Gizmodo: Tasers

Taser Found Liable in Wrongful Death Suit, Bad News for Taser

Adam Frucci — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:15:00 EDT

Taser International, the company behind the new delightful trend in law enforcement where using verbal communication is deemed too time-consuming and replaced with a extremely painful jolt from their patented electro-weapons, was just dealt a stinging blow in court. After winning 45 wrongful death or injury lawsuits, it just lost a $6 million wrongful death suit, paving the way for plenty more liability in the future.

The suit, filed by the family of 40-year-old Robert Heston Jr. Heston was killed when the police tased him, the autopsy finding that he "died from a combination of methamphetamine intoxication, an enlarged heart due to long-term drug abuse, and Taser shocks." The jury found that Heston was 85% at fault, making Taser 15% responsible for his death.

While Taser spun this as a good thing (we only 15% killed him! Huzzah!), their 12% drop in stock price tells more truth. If Taser is suddenly liable for the damage done to people when taze-happy cops use their weapons, they'll quickly go out of business. Because while for most people a taze is just a seriously unpleasant experience, it's obvious that it has the potential to be far more dangerous for people with heart conditions. [Danger Room]

Update

Adam Frucci — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:40:08 EDT

I found another angle on that office worker rampage, this one in color and with sound taken from a co-worker's cellphone. Apparently, it happened in Russia, and homeboy gets tazed at the end. Holy macaroni.

Policeman Tases Guy, Sets His Pants on Fire

Kit Eaton — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Ok, we know bad things can happen when the general public use tasers, but cops tasing a guy and setting him on fire? No... really? Apparently the 31-year-old in question was causing a disturbance in an apartment in Hamilton, Ontario, recently, and three police officers attended. Whatever happened after that, the police ended up firing a taser at him. Unfortunately when the high-voltage device went off some sort of flammable object in his pants waistband caught fire. He sustained burns to his hands and thigh, and had to be taken to hospital. Ouch. Someone at some point must've started saying "Liar! Liar! Pants..." [Danger Room]

Guy Who Uses Stun Gun on Son to Toughen Him Up Jailed, Unsurprisingly

Kit Eaton — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:40:50 EST

The father of an 18-month-old child is off to jail for four years after being found guilty of using a stun gun on the boy. His reason for using the 100,000-volt Dragonfire, which resulted in muscle damage to the kid's heart, was because he wanted his son to be "the toughest cage fighter ever." Yeah, the toughest heart-damaged, cage-fighting 18-month-old ever.

According to the Deputy DA in Portland, Ryan Wittman had made comments to witnesses saying he wanted his child "to be tough." When first questioned, the dad's genius response was to say that the two of them had been "playing peekaboo." Hmm, that'll be the special version of kilovolt peekaboo we've never heard of, then.

The 100,000-volt weapon Wittman used is, apparently, more powerful than police tasers. Wittman's excuse for the incidents? Arguments with his wife. It took just 20 minutes for the court to decide that Wittman should be sent down for four years. [CNN]

Cop Tases Pregnant Woman for Trying to Leave Police Station

Matt Buchanan — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:20:08 EST

As tasers turn into must-have gadgets for self-defense and police officers alike, dubious tasings have apparently also gone epidemic, making taser-proof clothing a must for any activist's, driver's or breathing human's Christmas list. Today's exhibit: A woman walks into a police station, wants to give up her one-year-old, then tries to leave. Guess what happens? To be fair though, if she was more cooperative, she probably wouldn't have gotten toasted. [Liveleak]

Women Ditching Tupperware Parties for Taser Parties?

Matt Buchanan — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:05:55 EST

Local 6, who brought us the Spider-Man pepper spray bracelet, today is all over the trend of women dumping Tupperware parties for Taser parties—there's still wine and cheese, but they're groping "light, stylish" metallic pink Tasers which are a "must for any modern woman" instead of boring kitchenware.

While we've questioned the need for gadgets to be small and pink for girls to get on board, to answer the question at the end of the video, yes, women should totally be arming themselves with Tasers. It's kind of hot, plus we have protection, so it's cool. [Local 6 via Tech Digest]

Make a "Fun" Stun Gun for Under 10 Bucks

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:20:53 EDT

I found the skull-poundingly monotonous drum beat combined with a complete lack of voiceover and "oh my, you're dumb, home viewer" finger-pointing a teensy bit annoying. But! It's super easy to follow and it looks simple enough to build your own ghetto stun gun, so much so that I might whip my own up to put my four-year-old cousin in place when she's bothering me by acting like a small child. [Metacafe]

Tasers: More Dangerous Than We Thought?

Adam Frucci — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 12:15:00 EST

CrunchGear did an investigation into the safety of tasers, and what they discovered is a bit troubling. Despite the fact that Taser International just loves zapping reporters to get themselves on the news, they also sue the pants off of anyone who does studies on the safety of their devices and gets results they don't like.

It turns out that getting tased might, surprise surprise, be bad for the ticker. So think twice before sasstalking officer friendly next time you're out causing trouble, OK? –Adam Frucci

The Trouble With Tasers - What The Manufacturer Doesn't Want You To Know [CrunchGear]