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.



Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Repost: Instant Cure for 'Tasers-R-Safe' Brainwashing

From 26 July 2009 [LINK].

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Instant Cure for Tasers-R-Safe Brainwashing:

See the Taser's Curious Temporal Asymmetry [LINK]

[Explained yet again below with alternate wording in case it helps...]

If taser use has zero cause-and-effect relationship to the many hundreds of taser-associated deaths, then one would expect to see a constant rate of death-per-unit time by "excited delirium", or via the subject's "pre-existing medical conditions", or by whatever pathetic excuse they dream up, during the entire temporal sequence of all taser-associated death incidents.

I mean both before and after the actual taser hit. The period BEFORE the taser hit provides a built-in experimental control. And there seems to be at least as much BEFORE time as AFTER, possibly much more.

There should be many hundreds, or even thousands, of police reports where the taser was drawn from the holster (thereby triggering a written taser incident report in many jurisdictions), but the subject fell over stone cold dead in the time just BEFORE the taser was fired.

Or the police incident reports (if not 'taser-incident' reports) specifically mentioning the inexplicable sudden death ~and~ the ALMOST-fired taser.

Or the inexplicable sudden death incidents where the taser completely missed the subject, but the subject fell over dead right anyway - at that time - in spite of the taser MISS.


If you share the worldview of Taser International, then you should believe that there are vast numbers of such almost-tasered but died anyway incidents.

Where are they?


Furthermore, if you believe the worldview of Taser International, then the death rate per unit time should plunge after application of the taser. After all, it stops the 'badness' and is 'perfectly safe', thus there should be a sharp downward step-function in the death rate per unit time comparing the minutes AFTER to the minutes BEFORE the taser hits.

Do you think that is true? Show me.

By any accounting, there should be many hundreds, probably thousands with complete accounting, of such incidents where the subject died during a 'taser-drawn-from-holster' incident, but BEFORE the taser hit the subject.

I believe that this is the end of the line for Taser International's claims of zero cause and effect.

Plaintiffs' lawyers paying attention?

Hurry up. We have a company to bankrupt.



Basically Taser International is technical "correct" in their claims.

Given the inherent lack of physical evidence that could be found postmortem when dealing with a device that might be capable of triggering death via arrhythmia, then it may be impossible to use deductive reasoning to prove that any particular taser-associated death was "directly caused" by the taser.

But it ignores the larger picture. If you take a big step back, and look at the endlessly-repeated sequence of tasered-then-dead that occurs over and over and over again, then one can observe the taser's Curious Temporal Asymmetry. This observation, based just on the news reports and the lack of rebuttal from Taser International, appears to be completely inexplicable given their worldview.

But if one applies inductive reasoning, given the many hundreds of news reports of tasered-then-dead incidents, combined with the apparent lack of people falling over dead at the mere sight of a drawn taser, then the conclusion that tasers can "cause death", "even in healthy adults", and "through a variety of mechanisms" is well supported by simple inductive logic.


It'll be pretty tough to maintain that tasers-R-safe given the simple observation of the taser's Curious Temporal Asymmetry.


Braidwood, p. 322: "I am satisfied that these weapons [tasers] have the capacity to cause death to a human subject, through a variety of mechanisms."

Braidwood, p. 229: "...to cause heart arrhythmia even in healthy adults..." [Left untreated, as is often the case, arrhythmia typically leads to death.]


PS: If Taser International has a rebuttal, they have my e-mail address (right-hand column). Or they can post a comment to the blog. If their rebuttal makes sense then I'll be happy to broadcast it and I will explicitly acknowledge their point. But their rebuttal will be examined closely and if it contains logical errors, then I'll tear it to shreds publicly.

I'll take their continuing silence as a passive admission that the taser's Curious Temporal Asymmetry is a completely devastating observation.

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