. The tactic used by security here was one that was pretty popular for a while, the slowly-close-in-the-perimeter technique. But this method has lost momentum because of an incident in Chicago with first base coach for the Kansas City Royal, Tom Gamboa. A fan and his son ran onto the field and beat up the first base coach. The coach suffered perminate hearing loss in his right ear.



The fans were given 30 months probation.

Because you don't know what the intentions are of a person in a restricted area, it just seems stupid to let them call the shots and get even closer to a potential target before security acts. Once they get grass under their shoes, they should be considered an extreme threat.

There was a famous incident where a football fan was tackled by a player. From the other team. That's quick punishment.



Part of his punishment was to spend Superbowl weekend in jail and not see the game.

Now, again, I support tasers in the field. Not necessarily the stands.



This does not seem like a reasonable use of force.

The taser can be a dangerous weapon (even deadly), but it has proven to be a successful tool that should be used. Plus, it's a deterrent.

And it makes you sound like a Mexican Chewbacca.



And, just for some more taser fun, how about Erik Estrada and La Toya Jackson being tasered?



In all seriousness, here's some reporters getting tasered and talking about the effects.



The are not all that bad. Sure, it hurts during the time but the effects don't last.

I leave you with this. 10 moments that turned ugly. Some of these you may have seen on my blog before. Some even in this very post. Enjoy.



Wish there had been a taser at some of these...