USA students petition for non-lethal weapons for campus police

[SecularMotion]

MOBILE, Alabama -- Students at the University of South Alabama are asking the school to reevaluate training and equipment at the campus police department after an unarmed freshman was shot and killed on campus Saturday.

Gil Collar, 18, was killed by USA police officer Trevis Austin, 27, after deputies said Collar took LSD at BayFest and returned to campus, where he assaulted people in two cars. Surveillance video taken at the USA police station shows Collar banging on the station's windows before Austin comes out with his gun drawn, according to deputies.

A petition started by nursing student Caroline de Freitas on Change.org said Collar was in a "mental health emergency" at the time of his death, and police need additional training to handle such situations.

"We would like to request that USA law enforcement be provided with evidence-based crisis intervention training as well as non-lethal weapons and equipment for the purpose of immobilizing individuals posing a threat without the use of deadly force," the request reads in part.

http://blog.al.com/live/2012/10/usa_students_petition_to_get_n.html

[Francis Marion]

1. What's the point here?

What's worth mentioning here?

[glacierbay]

2. Ain't gonna happen. nt.

[gejohnston]

3. there is no such thing as "non-lethal weapons"

the military uses the term "less than lethal" for a good reason. A taser can still be lethal, just ask the RCMP. Same is true of pepper spray. The chances of it happening?
BTW, I didn't know campus cops had pistols.

[Straw Man]

4. I see tasers as a useful addition ...

... to the officers' equipment. I certainly don't see them as a replacement for firearms. Sometimes lethal force is warranted.

BTW, I didn't know campus cops had pistols.

Depends on the campus. More and more of them do. Even little local community college has at least one "peace officer" (i.e. armed and having the power to arrest) on each shift, along with the usual clock-punchers and ticket-writers.