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, July 23, 2008

More details emerging about Winnipeg taser death

The victim was just 17 years old.

Many commenters are missing the point: The police were told that the taser is safe. Not that it was safer than a gun (an easy comparison), but 'safer than Tylenol'.

If the police had realized that a deployment of a taser might lead to a death, then they might have considered other options. It is not reasonable to assume that they would have immediately used a gun.

In this case, even if lethal force could be justified, the main issue is that we have a death that appears to be (according to the limited reports) very closely associated with the taser deployment. And Taser will claim that there is no connection.

I think that Taser's position is self-serving and self-evidently perposterous. But that's just my opinion.

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