That's right: tasering is painful and should be outlawed. That way police can go back to bullets.
If tasers were only used in situations where the only alternative was to shoot, I'd be fine with that. But they seem to be used in situations where the previous method would have been to talk to the suspect/victim and attempt to calm him down.
A Taser Shot used where before a Gun was used is not torture or used in replace of getting close and beating the guy down.
If you shoot or beat the shit out of a guy without a Damn Good Reason(tm), you're likely as not to be brought up on charges, be sued, and probably be out of a job as well. If you taser someone, it's much more difficult for them to prove unless serious injury results. Thus, a cop may be more likely to use a Taser as a form of torture or abuse than previous methods.
this has resulted in cases like the diabetic who had a fit on a buss and fell incapable of moving, he was reported as strange by the driver, and the cops decided to taser an immobile man for not responding.
The perfect treatment for those idiots^Wpolice officers would be 2400VAC for a few minutes in a wonderful American invention known as the Electric Chair. Give them a taste of their own medicine, except stronger.
Tasers are torture--time for cops to go back to the old methods of non-lethal deterrence: bludgeoning, beating, and chemical mace.
At least those leave clear-cut evidence of abuse, and if they are used wrongly, the victim has more of an ability to sue the bad cops right into the gutter where they belong!
I wonder if they even informed the FAA, as required:
Hope they did it in the vicinity of a GA airport or something, so there'll be good grounds for a complaint. It won't shut them down completely, I'm sure, but it'll certainly slow them down quite a bit and put the proverbial red tape noose around their necks.
Seriously, it would probably be used to track the speeds of cars and then call in a cop in a car to write the actual ticket. Same as aerial enforcement of speed now, except for the lack of pilot.
The hassle of getting a tax ID (which might require setting up a real company), collecting and passing on sales tax to the state is pretty big when all you had to do previously was declare a couple thousand extra dollars on your income taxes at the end of the year.
At least in New York State, getting a tax ID and sales tax certificate of authority is a matter of filling some forms out online. Takes about 15 min, no more. And sales tax is filed quarterly on a shortish form, so if you keep good books, it shouldn't take you more than a half hour per quarter.
and the accused will be punished by the public even if acquitted by the legal system.
Not necessarily the accused -- in the case of police misconduct, the cops' actions are also open to scrutiny, and *their* heads may roll in the court of public opinion. And it's always nice to see "bad" cops kicked out into the street without pension -- they give other law enforcement a bad rep and thus should get out.
He was not proposing that the police "not tell anybody" -- only that the decision to release the information about an arrest be up to the accused at least as long as the accused had not been found guilty.
The problem then becomes police coercion. "Do you want us to contact your attorney?" (while holding a baton and rubber hose). Arrest records should be public, but be automatically sealed if the accused is acquitted or after a certain number of years for misdemenours.
What have they been doing for the last several decades, distributing DC and converting it to AC at the building?
No, the DC grid was in parallel with the AC grid, and buildings were supplied with both types of power. DC was used to run things like elevators, pumps, and fans, whose motors were originally built to run on DC and would be expensive to replace.
BTW, some buildings *did* also have DC outlets, as my dad found out in the early 70s when he plugged a t.v. meant for AC into one.
But what I REALLY want is to be able to store my mail on MY server, and access it via Google's awesome interface. Really, just use Google as an IMAP client to my mail server.
What about them enabling mail server capabilities on something like a Google Mini (search appliance)? Or selling a turnkey Google Apps Box? Having it on site would certainly speed corporate acceptance.
"Meh. It pretty much does. It's the nature of the beast. If you're carrying a lot of people in a single vehicle, you need a vehicle which can carry the weight. Trams range from 20-50 tonnes per vehicle."
City busses aren't exactly light either.
"Rolling resistance is secondary to air resistance and the effect on efficiency is much lower than simply going from internal combustion to electric."
At lower speeds (under 25 mph/40km/h) rolling resistance has more of a pronounced effect. And that's where trams spend most of their lives.
Now, the most efficient way to run a vehicle is at a constant speed, acceleration is expensive in terms of energy, and the more mass you have, the more energy you expend. Trams almost never reach a constant speed and because they're basically rail, they're extremely heavy as well.
Rail doesn't necessarily mean heavy. And trams are usually powered by low-voltage DC (relatively low: 600V as opposed to up to 25kV for a lot of trains) overhead lines, which makes pumping energy from regenerative braking back into the system relatively easy. And keep in mind also that rolling friction on steel rails is a lot less than friction from a rubber tire on a roadway.
I support Constitutional democracy. The whole point of having a Constitution was so that the rule of the mob wouldn't be able to easily infringe upon rights.
Do you really want your apartment reeking of exhaust fumes? Do you really want a carbon monoxide generator in your apartment?
Even if you turn the motor off before entering the apartment, there's always some spillage/odor of petrol and oil. Not a nice smell for a $5m apartment -- quick! get the Febreze!
It follows that sooner or later, rail travel will almost certainly be subject to similar regulations, for much the same reason.
I'd say that passengers bringing explosives aboard a train isn't a huge problem since you could do much more damage by either blowing up some tracks, bolting a plate to the tracks to derail the train, or even just unbolting some plates between tracks on, say, a bridge. If you want rail security, worry about the tracks more than the trains!
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If tasers were only used in situations where the only alternative was to shoot, I'd be fine with that. But they seem to be used in situations where the previous method would have been to talk to the suspect/victim and attempt to calm him down.
-b.
If you shoot or beat the shit out of a guy without a Damn Good Reason(tm), you're likely as not to be brought up on charges, be sued, and probably be out of a job as well. If you taser someone, it's much more difficult for them to prove unless serious injury results. Thus, a cop may be more likely to use a Taser as a form of torture or abuse than previous methods.
-b.
The perfect treatment for those idiots^Wpolice officers would be 2400VAC for a few minutes in a wonderful American invention known as the Electric Chair. Give them a taste of their own medicine, except stronger.
-b.
At least those leave clear-cut evidence of abuse, and if they are used wrongly, the victim has more of an ability to sue the bad cops right into the gutter where they belong!
-b.
No one is forcing anyone to smoke the pot. Make the stuff legal and let the cops work on crimes that actually hurt people.
-b.
Hope they did it in the vicinity of a GA airport or something, so there'll be good grounds for a complaint. It won't shut them down completely, I'm sure, but it'll certainly slow them down quite a bit and put the proverbial red tape noose around their necks.
-b.
And lying about a supposed FAA NOTAM restricting flight in the area is very unlikely to win them any friends in Washington.
-b.
-b.
-b.
At least in New York State, getting a tax ID and sales tax certificate of authority is a matter of filling some forms out online. Takes about 15 min, no more. And sales tax is filed quarterly on a shortish form, so if you keep good books, it shouldn't take you more than a half hour per quarter.
-b.
Not necessarily the accused -- in the case of police misconduct, the cops' actions are also open to scrutiny, and *their* heads may roll in the court of public opinion. And it's always nice to see "bad" cops kicked out into the street without pension -- they give other law enforcement a bad rep and thus should get out.
-b.
The problem then becomes police coercion. "Do you want us to contact your attorney?" (while holding a baton and rubber hose). Arrest records should be public, but be automatically sealed if the accused is acquitted or after a certain number of years for misdemenours.
-b.
No, the DC grid was in parallel with the AC grid, and buildings were supplied with both types of power. DC was used to run things like elevators, pumps, and fans, whose motors were originally built to run on DC and would be expensive to replace.
BTW, some buildings *did* also have DC outlets, as my dad found out in the early 70s when he plugged a t.v. meant for AC into one.
-b.
This isn't exclusive to NYC, and having a central steam plant is actually a pretty efficient way to keep dense neighborhoods heated.
-b.
Not to mention for the mainline railroad electrification between New York, Washington, DC and also to the Jersey Shore.
-b.
What about them enabling mail server capabilities on something like a Google Mini (search appliance)? Or selling a turnkey Google Apps Box? Having it on site would certainly speed corporate acceptance.
-b.
"We will all go together when we go ..." - Tom Lehrer
City busses aren't exactly light either.
"Rolling resistance is secondary to air resistance and the effect on efficiency is much lower than simply going from internal combustion to electric."
At lower speeds (under 25 mph/40km/h) rolling resistance has more of a pronounced effect. And that's where trams spend most of their lives.
-b.
Rail doesn't necessarily mean heavy. And trams are usually powered by low-voltage DC (relatively low: 600V as opposed to up to 25kV for a lot of trains) overhead lines, which makes pumping energy from regenerative braking back into the system relatively easy. And keep in mind also that rolling friction on steel rails is a lot less than friction from a rubber tire on a roadway.
-b.
I support Constitutional democracy. The whole point of having a Constitution was so that the rule of the mob wouldn't be able to easily infringe upon rights.
-b.
Even if you turn the motor off before entering the apartment, there's always some spillage/odor of petrol and oil. Not a nice smell for a $5m apartment -- quick! get the Febreze!
Maybe a truck. I think that in a collision between a 50-ton locomotive and a 2-ton at most car, the train usually wins.
-b.
Hey, it's been done ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92525
-b.
I'd say that passengers bringing explosives aboard a train isn't a huge problem since you could do much more damage by either blowing up some tracks, bolting a plate to the tracks to derail the train, or even just unbolting some plates between tracks on, say, a bridge. If you want rail security, worry about the tracks more than the trains!
-b.
One who's not on any watch lists?