Mark Thomas Presents the People's Manifesto - Mark Thomas [11]
Finally, if the police are forced to wear badges saying ‘How am I policing?’, it might encourage them to actually display their numbers too.
15
AS TASERS ARE SO
SAFE, EVERY TIME THE
POLICE USE THEM ON
A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC THEY SHOULD
TASER ONE OF
THEMSELVES
WHEN TASERS (the electro-shock dart gun used by British police) were first used here it seemed that every other chief constable was lining up to get darted for the regional news, proving that electrocuting citizens was safe and that convulsing police officers make good television. One minute they would be twitching in agony and the next they would be explaining to the cameras that there was no long-term harm, while a PC discreetly burnt the soiled pants. All that’s changed now, as the police have guidelines recommending they no longer Taser each other – for health and safety reasons. It’s political correctness gone mad.
There are several clues, strangely not picked up by detectives, that electro-shock weapons might not be as benign as first thought:
Clue one: the description of Tasers changed. They used to be called ‘non-lethal’. They are now called ‘less than lethal’, hinting that the weapon is not as ‘nonlethal’ as first suspected.
Clue two: the UK government regards electro-shock equipment as torture equipment if it is sold abroad.
Clue three: most UK weapons for export are categorised as ‘controlled’. Electro-shock weapons are categorised as ‘restricted’ alongside WMD and long-range missiles. Let’s be clear: electro-shock weapons are in the same category as anthrax and the plague.
Clue four: Amnesty International reported that between 2001 and 2008 370 people died after being Tasered in the US and Canada. In at least 50 cases, examiners listed being Tasered as a causal or contributory factor in the death.
Clue five: the standard for the police to use Tasers is ‘just below lethal force’ according to Keir Starmer, Director of Public Prosecutions. So they should be used where shooting someone dead is the only other option. But increasingly Tasers are being used as a tool of first resort. In Leeds, a 25-year-old man on a bus was slumped over his rucksack in a diabetic coma – the police Tasered him as they thought he might be a bomber, even though the Taser could have set off a bomb.
This policy will cause officers to be more thoughtful when deploying these weapons. This should reduce the misuse of Tasers and potential harm. However, when the weapons are regrettably used we at least get to see the return of the jolting PC to our TV screens.
16
TO INTRODUCE THE
1967 ABORTION ACT
INTO NORTHERN,
IRELAND
NORTHERN IRLAND IS no newcomer to fighting progressive legislation, homosexuality being a case in point – legalised in 1967 in the rest of the UK but illegal in Northern Ireland until 1982. The delay was due in part to Ian Paisley’s fantastically named campaign, ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy’. (Paisley had nothing to fear personally: the picture of him screaming the word ‘sodomy’ immunised him from any such eventuality.)
But I confess to being shocked when the Belfast audience voted for the policy to introduce the 1967 Abortion Act into Northern Ireland. Until then, I thought that Northern Ireland operated under the same rules as the rest of the UK. But no, the law that applies in Belfast is the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act,17 a statute
that was created before women could even vote, let alone voice concerns over their reproductive rights. This law is so antiquated that Section 26 of the Act makes it an offence for a master or mistress to inadequately feed and clothe a servant.
Although women can get an abortion in exceptional circumstances, about 40 women a week travel from Northern Ireland to England for the operation. They can’t get the procedure