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Less than a week after France announced it would abandon police chokeholds, the government responded to growing officer discontent by announcing it would test stun guns for wider use, adding to the ranks of European law enforcement agencies that have recently adopted the weapons that many in the United States equate with excess police violence.

Then, on Monday, the government backed away from a complete chokehold ban, saying it would no longer teach the maneuver to recruits but allow its use until a better alternative emerges.

For Johny Louise, it felt as though the 22 seconds of Taser pulses that led to his son鈥檚 death counted for nothing.

鈥淭hey need more death so that one day they understand, but it will be more pointless deaths and sufferings for families,鈥� Mr. Louise said.

Gendarmes in Orl茅ans responding to a drunken brawl tried to arrest his son, Lo茂c Louise. One officer, Noham Cardoso, fired his Taser for the first time, hitting Lo茂c Louise in the chest with the twin darts and jolting him for a full 17 seconds, rather than the usual 5-second cycle, then hitting him again less than a minute later with another 5 seconds, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press. Lo茂c Louis, who was Black, passed out and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Mr.聽Cardoso was charged last year with involuntary homicide in the Nov. 3, 2013, death. He has said Lo茂c Louise was aggressive and appeared ready to attack.

The officer鈥檚 lawyer, Ludovic de Vill猫le, can鈥檛 fathom why France would replace an immobilization technique with a weapon. He said it would make more sense to invent another technique to replace chokeholds.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a bad sign to say, 鈥榊ou can鈥檛 strangle, but here are Tasers for you to use,鈥欌�� Mr.聽de Vill猫le said.

But stun guns are increasingly the weapon of choice for European law enforcement as they have been for years in the U.S., where they are considered effective protection for officers trying to arrest violent suspects. In Atlanta, just hours after the French stun gun announcement on Friday, a seemingly routine sobriety check outside a Wendy鈥檚 restaurant聽ended in gunshots聽after Rayshard Brooks grabbed a Taser from officers and ran.

The killing of the Black man in an encounter with two white officers late Friday rekindled fiery protests in Atlanta and prompted the police chief鈥檚 resignation. One of the officers was dismissed.

Axon, the company that makes Tasers, has made a big push outside the U.S. in recent years and agencies in the Netherlands and Italy recently expanded use of stun guns, following the path of Britain, where use has increased steadily since they were introduced in 2003.

Stun guns are in limited but increasing use in France already. The number of discharges increased from 1,400 in 2017 to 2,349 in 2019. According to the聽French police oversight agency, stun guns killed one person last year and three suffered severe injuries. After France said it would abandon the chokehold last week, police across the country staged聽scattered protests, saying they felt abandoned by the government.

Police in England and Wales discharged Tasers 2,700 times over the 12 months ending in March 2019, according to government statistics, which also showed black people were more likely than white ones to have stun guns used on them.

Britain's Independent Office for Police Conduct said last month that there were growing concerns 鈥渁bout its disproportionate use against black men and those with mental health issues.鈥�

British rapper Wretch 32聽posted video last week of his father being hit by a Taser in his London home during a police raid in April. The Metropolitan Police force said a review found no indication of misconduct, but London Mayor Sadiq Khan called for an urgent investigation.

According to Amnesty International, at least 18 people in Britain have died after a stun gun was discharged on them by police, but in many cases it was not determined that the weapon caused the death. The human rights group has said at聽least 500 people聽died after being hit by stun guns between 2001 and 2012 in the U.S.

Italy鈥檚 government approved using Tasers in January after a two-year trial and opened a bidding process to purchase nearly 4,500 stun guns to be divided among various law enforcement agencies. Police chief Franco Gabrielli said in March that the next phase would involve a period of training and 鈥渙perational experimentation鈥� in a half-dozen cities.

鈥淭he security of our personnel is first, obviously without causing damage to the people who might find themselves on the other side,鈥� Mr.聽Gabrielli said outside a Genoa hospital where he had gone to visit two police officers injured in a shootout.

The Netherlands began issuing stun guns to police in 2017 and is training 17,000 of the force鈥檚 40,000 officers. But far fewer of the weapons are on order and they will not be part of an officer鈥檚 standard equipment.

There are about 15,000 stun guns in France, which has a total police and gendarme force of around 240,000. In the U.S., by contrast, more than three-quarters of officers carry the weapons as standard issue, according to William Terrill, a professor of criminal justice at Arizona State University. Axon says it has standing relationships with 95% of American law enforcement agencies.

Mr.聽Terrill said training must come before widespread distribution of Tasers, which are sold as a way to protect officers from aggressive suspects while avoiding deadly force.

鈥淚t鈥檚 almost asking a police department to make an unfair choice in many respects,鈥� he said. 鈥淏y articulating it that way, it鈥檚 almost saying I value my officers鈥� safety more than the community鈥檚 safety.鈥�

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, based in Washington, D.C., said stun guns can be effective but also fail to subdue people as much as 45% of the time.

鈥淲e have seen circumstances where police officers get themselves in a situation where they use them, they don鈥檛 work, and now they are very close to the person they are dealing with and they wind up having to use force, deadly force in some circumstances,鈥� Mr.聽Wexler said.

Mr.聽Wexler said they can be foiled by distance, heavy clothing, or only one of the weapon鈥檚 two prongs making contact.

For Lo茂c Louise's family, from the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, it was a weapon used far too easily on someone with dark skin.

His father does not believe all gendarmes are racist but 鈥渟ome use their uniform to do whatever they please,鈥� said Johny Louise. 鈥淎nd my son paid for it.鈥�

This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writers Jill Lawless in London, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas, and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.

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