Mission Statement - De-Spinning the Pro-Taser Propaganda

Yeah right, 'Excited Delirium' my ass...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

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, April 7, 2009

Call for data (M26 vs. X26)

I smell blood.

Initial (but limited) data seems to indicate a bias in the M26-vs.-X26 real-world Canadian taser-associated death rate.

[See Smoking Gun Number Three [LINK] for links to sources.]


According to CPC, the older (safer?) M26 taser was still the more commonly-deployed (actually used) taser version in the years from 2002 until 2007. By a 3-to-1 ratio.

And yet, reports indicate that all the taser-associated deaths in Canada in the years 2003 and 2004 (where we have data) were associated with the newer (more dangerous?) X26. [LINK]

X26 is reportedly 3 of 3 in 2003. X26 is reportedly 6 of 6 in 2004. Zero for the M26, in spite of it being used (actually deployed) three times more often.


For some reason, the taser model data pretty much dries up starting in 2005. Why?


What needs to happen is that we need to assign 'M26' or 'X26' to all the remaining taser-associated deaths in Canada where such data has not been listed. [LINK]


If this apparent bias towards the X26 can be further buttressed with more data points, then it will be highly revealing and would make for a very interesting year.


If you have data, please send it to the blog e-mail address listed in the right hand column (scroll down quite a bit).

No comments: