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.



Saturday, October 16, 2010

BREAKING NON-NEWS: Canadian Justice ministers issue national guidelines on Tasers

Yawn... Oh sorry. And in other news, the Justice Ministers are also contemplating taking a stand against cannibalism and ritual sacrifice of virgins.

[Sarcasm off]

Here's what they ACTUALLY agreed to; prepare yourself...

The new guidelines say "where possible" Taser use should be "avoided" on the pregnant, frail and elderly, as well as on children. [LINK]

Score 1 point in the 'No sh_t Einstein' department.

The guidelines add Tasers generally shouldn't be used on people who are already restrained, or who are driving a vehicle, bicycle or snowmobile.

Make that 2 points in the 'No sh_t Einstein' department.

Police officers are also urged to avoid zapping sensitive areas of the body such as the head, throat and genitals.

Chest? Trans-cardiac vectors? Danger of DEATH? Hello? Anybody home?

The new guidelines say police should avoid giving people successive jolts with a conducted energy weapon — the generic term — or zapping them for too long unless a single deployment fails to allow police to gain physical control of the person.

Here is the exact sound-track of a typical taser deployment:

[10:] "CLACK-CLACK Place CLACK-CLACK your CLACK-CLACK hands CLACK-CLACK behind CLACK-CLACK your CLACK-CLACK back." [GOTO 10]

And this evil insanity repeats endlessly, because the officer is so poorly trained that he forgets that a subject being tasered half-to-death isn't going to hand-cuff himself, or 'cooperate' while being tasered. This endless loop Moth+Light taser deployment model is documented in video after video. It's why so many taser deployments go on and on and on and on and on... 31 seconds in the case of Robert Dziekanski. It's pure stupidity by those involved and pure evil by those that allow it.

And it's not going to be stopped by a wishy-washy statement that fails to explain the issue clearly and includes the get-out-of-jail words "should" (instead of "shall"), and "unless". This guideline accomplishes nothing.

As well, police forces should establish a training policy and minimum training requirements for officers authorized to use a Taser, as well as for those who train others.

Get the Taser International connected people away from the training. All trainers must agree with Braidwood, that tasers can occasionally kill, almost randomly, even healthy adults. They must be monitored. Much of the existing training packages is clearly defective, judging by the results.

These so-called new guidelines are the very least they could have done. Major FAIL.

No comments: