London
British police used a Taser electric stun gun against a suspect this week for the first time. Human-rights groups and civil-liberties activists have been agitating against allowing officers to carry the nonlethal weapon, which fires needle-tipped darts and delivers a 50,000-volt shock to the target. Most British police do not carry guns of any kind, although each police department has a few officers authorized to use live ammunition. The Taser has been available to police since April, but before this week it had only been used against a rabid dog. The human suspect who was Tasered was threatening police with two loaded handguns.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Death in Minneapolis: a shooting dividing the USIn the Spotlight Federal response to Renee Good’s shooting suggest priority is ‘vilifying Trump’s perceived enemies rather than informing the public’
-
5 hilariously chilling cartoons about Trump’s plan to invade GreenlandCartoons Artists take on misdirection, the need for Greenland, and more
-
Iran in flames: will the regime be toppled?In Depth The moral case for removing the ayatollahs is clear, but what a post-regime Iran would look like is anything but
