US cop posts TikTok showing how hard it is to confuse a Taser with a handgun

An American cop has posted a video to the social media platform TikTok suggesting it’s not easy to mix up a Taser with a gun.

The clip, from user @brianb1504, follows the killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, an unarmed Black man, by a Minnesota police offer last week.

Police chief Tim Gannon said at a press conference it was “an accidental discharge”, and that the officer in question, Kim Potter, meant to use her Taser in the incident.

Gannon and Potter have both resigned from the force, and the latter has been charged with second degree manslaughter.

With this in mind, Brian, who says he is a police officer, places the two guns in their holsters on either side of his hips. The handgun, he says, is “dominant”, while the Taser is “not so dominant”.

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He adds that there is “a huge weight difference” and that he doesn’t understand “how we can mistake a taser for a gun, or a gun for a Taser”.

“If you’re in the heat of the moment, and you do something like that, you shouldn’t be doing this job, ‘cause nobody likes a bad cop more than a good cop. I can tell you that straight up.

“I’m not going to put my life on the line to try and fix your stupidity and deal with restoring the peace with my public that I serve, just because of your stupid actions. It makes no sense,” he said.

Brian then went on to add that 99 percent of a police officer’s job is “communication”.

“You don’t gotta be quick to pull out a gun or a Taser on somebody to think everybody’s a threat. Not everybody’s a threat.

“Try talking to them, get to know them people.”

Wright died from a gunshot wound to the chest, with his death ruled as a homicide by the local medical examiner.