2003 - Taser's letter to Brattleboro

An old letter from Taser's spokespuppet Tuttle to the Brattleboro Reformer.

Here are some extracts from the letter:

February 21, 2003

Dear Editor,

I was stunned to see the Brattleboro Reformer's editorial piece by Thom Namaya entitled, "Proceed with Caution" concerning the use of ADVANCED TASER M26s in Brattleboro. ... As the Director of Government Affairs for TASER International, Inc. ...

I have never seen the U.S. Department of Justice report that Mr. Namaya cites that TASERs cause blunt trauma and electrical insult that could lead to death. That's interesting in that the probes from a M26 hit with very little kinetic energy. He cites the report places the impact level equal to the impact of a baseball. The weight of a baseball is 148 grams and is nine inches in circumference. The weight of the one inch long M26 probe is 1.58 grams with a circumference of .23 inches. Although firing at the about the same speed, the weights of the probes versus a baseball are non-comparable. The baseball strikes with 70 times more energy than a M26 probe. The M26 probes have never caused any long-term damage to date in its 40,000 plus uses.

[See update at bottom of post.]

As for electrical output causing death, our M26 output of 0.162 amps is less 1/100th the dangerous level of electrical energy for cardiac tissue. ...

Mr. Namaya states he tried to facilitate training for Brattleboro regarding the de-escalation of crisis situations regarding the emotionally disturbed persons (EDPs) based upon his experience at an inpatient veteran's psychiatric facility. Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) across America from the police departments of Albuquerque, Akron and Minneapolis to Maryland's Montgomery County Sheriff's Officer taut the M26 as one of the better tools in their tool chest to deal with the emotionally disturbed persons (EDPs). CITs attempt to de-escalate as much as possible the amount of violence that law enforcement confronts with violent EDPs. ...

Sincerely,
Stephen Tuttle
Director of Government Affairs


The whole letter is tedious and rife with propaganda: [LINK]

First, note that Mr. Tuttle clearly states that the M26 current is 0.162 amperes. That's 162 milliamperes. For those that are familiar with electrical safety standards, you'll be laughing at his inane claim that this "...is less 1/100th the dangerous level..."

(So is 16.2 Amps is starting to get dangerous - do ya think? What a moron...)

Secondly, about those barbs... ...follow the link [LINK] (see image below).

Finally, the town name Brattleboro caught my eye. I assume that's the same town that really should have taken Mr. Mamaya's advice. They've been busy since then tasering the innocent, tasering peaceful protesters, and making out settlement checks.


Update 22 Feb 2009: This image is from 2006, so Tuttle and Taser wouldn't have known about this risk of darts entering heads because they obviously don't waste much time writing risk analysis reports that are worth anything.