Mission Statement - De-Spinning the Pro-Taser Propaganda

Yeah right, 'Excited Delirium' my ass...

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The primary purpose of this blog is to provide an outlet for my observations and analysis about tasers, taser "associated" deaths, and the behaviour exhibited by the management, employees and minions of Taser International. In general, everything is linked back to external sources, often via previous posts on the same topic, so that readers can fact-check to their heart's content. This blog was started in late-2007 when Canadians were enraged by the taser death of Robert Dziekanski and four others in a short three month period. The cocky attitude exhibited by the Taser International spokespuppet, and his preposterous proposal that Mr. Dziekanski coincidentally died of "excited delirium" at the time of his taser-death, led me to choose the blog name I did and provides my motivation. I have zero financial ties to this issue.



Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Frequency Components

One of things that I've read is that Taser is claiming (in connection with the Ruggieri Report) that the frequency components of the taser waveform (being very high) tend to protect the victim's heart.

Well, I'm sorry to be disagreeable, but here is some basic information:

1) Although I have not done any measurements myself, it seems likely that the waveform contains a significant DC component (at 0Hz).
2) If the pulse repeats at 19 pulses per second, then there is a normally-significant fundamental component at 19Hz.
3) The wave shape simply sets the harmonics.

So if they're claiming a 100:1 increase in the safety factor because of this high frequency factor, and if they're wrong in the manner described above, and if the design safety factor is 15:1 (as I've seen mentioned elsewhere), then that 15:1 safety factor disappears due to this apparent 100:1 design error.

Oops.

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