Amazing what $375 an hour, or $3,000 a day, will buy

In the murder trial of former BART (yeah, those idiots again...) police Officer Johannes Mehserle, I've not had a particular opinion about if Mehserle is a cold-blooded murderer (as prosecutors allege), or a bumbling man-slaughtering idiot (as he claims as his defense).

What's not in debate is the fact that BART-for-brains Officer Johannes Mehserle shot-to-death Oscar Grant, 22, an unarmed black man laying prone on the platform, in the back with his .40-caliber handgun, on New Year's Day 2009. Mehserle's defense is that he intended to shoot Grant in the back with a taser, ah, because..., ah, because...

The logic trails away at this point as so often happens when tasers are involved.


The defense team has hired Greg Meyer [LINK], a retired Los Angeles police captain and huge fan-boy of tasers.

Meyer is paid $375 an hour for his work and $3,000 a day for court appearances. [LINK]. Worth every penny, I'm sure...

Meyer writes a column, sponsored by Taser International (Even still? I'm not sure, and I don't really care...), that - perhaps unsurprisingly - is extremely uncritical of Taser International (apparently, no matter what), and anything else related to tasers.


Greg Meyer has been found on the wrong side of facts and history before:

1) Meyer parroted the outrageous claim that "...you won't find..." any studies critical of taser safety [LINK]. I contacted Meyer by e-mail and I included references to a small sample of four such studies, just to provide evidence that his claim was demonstrably incorrect. So what did he do at that point? Admit that he was wrong? No. Prompted by my e-mail, Capt Meyer called up his friend, Taser International's very own Mark Kroll, and updated his article with a Kroll-quote (i.e. rubbish) without ever admitting that he was caught in a demonstrably-false claim. This is outrageous behavior.

2) The above calling-home-to-Mommy sequence, combined with the sponsorship deal, also appears to indicate that Meyer is essentially a mouthpiece for Taser International. Also as indicated here [LINK].

3) Meyer tried to justify using tasers against acutely agitated individuals. [LINK] This position has now, even-more-clearly for those that didn't see it coming, been shown to be incorrect. [LINK] Even the RCMP has been forced to acknowledge this now-widely-accepted fact. [LINK] Meyer's (Taser International's) claim has been shown to be wrong. I'm not aware that Mayer has ever modified his position in the face of clear evidence.

These are all documented facts (follow the links). I've got nothing against Meyer. I'm sure he is a fine individual. I only know him from his active involvement in the taser debate. But there's money changing hands, and he is an uncritical cheerleader for all-things-taser. He should choose his friends more carefully.