I was looking for the old thread regarding the death of Robert Dziekanski who was Tasered repeatedly by the RCMP at Vancouver International Airport, but I suspect the recent server crash erased it. Anyhow, I wanted to update everyone on a CBC special report I saw this evening. Apparently Taser International has been doing their best to subvert all studies which contradict their tale that tasers are safer than Tylenol. A physician from Chicago (sorry I don't have the data handy) who is also a SWAT team member did studies on pigs and discovered that if the electrical stream crosses the heart, that heart starts beating VERY irregularly instantly and can remain that way for many minutes afterward including complete cardiac failure. Taser's people keep trying to promote the idea of "excited delirium" as the actual cause of these deaths and say all of their executives have been Tasered themselves! of course, the clips they show are all of their people being Tasered in the back.

My feeling at this point is that Taser International should simply state that any electrical impulse running through the heart muscle, including that of the Taser, may result in cardiac arrest or death. This appears to be the truth and I'm sure that most police officers, when armed with that truth, will be able to act in an appropriate manner. Currently cops are under the misconception that Tasers are perfectly harmless. None of those cops are under the misapprehension that their pistols are perfectly harmless I'm sure.

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