Psshh…I don’t mean to be harsh, but frankly, there are other issues that require more attention than this…all this unnecessary hype that surround this topic gets to be rather irritating at times…I came from a country that has capital punishment legalized, so I’ve seen worse things than people being tasered…in all honesty, I think tasers should stay with the police force, as long as those who wield it use absolute caution and be reasonable as to when it is required to pull out those tasers amid the screams of “DON’T TAZE ME, BRO!” lol (gets me everytime…XD) I mean let’s face it…there are individuals who don’t learn their lesson without pain being a part of it…and as humane as we all try to be, I know this sounds harsh, but a little pain is enough to keep most citizens in line.
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What role should any level of government take in social media? (federal, provincial ,city, crown corporations, educational institutions, etc)
Should social media be thwarted by the government? No. An attack on social media is an attack on free speech. What I choose to put on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace is my choice and no one else. The difference between voicing my opinion and writing my opinion is no different. The target audience may be different, but that is it. Whatever happens is my fault and it shouldn’t be up to any form of government to limit how my opinion is voiced.
The people need to moderate their own actions. People aren’t dumb. They will learn that if they do something, and negative consequences arise, that duh, maybe they should change their actions. Let people learn. Let them screw up. Let us make mistakes. To be moderated in everything we do is not helping. We need to be let go and figure out life on our own.
We are the government and we need to voice our opinions and rise to the challenge. Nothing will ever change if we sit back and let the “select” few run our lives.
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What role should any level of government take in social media? (federal, provincial ,city, crown corporations, educational institutions, etc)
I would be so excited if governments and educational institutions made better use of social media. In particular, I think governments should take advantage of the widespread use of social media among younger demographics in order to raise voter turnout in elections.
The voter turnout for Alberta’s last provincial election was a dismal 41%. That is the lowest turnout for a Canadian provincial election in the last 50 years!
I think a lot more young people would be inclined to vote if a couple of things were to happen:
1) There were a way to vote online without having to go to the polling station. It’s not as big of a deal here in Edmonton to stop by the neighbourhood polling station, but for people in rural areas, the nearest polling station could be a 20 minute drive away, and they might not always be able to go. Also - let’s be honest - people are lazy. I think a lot of people would be more inclined to vote if they could do it without leaving their home.
2) Politicians got more involved with social media and interacted with their constituents directly. It’s hard to be an apathetic voter if your premier/MLA/MP/mayor etc. solicits your feedback and responds to it. This sort of interaction would be a way for youth to be directly involved in policy and feel as if their opinions actually mattered. Websites like dearmrpremier.ca are a huge step in the right direction!
What do all of you think? Would you like an online voting option? Would you use it?
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What role should the government play in Social Media?
What is this, China? I mean isn’t the answer obvious. The only caveat to absolute freedom of social media would come into play if people’s rights were being infringed upon by hate groups or sexual criminals. Other than that the world is going to have to adapt.
The government should keep up with technology and understand how to use social media tools but that should pretty much be the extent.
Privacy laws are going to become more and more important as photographic recognition applications begin to spider the web but hey.. the fundimental ‘as long as the rights of others are not infringed upon’ should hold true.
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Tasers are considered a non-lethal option for police officers but in reality they are lethal. They are killing people who, might be posing a threat, but rarely is it a threat that deserves a death sentence. I know…I know… not every who is tasered dies. In fact, the majority of people who are tasered survive with no lasting impression. However, sometimes people do die. I guess I’m not comfortable playing Russian Roulette with people’s lives.
I would rather the police officers discharge their gun. Everyone knows that a gunshot wound can be lethal. When an officer fires his gun, he does so knowing that it can lead to death. This, hopefully, means that the officer only uses his gun when the situation is dire enough to warrant the possibility of death.
With a taser, the officer deploys the taser in situation that do not call for lethal force but where death is still a real possibility. I have difficultly with that logic.
In one of the most publicized Canadian cases of taser use leading to death, Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was tasered in the Vancouver airport when he picked up a stapler and took a combative stance. A few days into the inquiry, one of the officers said that he feared for his life when Dziekanski picked up the stapler. The next day in the Edmonton Journal, a letter to the editor, pointed out that if staplers are so threatening then perhaps we should take away the tasers and hand out staplers instead.
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Have you ever held a taser in your hand? Have you ever felt the power surge through your body while holding a taser? Have you seen electricity blaze into the body of another person? If you said yes to any of these questions, I would like to meet you cause that’s soooo cool! And if you said no, well, that’s too bad.
Tasers need to be moderated, that is true. But I believe the taser is just the next in line weapon under the evolution of the hand-held weapon. Will it replace modern day guns, no, but it does give us an alternative in law enforcement. If I had the option to shoot a man (and because I have terrible aim, I would accidently kill him) or taser a man (no matter how terrible my aim is, I can still temporarily disable him), I’d probably choose the taser. I know I wouldn’t feel good about myself killing a man, no matter then crime. But if I can catch him with the use of my handy taser, and cause no long-term damage, then woohoo, all the power to the taser.
Of course, it’s not necessary to gang up on an assailant, and taser him to death. One wouldn’t do this with a gun, so why would anyone do this with a taser? Again, moderation is key. Law enforement needs adequate training and protocols when such a device can and should be used.
Take my Taser yo!!
Tasers are supposed to reduce deaths, not create them.
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Well it sure would seem that way looking at the history of modern economics, but if you look at the principles highlighted by Adam Smith in ALL his books, you would see that ethics play a vital roll in the success of our modern economic juggernaut.
The effort is there to improve business ethics, but the reality is human urges like greed and selfishness are evidently something that more often than not coincide with success in the business world… Further regulation and steeper penalties for violating laws should hopefully help, but scandals always seem to have a way of repeating themselves..
SOOO…. this topic is significantly more serious than the last, even threw in some ear plugs to concentrate…lame… Anyway there’s a few thoughts on that..
Cheers,
Pfins
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Written by: BeatBlogger007 April 3rd, 2009 Politics | No Comments »
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