# Is it ok to cause great pain, as long as there is no visible injury?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ok-to-cause-great-pain-as-long-as-there-is-no-visible-injury/496070>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 11, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ok-to-cause-great-pain-as-long-as-there-is-no-visible-injury/496070 "2009-05-11T18:48:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ok-to-cause-great-pain-as-long-as-there-is-no-visible-injury/496070/1 "2009-05-11T18:48:40Z")

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Inspired by some of the comments in the most recent [The Naked Wizard Guy Gets Tasered](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=515340) thread, I thought I’d lay this out as a poll, with an opportunity for some discussion (hence my placing it in GD).

Many of the people in this thread (and in the many others we’ve had over the years) seem to be ok with taser use in general, citing that it is less likely to lead to injuries than a nightstick, gun, or other physical confrontation that police may use to gain compliance from a subject.

Others counter that the infliction of great pain, while not leaving a mark, is a seriously disturbing thing to allow police (or anyone else, for that matter) to have as a tool, and that it is used too frequently and unnecessarily.

So just as a basic poll:

1. Do you think that the infliction of pain, without causing injury, is ok for police or other law enforcement to use as a compliance tool?

2. If you answered YES to #1, should there be limits to how much pain can be inflicted in an attempt to gain compliance? How would this be measured and/or monitored? How would transgressions be discovered?

3. If you answered NO to #1, what do you think police should do to gain compliance from non-cooperative persons? How would this be monitored? How would transgressions be discovered?

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