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.



Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Fear of needles...

The law enforcement community often use their purported fear of dirty ("...possibly HIV-infected!") needles as some sort of justification for their taser trigger-happy approach to dealing with the public.

But these same police, during their idiotic taser-training, are all too happy to have two taser darts fired into their back (always the back), fully puncturing the skin after passing through their dirty old T-shirt, and removed by their marginally-trained co-trainees.

Question: Are these taser darts properly sterilized after having been sneezed and coughed upon by Taser International's assembly staff?

Since the completed cartridge apparently contains a highly-pressurized canister of nitrogen, I wonder if it is even possible to cycle the completed cartridge through an approved medical sterilization autoclave.

I wonder if the dart section of the cartridge assembly is even completely sealed to FDA standards for medical needles?

It seems like a bit of a contradiction to profess a fear of needles, and then subject yourself to two needles (darts) during the moronic taser training.


Hey - I'm just asking questions. If Taser International or anyone else cares to provide a response to this possible issue, then I'll be more than happy to copy it into this post. Blog e-mail address in found near the top of the right hand column.

3 comments:

Critical Mass said...

Taser Int. has special "training" cartridges which do not fire barbs. They simply tape the two wires wherever they please. The legs are commonly used.

As I have said, these "training" cartridges have never been tested to see what the electrical properties of the "shocks" are. They could be "special" in more ways than we know, and could account for the low rate of "training" incidents and lack of training fatalities.

As to the "percussive gun powder charge" releasing the gas from the small gas container, I supplied a diagram of the fairly large "puncture" set-up in paint ball guns, in an earlier comment. There is no room for a spring-loaded, mechanical puncturing mechanism in the small taser cartridge. It almost certainly has to be a small explosive cap with an electrical ignition source.

Excited-Delirium.com said...

Maybe you're right. Here's the only evidence I've found on the topic of tasers using explosive charge:

"The C2 cartridge is detonated by a static charge igniting a primer which pushes a tiny nitrogen filled canister against a point that punctures it."

It says "igniting a primer".

It's very likely that the X26 uses the same approach.

Keep digging for more info.

Thanks for your contributions.

Excited-Delirium.com said...

As for the training cartridge, if they are ever found to be lower output than the regular catridge, Taser executives will be drawn and quartered (so to speak) by the legal system.

But that might be a bit too much to expect.

They're probably just the cartridge body with suitable wires attached.

But it's well worth confirming.