L.A. Police to Get New Flashlights

I searched, sorry if it is a repost:

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Mar30/0,4670,PoliceFlashlights,00.html

Even though there are at least two other threads, I'd like to see this one stay open since dano doesn't want politics discussed in this thread: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/159495

The Fox news article linked states:

The idea for the 7060 LED flashlight was conceived just days after news cameras broadcast images of LAPD officers beating car-theft suspect Stanley Miller with a two-pound, two-foot long standard issue police flashlight. Police Chief William Bratton banned the large flashlights after Miller's 2004 beating and called for manufacturers to create a smaller, brighter flashlight.

...Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, praised the LAPD for the equipment change.

"It's a really important step in the right direction, and it's going to make a difference in how the police department deals with the community," she said. "We've always felt that a flashlight was not an instrument to beat people with. This new one will serve the purpose it was intended to."

Click to expand...

It seems to me like the LAPD's flashlights aren't the problem here.


"Let's ban flashlights and have someone make smaller lighter ones, so the cops can't use flashlights as weapons."



How about you just train the cops to not act like animals.



I'm not saying cops shouldn't be able to beat people in an appropriate situation, to subdue someone when called for. In that situation, a long heavy flashlight would be a great tool. (Have they banned night sticks too?) But to ban flashlights, and develop a new smaller flashlight so they won't be "tempted" to beat someone with it, sounds like a discipline problem to me, not a flashlight problem.


:thumbsdow

there is...refer to this previous thread

LAPD's new flashlight

cheers and welcome to the forum