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.



Sunday, October 24, 2010

Taser International's well-buried legal warnings

While Taser International continues to sing the tasers-R-safe song, and continues to deny that any taser ever played a role in any death, their well-buried legal warnings are singing from a different song sheet.

For years they denied that tasers could affect the heart.

But their legal warning states: "The ECD can produce... changes in... heart rate and rhythm..." [LINK]

"Experts have indentified heart-to-dart distance as being a key determining factor in whether an ECD can affect the heart." AND "When possible avoiding chest shots with ECDs reduces the risk of affecting the heart and avoids the controversy about whether ECDs do or do not affect the human heart." [LINK]

The bold print is new as of 1 May 2010. Last year they baldly claimed that the previous "avoiding chest" warning was strictly about "avoiding controversy", and nothing to do with risk. It is now clearly stated that if you avoid chest shots, you will reduce cardiac dangers.

In other words, tasers can affect the heart.

We shouldn't be surprised that some people die after being tasered. The explanation is provided in these legal warnings from Taser International.

See also [LINK], [LINK] and [LINK].

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