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.



Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Mind the gap...

What gap?

The gap between what certified members of The Church of Taser seem to believe is normal and accepted practice for Taser Use, and what most members of civil society believe would be the lowest possible justification for use of a weapon that carries unpredictable risk-of-DEATH and obvious electro-torture implications.

What am I going on about?

In Canada it was the Dziekanski video. That video clearly demonstrated that what those police thought was an ideal application for a taser, was considered repulsive and evil by the majority of those that viewed it.

In Australia, the public reaction to the video of Kevin Spratt being taser-tortured and the WA Police Union actually defending the act of torture defines a gap between civilized humanity and those that are either evil or brainwashed.

What's the outcome of such a gap?

The adults have to explicitly step in and define rational (moral, ethical, legal, non-torture) policy.

...

Tasers become a 'last resort'
[LINK]
The NSW government has bowed to pressure from the state Ombudsman to make Tasers a weapon of last resort. The move follows a series of controversial uses of the stun guns. ...

The changes in Taser operating procedures within the NSW police come amid a national debate about the use of the weapon by police forces, brought to the fore by an incident in Western Australia in which police tasered an unthreatening man 13 times.

Mr Barbour said standard operating procedures for Tasers were left too open to interpretation and the discretion of individual officers. In the annual report he called for them to be upgraded, to make clear that stun guns should only be used in situations where a person is violently confronting or resisting police.

Mr Barbour made the same recommendations in his 2008 report to parliament, The Use of Tasers in the NSW Police Force, but police so far "refused to do this".

But six hours after the annual report was released yesterday, Police Minister Michael Daley and Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione issued a joint statement saying the procedures would be tightened.

"This amendment will simply leave no doubt in (officers') minds that Tasers are to be used as a last resort and that they are no substitution for using negotiation and conflict-resolution skills," Mr Daley said.

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