Taser me baby

Last week, I featured a Winnipeg band called The Consumer Goods, after reading an article in the Winnipeg Free Press about a taser song the band wrote. A member of the band wrote to say (and I couldn’t agree more) that it was a bizarre and tragic irony that the first taser killing in Winnipeg (of young Michael Langan) should happen just days before their record was to be released.

A few hours after I posted the lyrics to their song "Serve and Protect, Uh!" on this website, I received an e-mail from my mom.

Those of you know my mom know what an amazing person she is. She's my rock. My bridge over troubled water. My shelter from the storm. My greatest ally and supporter and best friend. The one who repeats our mantra, "one foot in front of the other," when I need to hear it most.

Over the four years since Bob died, my mom has never wavered in her belief that tasers have no place in a civilized society. She speaks out on the issue with passion and intelligence at every opportunity and makes every possible effort to educate people on the various pieces of this bizarre puzzle.

My mom has also been blessed with a highly developed sense of humour. Ask those who know her and they'll tell you that her quick, sometimes absurd, talent with the written word is the stuff of legend. Over the years, she has written plays, skits, songs and ditties that have had them rolling in the aisles.

So, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that after reading The Consumer Goods song lyrics, my mom was inspired to write a song of her own. I was more than a little blown away when I read it. And we subsequently debated whether or not to use her name here and finally agreed that she absolutely deserves the credit for this. She told me that as she wrote this song, she was thinking about all the other mothers who have lost their children to the taser.

And so, without further ado, the world premier of Riki Bagnell's latest single, "Taser Me Baby."

TASER ME BABY
By Riki Bagnell
(mother of Robert Bagnell, who died in June 2004 after he was tasered by Vancouver Police)

TASER ME BABY IF I'M BLACK OR RED
TASER ME MAN TIL I'M ALMOST DEAD
YOU CAN HIT ME WITH YOUR TASER TIL I FEEL NO PAIN
AND THEN YOU CAN TASER ME AGAIN AND AGAIN

TASER ME BABY IF I'M OVER EIGHTY
DRUGS IN MY SYSTEM OR LOOKIN SHADY
BOYS, GIRLS AND PREGNANT LADIES
WAIT THEIR TURN WHILE YOU GO CRAZY

YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE, BUT IT'S UP TO YOU
TASER INTERNATIONAL OWNS THE BOYS IN BLUE
BUT THAT WALL OF SILENCE IS GOING TO CRUMBLE
CANADIAN CITIZENS ARE STARTING TO GRUMBLE

WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE
TOO MANY BODIES ARE ON THE FLOOR
TASER COMPANY WORRIES ABOUT THEIR STOCKS AND SHARES
WHILE POLICE ARE ARMED WITH PORTABLE ELECTRIC CHAIRS.

SHOCKWELL DAY BETTER WAKE UP SOON
OR ABUSE WITH TASERS WILL BE HIS RUIN
THIS LETHAL DEVICE MAKES COPS INSANE
WE ARE BEING SHOT LIKE DOGS...EVEN LESS HUMANE

I FOR ONE WILL STAND AND FIGHT
FOR A MORATORIUM ON TASERS, TIL THEY GET IT RIGHT
THOUSANDS OF CANADIANS ARE READY TO SIGN
BAN THE TASERS .... ON THE DOTTED LINE.

TASER ME BABY IF I'M A MOTHER OR CHILD
TASER ME REPEATEDLY IF YOU THINK I'M WILD
STUN ME IN THE CHEST, STUN ME IN THE HEAD.....
TASER ME POLICEMAN ...TIL I'M DEAD! DEAD! DEAD!