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.



Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Epileptic teenager tasered 12 times (July 07)

Corinth City, TX (July 18th, 2007) - Blake Dwyer, then age 16, suffers an epileptic seizure. Police arrive and use taser in 'Drive Mode' at least twelve times. Official reports claim they only used it twice (as if even that would be acceptable), but the matching taser burn marks on Dwyer's body, and the taser's electronic records indicate twelve to fifteen cycles. Corinth city attorney [and full-time jerk] Michael Bucek said, “The only thing I can say is that we believe this is a frivolous lawsuit with no merit.” No lawsuit has been filed (yet). [LINK]

Since there is little indication that the facts are in dispute, except that the official records appear to have been falsified (that will not look good in court), this seems like it would be a very easy case to take all the way to a huge settlement.

And the settlement should be itemized (for example):
  1. Illegal and unnecessary taser deployment $40,000 each times 12 = $480k
  2. Trying to lie about it, false reports, being a jerk: $250k
  3. Non-disclosure agreement: $20k per year (20 years = $400k)
  4. Legal expenses: ~$120k++
~$1.25 million ++ seems perfectly reasonable.

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