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.



Tuesday, August 26, 2008

DRDC pulls plug on non peer reviewed CPRC taser "study"

This is a huge slap up-side-the-head for CPRC.


A much-anticipated interim report on the use of tasers in law enforcement that was to be presented Monday afternoon at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) in Montreal has been canceled.

The Canadian Police Research Centre (CPRC) was commissioned by the CACP to conduct a review of tasers and their misuse. Steve Palmer, Executive Director of the CPRC, was expected to present an interim briefing to the CACP on Monday afternoon. However, over the weekend, officials decided to cancel the briefing.

The CPRC operates under the banner of Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), a special operating agency of the Ministry of National Defence. "It was decided it would be more valuable to have the study stand up to the rigours of peer review before being released," said a spokesperson for DRDC.

From The [Montreal] Gazette (26 August 2008) [LINK]


Peer Review? Do we need Peer Review?


The CPRC has had their chain yanked by the (real) scientists at DRDC. CPRC will now have a very difficult time slipping any psuedo-science crap past these hardened, seen-it-all DRDC scientists. And it is extremely likely that these scientist reviewers will be very aware of the controversial issues surrounding tasers.

I expect that they'll go through an entire box of red pens marking up the interim report.

The final report is likely to be delayed, significantly thinner, and much less confident in the support for Taser's claims of safety.

Well done DRDC.

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