See? This Doesn't Hurt a Bit

If you caught Jon Stewart last night or a couple of other venues, you may have seen CNN's newest lame anchor, Rick Sanchez, take a jolt from a shock belt that they want to use on prisoners coming into court to make sure they don't misbehave.

Now, if any of you remember Rick the Dick from MSNBC as I do, you may have fostered some considerations such as "couldn't happen to a nicer guy" (a thought I had to keep from my mind). Ricky was just such a cheerleader for Bush, for the Miami family during the Elian Gonzalez mess, and for the Iraq War. And you just knew there isn't enough voltage anywhere to shock some brains into that head of his (but CNN isn't known for its bright news anchors the last several years).

But let's look at DC Media Girl points us to a piece in The Times on it (and you can see the video for yourself at Crooks and Liars) which is more reasoned than mine:

In a segment last Wednesday on the program "Paula Zahn Now," for example, Rick Sanchez, a former local news anchor who worked for Mr. Cheatwood in Miami and who joined CNN last year, strapped on a device known as a shock belt - worn around the waist, it can deliver 50,000 volts of electricity to a person’s body - and then gave a simple command: "Do it."

Moments later, Mr. Sanchez moaned audibly, crumpled to the floor, and, still panting after being helped to his feet, reported: "It hurts. It’s painful. But no one’s dead." Mr. Sanchez was attempting to show first-hand how a device like the shock belt might have prevented the courthouse rampage in Atlanta in which a judge and three others were killed by a rape suspect.

The morning after his program was broadcast, Mr. Klein was euphoric."I thought it was great," he told several dozen producers and editors...

Well, actually, yes, you would have some people dead from such a device which delivers more voltage that tasers/stun guns.

And let's not forget that we've had law enforcement types suggesting that using stun guns even when a "perp" is not yet giving an officer a tough time is a "nice little way of letting them know who's boss". Democracy Now ran a piece on this about a month back.