Fifty thousand volts of electricity surging into the body through metal wires that hook themselves into skin like a mutant insect are no joke.

Those 50,000 volts have the potential to paralyze muscles temporarily, debilitate breathing and even kill.

A Taser is painful and dangerous; it’s not an imitation or a fake. It’s a violent weapon.

The Taser can be justified and even accepted by most of us when it is used in the proper context. Law enforcement officers refer to Tasers as a “less lethal” weapon; it is intended to be substituted in a situation where lethal force, such as a gunshot, could be employed.

With that in mind, the Taser ought to actually save lives when used correctly. Too often, however, the Taser has been put to work with less hesitation than I might have when slapping a fly.

Tasers have killed 168 North Americans from 1999 to 2006. This number isn’t shocking; it shows the Taser is arguably a worthy alternative to a lethal weapon when a suspect pulls a knife on an unsuspecting victim or points a gun at an officer.

But the Taser isn’t an alternative when that suspect gives too much attitude to an officer during a traffic stop.

That was the case for Jared Massey on a Utah desert road in September. Just last week, video surfaced of Massey on YouTube and started a nationwide controversy. The 10 minutes of footage is disturbing.

A seemingly rational Massey repeatedly attempts to defend his position. Lying on the ground, inches from oncoming traffic, 50,000 volts having just jolted through his body, Massey’s airy and juvenile voice is audible and whiney.

With the force of timid kindergartner in the principal’s office, he demands to know what he is being arrested for, but to no avail.

“Read me my rights,” Massey said.

The footage and comments are disturbing, uncomfortable. The cries of his shocked and pregnant wife are no more pleasant.

Political commentary has surrounded the situation since its initial YouTube premiere. YouTubers’ 18,000 comments are at least as interesting and revealing of public sentiment as the CNN report or the Salt Lake Tribune defense.

The unpolluted dialogue spits back and forth with no fuel other than honest passion.

Although many of the comments recognize Massey’s standoffishness, they also condemn the officer’s actions. After all, if the suspect is a jackass, he deserves to be treated as such, not prescribed malevolent electrocution.

Other comments, though, instill some emotion that is far beyond disgust or disagreement and something more like fear: “Promote the police officer and make the moron … pay his salary for six months … that will teach the jackoff!” A population that has no bearing on police officers’ legal recourse is in a more dangerous position than it could ever fathom.

The bottom line is people need to get a grip on the laws that govern them and the rights that protect them rather than blindly defend those in a position of authority.

On the side of law enforcement, however, Taser usage needs review and severe restriction. This past week alone has seen the deaths of three Americans as a result of police Tasers.

The Taser in place of the gun should forever be applauded; the Taser in place of the voice, however, is a crime that cannot continue to be overlooked.