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.



Friday, October 9, 2009

One taser deployment costs $137,000

Another Thursday, another six-figure taser abuse settlement.

The Spokesman-Review, October 8, 2009 [LINK]

A Spokane County reserve fund will pay some $112,000 to Spirit Creager who was shocked three times with a Taser by Deputy Chad Ruff during a traffic stop in 2005. ... The county's risk management reserve fund will also pay $25,000 to Creager's teenage son who witnessed the... electro-torture. (h/t to It All Goes Here blog: [LINK])


Reading the entire story reveals that this was one of those incidents that would fit squarely into what some would promote as normal taser usage. It was certainly abusive, but not one of those incidents where it is obviously sadistic torture.

On a scale of 1-to-10, this incident was perhaps about a 6 (a guess based on limited information).


Decision makers and political leaders should take note. You either update your taser use policies, or be prepared to issue settlement checks that are now firmly in the six-figure range.

And with the half-decade latency of such proceedings (this incident happened in 2005), the trend from five-figures to six-figures can be expected to continue towards seven-figures.

You have a brain - use it.

No comments: