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Tasering 400 children is a disgrace. Our trigger-happy police need to be curbed

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Cantankerous old men in pubs often like to moan about officers of the law letting modern young miscreants off with a mere “slap on the wrist”.

It was different in their day, they complain, when PC only meant “police constable” and not also the cursed concept of “political correctness”.

So men like Pete, a disagreeable former landlord who liked to describe all minors as “toerags” who “need a good hiding” but was still happy to serve them beer, would no doubt be electrified to learn that children as young as 11 can now expect to have Tasers drawn on them by policemen.

New figures show that more than 400 ten to 17-year-olds were threatened with a 50,000-volt electric stun gun in 2013.

The statistics, released following a Freedom of Information request by BBC Radio 5 Live, reveal a 38% increase in threats on the previous year.

Only 38 children – the youngest of whom was 14 – were actually fired on. But, in my view, that is 38 too many.

Even David Blunkett, the tough former home secretary who first equipped British police forces with Tasers in 2003, thinks now might be a time to “take a step back”.

The main argument for curbing their use – especially on our youngest and most vulnerable members of society - is that for “non-lethal” weapons, Tasers can be remarkably lethal.

Since their introduction in Britain, ten people have been killed by these stun guns.

Among the victims are Jordan Begley, a 23-year-old with a heart condition, who died in 2013 and Adrian Thompson, 34, who was killed over the Christmas holidays.

Officers have also had no qualms firing at an 89-year-old man and a blind man (whose white stick they apparently mistook for a samurai sword).

Yet, in spite of what appears to be mounting brutality, the Police Federation last month called for every uniformed officer to be given a Taser to fight terrorism.

Of course police should be able to meet the threat of attacks such as the public attempt to behead solider Lee Rigby.

But having more Tasers also guarantees that they will be used more frequently and more inappropriately against everyone else - and that means more people will die.

The growing number of stun guns also represents the increasing paramilitarisation of our police forces (note how they are called “forces” and not constabularies these days).

Their reliance on (frequently disproportionate) violence certainly stands in stark contrast to the founding principles of British law enforcement.

Policing by consent, the idea Victorian home secretary Robert Peel espoused of using minimal force and drawing strength and support from the community, is what used to distinguish us from our mainland European neighbours.

Yet this great liberal idea is increasingly under threat – because the more police draw on Tasers the more force will become the first and not last resort of our officers.

It begs the question: who do our trigger-happy police serve? Me, you, us – or the state? I fear the latter.

But will any government minister have the courage to listen to the cry of a 14-year-old being blasted with 50,000 volts over loud police calls for more weapons?

No. So you can expect the number of child Taser victims to go on rising - and the grim death toll to start including minors.