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, February 6, 2010

Excited delirium - see also "Curious Temporal Asymmetry"

... Dr. Joseph Noone, an expert on the clinical aspects of violent behaviour, said excited delirium is a term favoured by law enforcement officials and coroners even though it is not accepted as a medical or psychiatric diagnosis. ...

Noone, manager of psychiatric intensive care at the Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, B.C., produced a report for the inquiry that states use of the term excited delirium when describing cause of death can result in the deceased being labeled as the culprit.

"The attractiveness of the term may relate to some of its proponents having ... the subjective perception that conducted energy weapon use and physical, mechanical restraint used by law enforcement officers deserves to be excluded or absolved as contributing in any way to an in-custody death," the report says.

"The deceased is identified as the culprit and must have had the condition of excited delirium."

Noone testified the term implies those in the throes of excited delirium "had something wrong with them" to begin with. "And if they died, they were going to die anyway..."

"Excited delirium (proponents) say that people walk around in this state where they could drop at any moment. In my experience, they are not dropping at any moment."

... [LINK]

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