Rangers to have taser guns.

I would like to thank www.mediatransparency.org for alerting me to this. Please go to http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=217 For a full account of this story. Everything in quotes is from this article. The rest is my commentary or stats I have found on my own.

Rangers will now start carrying taser guns in some states but who and where is still a mystery.

"John C. Twiss, director of the service's law-enforcement branch, said that after years of studying the devices, it would give its 700 officers, who police 153 national forests, "an option other than deadly force in certain law-enforcement situations."

I have e-mailed the City Council and Forest Service to see if any Santa Cruz Rangers, like Ranger John Wallace will be armed with these devices as they cite the homeless and destroy private property. I will post an update when I get a reply. I called the Forest Service and they were unsure but remarked they remembered some training may have been scheduled.

"TASER International Inc. announced that it had received an order from the United States Forest Service for 700 TASER (r) X26 electronic control devices and related accessories."

According to TASER International, they are "excited that these devices will be used to protect life" and seem even more excited that another new federal agency has placed an order. "Traditionally, we have focused law enforcement sales at the local and state level, but we are now seeing acceptance of TASER technology at various federal law enforcement agencies."

More and more Rangers jobs are about policing public lands and citing people who have not paid to be there, and this is the time when they can choose to use a taser or pull a gun. I see this as just another chance for violence. Has there been a sudden rise of violent deaths of Rangers while on duty? The Answer is no. Has there been a rise in taser deaths? The answer is yes.

Watchdog groups have shown that since Bush has taken office Rangers have taken a more police like role as they privatize, rather than the public service role in which they were created. Policing situations include citing the homeless, or people who have not paid to be on public land. Although some may say this gives them a non lethal choice, history has already shown that when given the choice, they will use it in situations where it is unnecessary and often ends in a death that is tragic and unnecessary.

The more we allow public servants to be armed the further we delve into a police like state.

"Dialogos, a Cambridge, Mass.-based consulting firm, interviewed more than 400 Forest Service employees under condition of anonymity, "and their responses were brutally blunt," Berman reported. "The agency is experiencing confusion and drift in its central identity and direction, and ambiguity in the way it allocates power and responsibility," the Dialogos report stated. "Together these are leading people to be both unsure of where they stand, and unsure of where the agency is heading."

So next time you have an incident with a Ranger, you might want to start off by saying, “Please don’t taser me bro.”

Taser International Inc. maintains that its stun-guns are "changing the world and saving lives everyday." There is no question that they changed Jack Wilson's life. On Aug. 4, in Lafayette, Colo., policemen on a stakeout approached Jack's son Ryan as he entered a field of a dozen young marijuana plants. When Ryan took off running, officer John Harris pursued the 22-year-old for a half-mile and then shot him once with an X-26 Taser. Ryan fell to the ground and began to convulse. The officer attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but Ryan died.

In October, an internal investigation cleared Officer Harris of any wrongdoing and concluded that he had used appropriate force.

Wilson says that while his son had had brushes with the law as a juvenile and struggled financially, he was a gentle and sensitive young man who always looked out for his disabled younger brother's welfare, and was trying to better his job prospects by becoming a plumber's apprentice. The death was found to be caused from the tasering, and Ryan was healthy at the time.

This is one of hundreds of videos of taser related incidents. Not for the timid.