The truth is, I’ve been somewhat hard on Tasers.  After all, they aren’t nearly as deadly as a magnum in the hands of someone who can shoot straight. But what if there was a “weapon” that was less lethal, more friendly-sounding, almost like a child’s toy?  Hey, what about bean bags?

A motorist who failed to yield to Fresno police died after a confrontation with several officers early Monday morning in south Fresno, police say. The man, who fought off less-lethal bean-bag rounds and electronic shock darts, stopped breathing after he was wrestled to the ground by four officers and handcuffed, Fresno Chief Jerry Dyer said.

The unidentified man was pronounced dead at Community Regional Medical Center.

The Taser is described as non-lethal, but the Fresno Bee describes bean-bag “rounds” as less-lethal.  It’s not quite clear what they mean by that.  Does that mean that the chances of surviving a bean bag attack is 50%?  Or maybe it has to do with where the bean bags (it seems that calling them bean bag rounds is redundant) strike, with a shot in the kisser being fatal while a strike in the humerus less so.

It began when officers spotted a car that ran a stoplight at Jensen and Cedar avenues, Dyer said. Officers turned on emergency lights and followed the car in a low-speed pursuit to Jensen and East avenue, where the driver pulled into a Shell Service station and got out. The driver was “combative and belligerent,” Dyer said, prompting officers to fire “several” beanbag rounds at him to no effect. Officers then fired electronic stun darts at the driver, who pulled one of the darts from his body.

Since I don’t practice in Fresno like Rick Horowitz, I can’t claim familiarity with common knowledge of drivers following a proper traffic stop.  Maybe drivers are well aware of police shooting bean bags at people who are “combative and belligerent,” which sounds far more ominous than saying the driver told the cops to take a flying leap.  Maybe he was temping the cops to fire some bean bags at him to see how less-lethal they are.  So many “maybes”.  I can’t help but wonder whether this death could have been avoided if the police kept the whole bean bag thing to themselves.  I wonder if the next less-lethal victim will be some child, mistakenly believing that the police are offering free toys for tots?

It seems as though a lot of people who break traffic laws end up dead.  While I’m not a fan of people who drive slowly dangerously, I really don’t think that it’s worth a life to stop them.  It seems that many police officers disagree with me.  Some are more ambivalent about it, and therefore chose to employ less-lethal force to shut down uncooperative motorists.

Somehow, the deployment of less-lethal bean bags against a belligerent driver doesn’t seem like such a terrible thing to do.  Until he dies.

H/T @radleybalko