My question, and forgive me if I am being naive, but why were the police called in the first place?

Couldn't the orderlies and hospital security guards have handled the 82-year old man lying in a hospital bed?

We can second guess the police, but I think the bigger problem, the ones who are really to blame is the hospital employees calling the police to handle a patient. Police are trained to take down criminals, assailants, etc.

It just seems that the medical employees would have been better suited taking care of a patient.

If the man was so out of control, that the multiple orderlies and security guards couldn't have controlled them then what were the police supposed to do?

Seems like it wouldn't be that difficult to disarm a bedridden old guy with a pocket knife. Especially when you have all those nice happy meds backing you up. Oh, but they were completely justified in calling in a 200-pound trained killer to help. Suuuure.

I've never understood why the police are even called for things like this. Or to enforce seat belt laws, for that matter.

After reading the article, I don't think they did anything wrong. The police tried other methods to get the guy to drop the knife, he made illusions to the guy in the other bed being dead which raised major concerns. It was a last resort and they aren't pressing charges.

And ReBoot, I think the seatbelt laws are stupid too so you get upvotes for having the same opinion as me!

The guy was asleep!! How hard would it be to check the breathing status of someone in the next bed? Must not exceed the effort of tasering an 82 year old I think.

On a different note...I'd hate to be the one asleep while the guy in the other bed gets tasered by the police. He's definitely not suffering from insomnia.

That'll show the world that Canadians aren't little sissies!

Let's just remember where Canadians go to retire...Florida. It all makes sense now.

True, he was asleep, but we don't know how the room was orientated and we don't know if they had to go around the guy with the knife to get to the other bed.

I don't think the police did anything wrong here. Regardless of the age of the guy, he was making threats and waving a knife. It was a well thought out choice to tase him.

I'm getting really tired of all the bad press that tasers have been getting lately. Have they been overused?

Perhaps.

Have they been shown too kill?

Perhaps. In a few very isolated incidents.

But in the end I believe that they've saved far more lives and are a valuable tool for keeping our officers safe. For the vast majority of people being tased hurts like hell but has absolutely no lasting impact.

In the video he says that the police officers could have taken him. Honestly? I think that pinning down and wrestling him would have been much more likely to cause injury.

b*****d deserved it. Young wipper snappers and their fancy adjustable beds. In my day, you slept with one eyelid taped open so you seemed awake should the police come to question you and you were thankful for it. In my day we didn't have small knives in our beds. You either got out a footlong knife or you didn't get anything. And if someone tazed your nads, you were thankful!!!

They should taser more people, I love it when we taser immigrants. It's Canadai's way of telling our new and welcomed citizens that you'd better be nice and polite in public, you can't go around with a bad attitude; it's against Canadian Law.

And props for the thumbnail. :D

Voted up for Corner Gas cops pic. Go Davis & Karen!