Minnesota State Patrol troopers were cleared in the death of a man who was Tasered after being involved in an accident and refusing to cooperate with officers. The cause of death was determined as drug abuse.

The interesting thing is that for all the scenarios that play out like this one did, where troopers requested cooperation numerous times and even endured physical and verbal abuse before deploying the Taser, these stories never get the air time that stories depicting the abuse of Tasers do. It’s like how little kids only tell their friends about the embarrassing things their parents do, and not about all the nice bedtime stories they read.

Reports from the troopers involved, eyewitness accounts, the autopsy report, and video from both the patrol cars and even a camera mounted on the Taser all showed that the officers did everything right, and in the right order. The driver tried to flee the scene. The drive punched one of the troopers. Opponents of Tasers imply that officers should have used other means to subdue this man. What do they suggest? A dogpile? Joining hands, forming a circle around him, and closing in until he can’t move? The victim’s father questioned the use of the Taser because his son was unarmed. Okay, so apparently we should only consider armed persons a danger to others. Go ahead and beat up on the officers all you want and as long as you’re unarmed, they won’t fight back. People simply don’t think clearly when they or someone they love is the victim. Understandable, but not a line of thinking we should base legislation on.

Back to the story though; after being Tasered the man fell unconscious and died that night at the hospital. An autopsy later released detailed the cocktail of drugs deemed responsible for his death as cocaine, marijuana, and a painkiller. I guess since these are already illegal drugs the only thing left to do is to come after Tasers, right? That’s what some people would have us think.

The unfortunate reality is that this man was in a high state of anxiety and his body apparently just couldn’t take anymore. But let’s not forget to hold him accountable for his actions in the first place, and stop placing the all the blame for other people’s poor decisions on a device that isn’t at fault, and more than likely helped prevent injury to more people from occurring that day.

(Source: http://www.startribune.com/local/east/18667699.html?page=1&c=y)