Pixiq

As you may have heard, Taser International has launched a lawsuit to appeal the Braidwood Inquiry’s conclusion that tasers can cause death.

And their bought and paid-for (“sponsored”) fanboy is madly spinning the AMA report, trying to explain away their conclusion that taser can cause death.

I wonder where are the deaths from “excited delirium” that should also be occuring just BEFORE the taser is fired. There should be hundreds, possibly thousands, of taser incident reports where it reads, “Taser drawn and displayed. Taser not fired as subject dropped dead just before firing. Subject died of apparent excited delirium.”

Google the taser’s “Curious Temporal Asymmetry” for more details of this strange and “inexplicable” observation.

If you want to read a detailed response to this anti-taser hysteria, check out this posting:

http://www.policeone.com/police-products/less-lethal/TASER/articles/1865...

Sorry for the double post but I forgot to add:

The most interesting thing to me is that the author points out that by Amnesty International’s own figures, in-custody deaths have not increased significantly over the last few years even though taser use has risen sharply. This alone makes the “Taser kills” argument look weak. The author also points out other trendy hot-button police practices that anti-police types targeted as being sooo deadly and makes the point that the taser is simply the naughty police practice of the day. If the taser went away tomorrow, there would be something else singled out as needing to be taken away from the cops.

As far as tasers being adopted as a substitute for guns, that is very wrong. All departments that I know of teach their officers not to use a taser in a deadly force situation. Instead they need to go to the gun. A taser is great but you don’t want to risk your life on it when someone is coming at you with a knife or a baseball bat, much less pulling a gun on you. It often misfires and some people can fight through it.

Okay, I’m done. Proceed with the normal behavior of calling all cops cowards, bullies, pussies, and facists now.

Nobody said “all”.

On my blog I have REPEATEDLY stated that most police are nice. But I do have an issue with the Blie Brotherhood of Silence.

Johnny,

How many people have you Tased?

@Johnny #2,

That entire piece is irrelevant: It’s *sponsored* by Taser Int’l. C’mon, how can a company who makes millions of dollars a year on Tasers sponsor a piece on the dangers of Tasers — be considered objective?

Four.

All four of them came out of it without any problems. I’ve been on the scene of other tasings and never saw any health problems from them either.

However before we were issued tasers, I remember one guy who robbed a store. Officers had to physically get him under control and it took a long time. Once they got him in cuffs, he stopped moving and died. No strikes were applied and there was no OC spray used.

He. Just. Died.

The autopsy showed cocaine in his system. That just shows that custody deaths happen with or without the taser if the circumstances are right.

I think common sense needs to be used such as not tasing an elderly person, pregnant person or someone you know has heart problems but very often the cop has little information at the time of the incident and all the critics have the luxury of hindsight.

In response to Jay-the only studies that have shown the taser to be dangerous have been done by such “objective” organizations such as Amnesty and the ACLU. No relevant medical review has ruled the tasers as too dangerous.

Personally I hope the taser stays around because it is a great tool to reduce officer injuries. However if it ever does get banned to to political pressure, police will keep doing their jobs.

Just be aware that there will always be custody deaths due to drug use and excited delirium. I am curious to see what tactic will be blamed next.

“Personally I hope the taser stays around because it is a great tool to reduce officer injuries.”

It’s all about officer safety for cops. Of course, the most effective tool in increasing officer safety would be legalizing drugs, but they’re steadfast against that because the second most important thing to cops is their pension and without funding from the Drug War their pensions and the very lucrative nature of their careers would be threatened.

Jonnny,

How many of those murdered by tasers would not have dropped dead on that day, had the police not committed aggravated assault? My bet is none. Even if they were hopped up on goofballs.

No report or statistic can even begin to make me think tasers are not dangerous and also kill. You really seem to need a good tazing. Just for your own pleasure.

Oh, btw, you are being thanked by my lazy sister-in-law. She appreciates your opinion and eagerness to provide her social housing. Keep paying and obeying so she doesn’t have to work ok? She doesn’t understand it that way and I prefer she get a job but she says you are going to pay for her next baby also. Not much hope with her ya know. You two should get together.

@Johnny,

Here’s one.
http://www.acep.org/acepmembership.aspx?id=31832

And look, if it makes cops safer to do their jobs, great, really. But the public should be safe as well. My issue is that many cops think of a Taser as a “without risk weapon” and use it immediately instead of trying to use social skills to diffuse a situation. If it’s not a bang-bang (sorry) decision, the cop should ask “Can I do this differently?” before, what in my view, has become lazy police work.

And if a suspect is pointing a gun or knife and/or an officer or person is in harm’s way, go ahead.

But, don’t tase a person for non-violent non-compliance…or if a person dared talkback to or question a cop.

Well said Jay.

I actually agree with you Jay. I think that officers should not immediately jump to the taser or any other type of force if they can talk a person into cuffs. However I do think that it is okay for an officer to use the taser if it looks like they will have to go hands on with a person.

If you tell a person to put his hands behind his back multiple times and he just won’t listen, I don’t see why we need to get into a fistfight and risk getting injured. If the officer makes it clear what the consequences are and the suspect still refuses, then I’m good with it.

When will ‘waffling’ be recognized as a form of institutionalized torture? Steel grid cruiser partitions are illegal and deadly. Cops, rendered unconscious in rear-end collisions remain in burning vehicles and get incinerated. Cops also slam on the brakes to slice checkerboard patterns into their suspects’ faces.
Why do I care? I build a less costly, safer, legal partition. The profound disinterest of the law enforcement community is heartbreaking for me.

How many people have you Tased?

Carlos

And this has what to do with photographer’s rights?

Have you lost your mandate?

Mandate? From whom? He has no “mandate.”

This blog is his; he’s publishing on his one and not at the discretion of an editor. He can write about whatever he wants.

Er, that should read “on his own.”

Have you heard that tasers do not kill? Straight from some Police Department(paid staff) Coroners :
” Some people have pre-existing conditions and then an ‘unforseeable allergic reaction’ to being tased…” (sic)
‘It’s not death by tazer..just like there is no torture…. only enhanced technics.. we are so in 1984… doublethink and speak is everywhere.

I would trust a study on safety and reliablity by someone selling the same as much as I would trust any other greed driven company. NADA- but I guess that fantasy allows some people to sleep at night.

Now there are these interpretations of ‘ laws ‘ that makes breathing in the wrong direction an ‘attempt at failure to comply’ or ‘suspected attempt of obstruction’, kid you not both have been tried recently.

The police has been militarized, they are told it’s us against them, but then drug dealers and violent criminals are allowed to run pamapant while some justify tazing grannies or now even children .
‘only doing my job’ or ‘just following orders’ have been excluded as excuses way back in 1945-46, just remember that .

I remember mine… do you Johnny Law?
OATHKEEPERS.com

@ R

The mandate is his own; the blog was a place where Carlos discussed, blogged reviewed issues that dealt with the increasing attempts to restrict the rights of photographers.

If the focus has changed to include all issues of police abuse of power than thats fine but I for one was primarily interested in the photographic issues.

Please note that I am neither condoning nor condemning the topic, the police, tasers, Taser Inc etc but was wondering if this blog is becoming just another cop-bashing site; there’s plenty of those and I enjoy the discussions that are photography-centric.

HLW, Personally I don’t think educating people on what can happen if they run into a bad cop is “cop bashing.” And if journalists won’t talk about an issue, then who will?

LOL and mark my words, sooner or later there WILL be an incident where a photographer get’s tased over something real stupid.

It’s only a matter of time–the idiots never fail to disappoint .

This blogger writes about some taser abuse cases you might not have heard of.

“It’s A Taser Happy Police State”

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12444/its-a-taserhappy-police-state

I’d never heard of the Fairbrother case….

In Germany, those things are simply forbidden for the police. Anything under lethal force is not considered worth to risk any human’s life. Our police, for example, does not hunt a dumb drunkard in his car, following with a hundred radio cars and chasing their victim to death … a stolen car is definitely not worth a lost life – even of a thief!

Scott said, “It’s all about officer safety for cops.”

No it isn’t dummy. It’s about “To Serve and Protect”, or have you forgotten a police officer’s sworn duty?

“Public Be Ware”! While American Brown Shirts and the corrupt American judicial system attempts to distract the general public,Nothing is being done about the real problem of American Police being the only homegrown terrorist Americans must deal with on a daily basses. There is no one but yourself to protect you from our Gestapo like police force.