German minister backs equipping police with Tasers

Yahoo

7 hours ago

Police throughout Germany should be equipped with Tasers, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has said.
Dobrindt told the Funke media group of newspapers he would ensure that the legal framework for equipping officers with the electric shock devices was established this year.
He described the use of the devices as "a suitable means" of responding to the increased threat to police in public.
Tasers would also better protect officers if they were attacked with stabbing weapons, such as knives, he said.
The devices operate at a distance of between 2 and 5 metres, temporarily incapacitating people with an electrical shock.
However, their use is controversial as they can pose a risk to the heart and potentially cause cardiac arrest or death.
Dobrindt's comments follow a call made by the Lower Saxony branch of the German Police Union to equip officers with Tasers following a fatal police shooting of a 21-year-old black man.
The young man, only identified by his first name - Lorenz - under Germany's strict privacy laws, was shot four times by a police officer in April in Oldenburg.
Investigators said that the German man had previously sprayed irritant gas outside a nightclub and injured several people before fleeing from the scene.
When patrol officers tried to confront him, he apparently approached them in a threatening manner and sprayed irritant gas in their direction.
The case sparked outrage across Germany, with protests against racism and police violence taking place throughout the country.