Sigh.
Not everyone who acts like a moron is a terrorist or a danger to society.
If everyone got zapped every time they did something moronic we might as well all audition for the Wile E Coyote role in some upcoming big budget Roadrunner flick.
Kevin is right. No one *knows* what his intentions are. But you're not supposed to be able to punish people every time you think there's a possibility that they might be up to sociopathic violence.
That's a Donald Rumsfeld/Patriot Act type bullshit. Frankly, I think anyone who thinks the kid should be tased just because he rushed onto a pro baseball diamond should be lined up for a taser shot for every publicly moronic thing they have done in their lives.
Because I'm sorry, every irresponsible kid isn't a candidate for tasing just because he happens to be doing it at Yankee Stadium instead of the local park.
If the Phillies are afraid some random PCP addict or some nonrandom terrorist is going to be running onto the field, then they ought to be hiring top of the line security experts who can tell the difference between a immediate menace and a drunk kid.
I can't tell from my position in the stands what the kid is. But there are professionals out there who are damn good at it. If you're worried about a danger, you hire a professional. You don't just empower some shmo to use violence of his choice.
Maybe the taser-user is such a professional. Then I'd trust his/her judgment. But there are a fuckload of private security types who are no more competent to judge the use of force than I am. And if that taser-user was such a type, then that use was immoral.
If the security dude isn't competent to judge the use of force, then it would be better to have said security dude chasing the moron around the field for awhile.
Yes, IronMan, it is wholly irrelevant whether *I* think it's immoral or not. Agreed. I know none of the parties concerned. I wasn't there.
But it remains absolutely relevant whether it *is* immoral or not.
I believe in a near absolute constitutional right to bear arms. (And the only reason I add the qualifier "near" is because there might be a situation I'm unaware of where that right falls by the wayside.) And the right to bear arms brings with it, IMO, the right to use those arms.
But while I think that right to bear arms nearly absolute, I also believe that certain exercises of that right are immoral. IMO someone who loads a hunting rifle without understanding basic weapons safety is acting immorally, no matter how much I defend his right to load that rifle.
And the same goes for a taser. Just because the taser doesn't bring with it the same danger that the rifle (or a car, for that matter) does, doesn't mean it does no harm. It does mental harm. And, if the tasee has certain unobvious conditions, physical harm as well.
Use of a taser, however legal, can be immoral.
And immorality matters.
If we ignore questions of morality, then that bastard Thomas Hobbes was right. And I refuse to accept that.
Life doesn't have to be solitary or nasty or brutish or short.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)