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, December 22, 2009

Calgary police highlight "textbook" taser deployment - the inherent irony escapes them

Canwest News (22 Dec 2009) - Calgary Police are crediting the use of the Taser for the peaceful resolution of a chaotic and potentially deadly incident. "Clearly, here is a textbook example of why our officers have these tools. You've got an individual who's agitated and not listening to the officer's demands, engaged in extremely violent behaviour," said Staff Sgt. Chris Butler, the service's use-of-force expert. "Serious assaults had occurred, he was acting extremely irrationally. Other than use of lethal force, the most appropriate device was used to take this guy into custody." [LINK]


I agree that this incident is newsworthy - primarily because it is so relatively rare. The vast majority of taser deployments replace lower forms of lawful force (they’re used roughly a hundred times more often than lethal force).

When one incident like this actually matches the original justification for tasers, it is such a relatively rare event that even the pro-taser folks feel it is newsworthy.

But they fail to note the inherent irony that this type of "successful taser incident" is sufficiently rare that they feel the need to trumpet it.

If only – OH IF ONLY – taser deployments were restricted to these sorts of incidents, then they could avoid much of the controversy.

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