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.



Saturday, February 16, 2008

Short & sweet summary

With all the bamboozling propaganda from Taser Inc, it's no wonder that people get confused. Let's go through the basics in point form.

1) The X26 taser waveform at 19 Hz is about 100x more dangerous than the older M26 taser waveform at 50,000 Hz. Low frequencies are more dangerous than high frequencies. This 100x ratio is quoted from Taser - they admit it. That's why the safety issue is coming to the fore since the X26 was introduced in 2003.

(Update: The peak current of the X26 is about 5x less than the M26, but this still leaves the X26 as being 20x as dangerous. And the only safety factor I've ever heard them mention is 15:1, and I believe that was calculated with the M26 taser. So if you take 15:1 and drop it by 20x, then what's left? Hey! I'm just asking...)

2) The high deployment rate of tasers compared to historical rate of police shootings indicates misuse occurs at 20-200x legit use (varies by jurisdiction).

3) Pain compliance using 'severe pain' (like a taser, as opposed to traditional and accepted methods like a wrist lock) legally constitutes 'torture' in most jurisdictions.

The combination of these factors means that tasers are far more of a problem than a solution.

Read that again to make sure you get it.

And just because you are a law-abiding citizen, please don't be so ill-informed as to think that you're not at risk of being tasered (possibly even tasered to death if your luck is poor).

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