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.



Thursday, December 31, 2009

When updating your Taser Use Policy, don't miss this detail...

Carlsbad's Taser Use Policy says that "the officer should only choose a Taser if other options won't be effective or will present a greater danger to the officer or the subject..." [LINK]

Highlighted above is a discrapancy that should be explicitly and prominently addressed.

Taser International, in one of the many examples where their opinions differ from the final consensus, has claimed that the taser is less dangerous than other forms of force. They make this insane conclusion by neglecting the puncture wounds and burns entirely, ignoring the mental trauma caused by the torture, and explain away any resulting deaths as being just a coincidence. And yes, by this insanity, tasers are nearly harmless - provided the subject doesn't crack his head open and die.

Problem is this. The 9th clearly and explicitly stated that tasers are "a greater intrusion than any other" less-lethal weapon they have ever encountered.

So if your department's training is traceable back to Taser International, then all the trainees will be under the erroneous impression that tasers are a safer (and thus lower) form of force.

Court disagrees.

"The physiological effects, the high levels of pain, and foreseeable risk of physical injury lead us to conclude that [tasers] are a greater intrusion than other non-lethal methods of force we have confronted," Wardlaw wrote.

Fix your policies.

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