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, November 21, 2008

Exactly what "...lingers in the body..." ?

Here is another crystal-clear example of the sort of subtle word-smithing that is commonly used by Taser and its cohorts. This example is from Australia.


Taser Inc USA is the only supplier of Tasers in Australasia. The company's local director, George Hateley, said '...it is impossible for the electrical impulses generated by a taser to linger in the body.' [LINK]


This was in response to: The New South Wales ombudsman is calling on the State Government to halt a further rollout of tasers to NSW Police, saying there has not been enough evaluation of their effectiveness and risks. [LINK]


I agree about the electrical impulses, because it is a very stupid straw man argument (wiki).

Nobody (that knows anything) is claiming that the taser's electrical impulses themselves "linger" in the victim's body for hours or days. But it seems clear that perhaps the effects of the taser do sometimes "linger" beyond the moment of deployment.

This blog previously reported on the case of two ham radio operators that were electrocuted when their tower contacted a powerline. One died almost instantly; the other died much later. And this temporal divergence happened from the exact same electrocution incident at the exact same instant. [LINK]

See also arythmia [LINK]

Even the National Institute of Justice has acknowledged that there remain many unknowns with regard to the so-called 'science' (sic) of tasers. [Indirect links via HERE]

Hateley's statement in defence of tasers is therefore obviously completely idiotic no matter how you look at it.


PS: For those that haven't been paying attention, the word "linger" used in this context is practically a trademark of Taser. Other Taser spokespuppets have read from the same song sheet previously.

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