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.



Sunday, November 9, 2008

Science and skepticism vs. faith and certainty

Taser and their fan-boys like to wrap themselves in the cloak of science. But their utter and apparently unshakable certainty in the safety of tasers, in the face of growing circumstantial evidence to the contrary, reveals that they are operating on faith, not science.

Their position is probably growing from a legal necessity. They're not curious about each taser-associated death. Just eager to make each one legally go away.

Oh look, drugs. Perfect - issue a press release...

The National Institute of Justice acknowledged, "Many gaps remain in the body of knowledge of CEDs [tasers]... A significant number of individuals have died after exposure to a CED." [LINK] Hardly a firm endorsement of the state of the knowledge regarding portable electrocution devices.

There are some persons holding scientific credentials (and often also holding TASR stocks and or options) that believe that tasers are essentially perfectly safe. But there are other persons holding equally valid scientific credentials that believe that tasers are not as safe as claimed.

Both sides have studies to support their positions. It has become a battle of so-called studies. But many of the studies are rubbish and obviously designed to prove the premise. Meanwhile the evidence from the street continues to pile up and is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Some incidents are so clear-cut that they defy whitewashing.

My rule-of-thumb is as follows: The real scientists reveal themselves by their perpetual skepticism. They're never quite certain of anything. They're most often correct.

Science? No place for faith and certainty.

Yours truly,

A confirmed skeptic.

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