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.



Saturday, August 22, 2009

"harm" = sprained wrist, or painful death?

...The true controversy with the Tasers is whether to provide an instrument that some officers may use as a violent method of persuasion. However, in a situation where force is needed, a Taser will incur less harm to officers and "resisting subjects." Kit Collins, Averill Park [LINK]

WRONG.

The only way that anyone can hold such an opinion is if they are still under misconceptions about the possible level of harm that attend use of tasers. In other words, one would have exclude consideration of the risk of death, or weight such a risk at zero, or be fooled by the latest insane muddle of lumping deaths in with injuries.

My moral code indicates that death is many, many times worse than injury. As such, it needs to be considered as a separate parameter in any moral, basic justice, or karma accounting.

Collins' use of the word "harm" is very much like Taser International's use of the phrase 'deathandinjuries'. In both cases there is a distinct lack of specificity that leads to muddled thinking and defective arguments.

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