The team examined over 24,000 cases where police had used force, including almost 5500 incidents involving a Taser. After controlling for factors such as the amount of resistance shown by the suspect, they found that Taser use reduced the overall risk of injury by 65 per cent.

[New Scientist]

In fact, they went so far as to call in the same crowd control experts that help to keep things under control at major events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics. Each store will have it's own gameplan, but the vast majority of locations (not just SuperCenters) will be open for 24-hours staring on Thanksgiving morning and ending on Friday evening. That way, Walmart hopes to prevent mammoth crowds from gathering outside the store waiting for the doors to open. They are also putting many of the most popular items behind displays, where employees will supervise lines and hand out the products to customers in an orderly fashion. Additional workers will be stationed outside the store to help direct foot traffic.

Because of incidents like the one at Walmart, the National Retail Federation has, for the first time, put together a list of guidelines aimed at crowd control in stores. Of course, even with all these precautions, I fear that this year will bring more horror stories about deadly violence erupting between crazed bargain hunters. [NYT]

Shortly after two pipe bombs were detonated in Hillsdale High School, English language development teacher Kennet Santana tackled the boy—pinning him down with the help of a few other members of the faculty until the police arrived. Not surprisingly, the kid is being described as "quiet," "shy," and "reclusive." It's always the person you least suspect, as they say, but you never hear about the loud, outgoing class clown going all leatherface on his classmates.

If you're wondering why this is on Gizmodo—and you guys always do—it's because those weapons inherently remind me of movie and video game weapons. I'm not trying to say that video games cause violence or don't cause violence, but what I'm saying is that when a 17 year old man-child thinks he can corner his classmates while dual wielding a chainsaw and a sword probably played a lot of doom and zelda and didn't do very well in gym class, so would get tired very quickly. [SFGate]

Our young supportsman (not a word) hasn't yet been convicted of a crime, and deserves the benefit of the doubt, but the alleged victim's account of the scenario is pretty spectacular (that's him above, with the shiner):

"The guy essentially snapped. He cold-cocked me, hit me two or three solid shots to the head while my hands were down," said Isakson, a limo driver.

But surely Mr, Isakson was being a dick, or something, right? Right? Well, if you count asking an angry-seeming man for his ID before you let him into your house in Queens as being a dick, then yes. Back to the violence:

But things got uglier, Isakson said, when Benjamin squeezed him around the neck and pressed him up against the wall.

"He's prepared to kill me," Isakson said. "That's all I could think of."

Isakson said he broke free and ran down the stairs — fracturing his ankle along the way — to get help in his building's lobby.

For what it's worth, Verizon did eventually fix the problem, though they apparently didn't need to send anyone into Isakson's home in the first place. Service!

Also, it looks like all those "Verizon face punch" keyword ad buys have finally paid off for Sprint:

[New York Post]

Sadly, the source site doesn't allow embedding, so I've assembled a series of screen grabs to try and capture the raw violence I saw in the original video. The same video, coincidentally, you can catch in the accompanying link. [TechEblog]

As it turns out, E-Ink is ridiculously durable, standing up to bending, cuts, water, fire and even total punctures without ceasing to blink. The panel only died when microwaved for a few seconds, but that was just because all of its metal components (power connectors, mainly) vaporized in fantastic balls of lightning. [Phone Losers via Technabob]

Long story short, it seems the person who did the shooting acted in self defense when four men came to his apartment at night—one of which died from his injures. – Jason Chen

Criminology major held in PlayStation death [SFGate]

So if you've got a PS3 to sell, be careful where you sell it. And bring some large friends for backup. – Jason Chen

Fatal stabbing over Sony PlayStation [SFGate via 1pstart]

California county tags gang members with GPS [Arstechnica]

Ibars modified an old gaming light gun by adding some tilt sensors and attaching it to an alarm clock. Squeeze off a few rounds for a little snooze action and you can also set the alarm and time with the gun. It is only a conceptual design, so until it is made a reality just imagine shooting someone when you pound on that alarm clock every morning. –Travis Hudson

Alarmgun [Via OhGizmo!]

LCD Monitor vs. Gun [Coolest Gadgets]

Case in point, officers tried to serve a warrant to a teen suspected of robbing a student of two PS3s. Things turned bad when the kid was unarmed, but may "have been holding a video game controller when he went to the door as it was bashed in by officers." Yikes! In addition, his german shepherd was also "shot to death."

Lesson: don't be holding anything in your hand when police knock down your door. More specifically, nothing black, like a SIXAXIS. – Jason Chen

N.C. police kill student accused in PlayStation 3 robbery, police tried to serve warrant [WHDH]

The Wii Gets Demolished Too [via Gadgetell]

After the jump: PS3 smashing, and a gigantic Wii.

In the tradition of douchebags smashing electronics everywhere, SmashmyPS3 dresses up in a pimp outfit, buys a PS3, then smashes it to the horror of line-standers everywhere (especially there). See video to witness said horror.

A guy from 1up decided it would be funny to take his gigantic Wii costume, go to Best Buy, and flip off all the campers. He was right.– Jason Chen

Guy Flips off PS3 Campers [Gamebrink]

1up Guy [1up]

Escaped rape suspect arrested at Best Buy [Kentucky]

• Campers and local news reporter shot with BB pellets
• Guy robs 10 New Yorkers in line at gunpoint
• 60 people fight over 10 PS3s, one guy's face goes into a pole.
• Near riot takes place as SF PlayStation store tries to move line
• Wal-Mart shuts down when fight erupts over moving line from inside to outside
• Future Violence: Best Buy camping only starts at 5:00 am launch day, melee to erupt at 4:59
• Line cutters pissing off everybody, fights erupt

For those not involved in the fisticuffs, enjoy our ongoing PS3 coverage. – Jason Chen