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.



Wednesday, June 10, 2009

More, many more, defective tasers (80% now?)

British Columbia's Solicitor General Rich Coleman ordered the RCMP in B.C. to yank more than 570 older-model [M-26] Tasers from deployment after 80% [!!!] of identical models used by other law-enforcement agencies failed routine performance tests. The tests showed the $1,500 [junk] were not generating the required amount of sustained output... [LINK]

They're right to pull these defective peices of junk off the street. Taser's idiot spokespuppet once tried to claim that failing low was failing safe. I was one of the first to point out that such "failing safe" claims were utter crap. [LINK] [LINK] [LINK]


But I'd still like to point out that I feel that the X-26 taser is the one that appears to be more-commonly associated with taser-associated deaths. The M-26 taser provides a potentially useful experimental control. [LINK]

Where's the fricken' M-26 vs. X-26 data? [LINK] [LINK]


With a price tag of $1,500 to replace the weapon, and an apparently abysmal life span (three years since purchase) one can't help but wonder - never mind the controversy around its use - how cost-effective the Tasers are to begin with. [ibdi]

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