2007 - six taser-associated deaths in Canada [LINK] (Barber, Castagnetta, Dziekanski, Registre, Hyde, Knipstrom)
2008 - six taser-associated deaths in Canada (Marreel, Langan, Reilly, Frachette, Grimolfson, Bowe)
2009 (7 months) - just one taser-associated death in Canada (Prentice)
That's a fairly sharp drop-off. Caused directly by the public's outrage [LINK] and the policing community's painfully slow realization that they've been sold a bill-of-good on taser safety (*).
(* Safety - with respect to internal cardiac or similar effects that carry a risk of death. We're not here to discuss twisted fingers and sprained ankles. [LINK])
Although there are some alternate explanations on offer, they won't stand-up to skeptical scrutiny. The plain and simple explanation is that tasers can cause death, especially when deployed against acutely agitated individuals.
Is anyone willing to provide the M26 vs. X26 taser model death rate? It would be very strange if the "excited delirium" virus (or similar nonsensical excuses) show a statistically significant bias for one particular model of taser (X26) versus another (M26). I don't have access to complete data (because it's being kept very close to the chest), but the limited data that is available seems to show that the taser-associated deaths are more commonly involving the X26, even during those periods when the M26 was actually being deployed more often. [LINK]
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