Terence Channer a Scott-Moncrieff & Associates LLP consultant, who represents Desmond Ziggy Mombeyarara in a claim against Greater Manchester Police, was invited to contribute to this piece by Ben Ferguson of Channel 4 News on 31 August 2020. 

Black men are 3.9 times more likely to be tasered by Greater Manchester police officers than white men, according to a report by Resistance Lab (Lead author: Kerry Pimblott) 

“There has to be greater accountability and scrutiny on the use of force and in particular the use of police tasers, particularly with the expansion in the number of police officers carrying tasers.

“However, sadly I feel that we are going backwards. It is very concerning that in April there was en masse resignations of Liberty, Inquest, StopWatch Open Society and Dr Mike Shiner policing expert from the National Taser Stakeholder Advisory Group (NTSAG)). I understand that these groups were simply not listened to by the National Police Chief’s Council.

"Any expansion in the use of tasers is only going to increase the numbers of black men that are tasered and potentially suffering life changing injuries and that is my real concern. We have not addressed the issue of disproportionality in the use of tasers and to be expanding the use of tasers without doing that, in my view is scandalous."