I think the point is, you don't trust judges. Their decisions are open to appeal - and if they're found to be contrary to the law, they're regularly overturned.

I think the point is, you don't trust judges. Their decisions are open to appeal - and if they're found to be contrary to the law, they're regularly overturned. The problem is more with non-lethal weapons. If you don't really heavily regulate them, they're obviously going to be used to torture people into compliance, because that's what they are for. A taser electrocutes somebody until they cannot resist. Pepper spray causes so much pain people stop doing whatever they are doing. There's simply a very subtle distinction between using a torture device to stop somebody from doing something dangerous to themselves or others, and using it to stop them from doing something that's simply problematic or against the law. Non-lethal weapons ask their users to make these distinctions every day, in stressful situations. If the job in general blurs the line, then you can expect their decisions to be equally blurry.