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.



Monday, April 13, 2009

Another example of 'failing-safe'...

Folsom, California - Reports of a man locked who was hallucinating and had locked himself in a bedroom. When officers arrived they found the man holding a knife. He was ordered to drop the knife. The man then reportedly approached officers in a threatening manner. Police shocked the man with a Taser stun gun twice, with no effect. Officers then fatally shot the man. [LINK]

Considering that there might be other old-school approaches that would perhaps have had a better outcome, one must ask if it is really wise to rush in with a taser.

Escalation explicitly chosen over de-escalation; based on promises made, but not kept.

There are perfectly reasonable arguments that would assign at least partial blame for this death on the failure of the taser (whether it was yet-another equipment failure, or its inherent operational limitations).

1 comment:

av said...

I would like to draw your attention to my own article relating to the introduction of Taser in the Netherlands. It can be found at: http://europeanfreepress.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-dutch-are-won-taser-and-wandering.html.
Kind regards!