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.



Friday, August 15, 2008

Victoria's Chief will not be attending conference

14 August 2008 - The mayor of Victoria, BC [hometown of Taser's Canadian distributor, not that there's anything wrong with that] announced the immediate resignation of embattled Victoria police chief Paul Battershill under mysterious circumstances. [LINK] [LINK]

"The disciplinary hearing set for August 18 [2008] will no longer proceed due to the resignation of Battershill..."

The last-minute timing of this resignation can perhaps be most-simply explained by the fact that Battershill has been on paid administrative leave since last October (practically indistinguishable from a 10-month fully paid vacation), while making an annual salary of $167,000. Nice work if you can get it.

Battershill was involved in several reviews and reports regarding tasers (but there may be no further connection). Of course, the findings in those Taser Reports should be heavily discounted if those involved in its creation are not consistently demonstrating the highest ethical standards.

Further details of the alleged misbehaviour are being withheld. I expect that the details will be forced out into the public view in due course. Secrecy regarding possible police misbeviour is not officially sanctioned in Canada, no matter what sort of confidentiality agreements may have been made with the perhaps-guilty party.

Weird.

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