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.



Thursday, May 1, 2008

"Tasering could affect heartbeat..."

"Canadian researchers are reporting that research suggests stun gun discharges are able to stimulate heart muscle under certain circumstances."[LINK]

Yeah, is that surprising?

"The researchers from the University of Toronto and two Toronto hospitals found that the positioning of the barbs, which transmit the electrical impulses from the device, played a key role. Placing them across the chest, nearest the heart, simulated 'the worst-case scenario of creating a current vector that directly passes through the heart,' the researchers reported.
If the barbs were placed away from the chest and across the abdomen, none of the 56 test discharges stimulated the heart, 'suggesting that the location of the barbs had a crucial influence on stimulating the heart'. "


Taser will protest that the study is not valid for this and that reason. Blah blah blah.

I would like to point out that this study supports my conclusion that the vast majority of Taser's "600,000 safe demonstrations" (or whatever), rarely if ever applied across the chest, are basically FAKE and serve no purpose except to wash-out the denominator of their statistics.

See The 2008 Taser Challenge - [LINK]

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