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.



Friday, May 28, 2010

Pittsburgh City Council approves $155K Taser-abuse settlement

Pittsburgh City Council has approved paying a nice six-figure settlement of $155,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by 53-year-old Daniel Hackett III, of Mount Lebanon. Mr. Hackett exercised his theoretical freedom of speech and criticized a city officer after getting a ticket for not using his turn signal on March 15, 2008. He complained that he saw someone run a red light and another man urinating in public, offering his opinion that the police should ticket people like that instead. For his trouble (and/or other reasons), he was taser-tortured and handcuffed, and charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Reportedly none of these classic cover-charges stuck (variously reported as being dropped or acquitted). Mayor Luke Ravenstahl expressed that he was frustrated by "the increasing trend of firefighters and police officers being involved in unacceptable incidents." [LINK][LINK]

A six-figure settlement for a reportedly non-injurious taser-abuse incident. Nice.

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