Taser Factsheet
- TASERS KILL
- Despite manufacturer's label of "less-lethal," tasers have been involved in close to 250 deaths.
- TASERS INCREASE DANGER TO PUBLIC, NOT DECREASE IT
- Despite police claims that tasers reduce injuries and save lives by providing officers with an alternative to using their firearms or batons, independent studies conclude that tasers are mostly used in situations where police use of lethal force – or even batons, sprays, or hand controls – would never be justified. This means that tasers actually increase the amount of danger to the public, not decrease it. Electro-shock weapons are particularly open to abuse as they can inflict severe pain at the push of a button without leaving substantial marks. Police often subject targets to multiple taser shocks, even while in restraints and often use them against people posing no physical threat, such as against non-violent protesters or simply anyone they perceive to not be heeding a verbal command. Other studies have shown that suspect deaths by gun, or suspect and police injuries have not decreased.
- EVEN POLICE ARE SUING TASER
- Taser International is being sued by police officers across the nation claiming they were seriously injured after being shocked with the electronic stun gun during training classes. Injuries listed included "painful, permanent and progressive" hearing and vision loss and neurological damage, multiple spinal fractures, burns, a shoulder dislocation and soft-tissue injuries. Many lawsuits, including a few class action suits, have been filed from victims and victim's families for wrongful tasering or death, although Taser, Int. has managed to get many thrown out via legal loopholes.
- ORGS CALL FOR BAN
- Civil-rights organizations including Amnesty International and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and civil liberty groups including the ACLU of Texas call for moratoriums on their use until independent hard evidence is shown that they are safe, and liken the weapon to a tool of torture. Other community groups and organizations such as various ACLU affiliates promote policy restrictions through local or state legislation. Some cities/localities are curbing or restricting use on their own such as Chicago (they have 300 on the streets compared to Houston's 3,700) or Pflugerville, TX (not using them until the costly "TaserCams" were purchased for better accountability), and some have refused to purchase them altogether for fear of liability and worsening already-negative community relations.
- MEDICALLY AND SCIENTIFICALLY UNSOUND
- There continues to be a lack of rigorous, independent testing of their medical effects. Amnesty International is calling on US state, federal and local authorities to suspend all transfers and use of tasers and other electro-shock weapons pending a rigorous, independent inquiry into their use and effects. Such an inquiry must be carried out by acknowledged medical, scientific, legal and law enforcement experts who are independent of commercial and political interests in promoting such equipment. Some 'independent' studies that exonerate the weapon have been shown to have ties to Taser, Int.. The US Department of Justice is in the midst of a 2-year comprehensive study that will likely shed some light. At the crux of this debate is that the weapon delivers electroshock directly to the central nervous system via the darts/needle delivery method vs. on the skin/across the grounded body and there is very little information available about the effects of electricity on the brain/nervous system.
- CORRUPTION
- Taser, Int. stays afloat despite the dead bodies and broad criticism primarily due to taking advantage of many layers of systematic corruption in play long before Tasers. Overly strong local law enforcement associations undermining the community's ability to "police the police" have led to many conflicts of interest such as with county medical examiners who wrongfully rule deaths of persons in police custody to avoid implicating police. Coroners rule many deaths as solely attributed to secondary factors such as drugs, and even going so far to specifically exclude the taser as a possible contributing factor (a brave few HAVE implicated the taser, however, ruling the death as a "homocide"). The new non-medically-recognized catch term, "excited delirium," is being logged as cause of death in many cases (taser and otherwise), suggesting a breach of professionalism as never before. In the judicial system which rarely holds law enforcement accountable, Taser, Int. is breaking ground in filing lawsuits against entities that have published critical medical reviews or conducted critical studies, resulting in a recent chilling effect on the medical and scientific community. Meanwhile, they have embarked on a campaign to meet with and intimidate activists and critical lawmakers as well.
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