13 May 2008...5:03 pm
Don’t Tase Me Bro!
TASER International, Inc., creators of the Taser stun-gun, are already marketing a really-fucking-scary product for law enforcement and are set to start marketing another really-fucking-scary product late this year.
Should we be really fucking scared?
I’m not generally one to succumb to paranoia, although a bit of paranoia in these Patriot Act/War on Terror days might be justified, however the zealousness with which developers are trying to create an arsenal of “non-lethal” lethal weapons is off-putting at the least. Taser stun-gun products are lethal. They take longer to kill you, but they can kill you. It’s like sitting in an electric chair with a short in the wire: it’s going to take a while and it’s going to hurt like hell, but it will get the job done.
Now they can issue the same incapacitating jolt from 65 feet away combined with the blunt impact of a bullet being fired from a 12-gauge shotgun.
Notice the cartridge also has fins that are tilted to make it spin before it hits you. Yes, it will shred your clothing–up to an inch of it. Yes, it will shred your flesh. Yes, the force of impact from a 12-gauge shotgun can very easily break bone.
This is from the TASER International website:
Introducing the TASER™ XREP™ – eXtended Range Electronic Projectile. The XREP projectile is self-contained, wireless, and fires from a 12-gauge shotgun. It delivers the same Neuro Muscular Incapacitation (NMI) bio-effect as our handheld TASER X26 Electronic Control Device (ECD), but can be delivered to a distance of 65 feet (20 meters), combining blunt impact with field-proven TASER NMI.
What would happen if one of these were to hit someone in the head? From what I understand, medium-range shotguns don’t rank very high in target accuracy. Oh. I forgot. That’s something I’m not supposed to ask or think about. Sorry, Big B.
The other product TASER just announced, that has not begun its marketing campaign yet, is a sticky sheet of film that can be spread over a riot shield to issue a Taser-strength shock to anyone who comes in contact with the civilian side of the shield.
WIRED.com’s Danger Room has the details.
Pretty soon, cops won’t just be packing stun guns. They’ll be carrying electrically-charged riot shields, zapping their unruly without unholstering their weapons. That is, if the folks at Taser International have their way.
The company just introduced the “Taser Shield Conversion Kit featuring the Taser Repel Laminate Film Technology.”
The kit “features a peel and stick perforated [f]ilm, power supply and necessary conversion equipment. This laminate becomes electrified providing a powerful deterrent to protect officers and keep suspects or rioters at bay.” What could possibly go wrong?
Taser is demoing all kinds of gear this week — from shock-inducing shotgun rounds to “area denial” zappers that can fry groups of people at once. It’s all part of the Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization’s Mock Prison Riot, a showcase for new police and correctional tech, held annually at on the grounds of the former West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville.
When police departments start sticking electrocuting film on their riot shields, no protestor in America is safe. Riot police can simply walk through a crowd, electrocuting people as they pass by.
This is Sheriff Holt. I accidentally helped him get re-elected last year. In a dinner party he hosted in his garage I saw a sign saying, “A lynch mob does not constitute group therapy,” with a cute illustration of a crowd of white stick figures chasing down a black stick figure with pitchforks. I don’t want this man, and the hundreds of sheriffs and police chiefs in America more racist than him, to have these tools.
In many jurisdictions in the United States, law enforcement does not look kindly upon Constitutionally-protected civil protests. There is an Anonymous protest soon in Richmond, Virginia (as well as many other locations across the planet). Will the Richmond police be kind to the protestors? Hahahahaha! No. No, they won’t. Richmond may have tall buildin’s and fancy street lights, but they are still the corn pone hicks that I’m surrounded by in SW VA. Will Anonymous protests be able to continue in my area after these new products are released and greedily snatched up by the redneck police forces of the Commonwealth of Virginia? I doubt it.
Let’s face it: The police should not ever be trusted.
This is just the standard Taser stun-gun. What are the Taser shotguns and Taser shields going to be used for?
Rev. Reed Braden
cjdeak
8 Comments
13 May 2008 at 11:29 pm
I’m no fan of tasers or the trend that is leading to a police state under the guise of public safety, but this is false.
“with the blunt impact of a bullet being fired from a 12-gauge shotgun.”
“Less-lethal” ammunition (and yes, its called less-lethal vs non-lethal) is fired at velocities that are much lower then normal gun rounds (approx 300 fps vs 1200-2500fps).
“Notice the cartridge also has fins that are tilted to make it spin before it hits you. ”
Its not made to spin so it can inflict damage, it spins so its more accurate.
14 May 2008 at 1:08 am
It’s called “less-lethal” because it USED to be called non-lethal until news reports came out proving that the term was not double-plus-good.
I didn’t say the spinning was DESIGNED to make it hurt more. I didn’t know the reason for the spinning. I said BECAUSE it spins, it will hurt more.
Honestly, what would be worse? Four needles entering your flesh (or temple) or four needles entering your flesh while spinning?
Both of these products are entirely unnecessary. The weapons our riot police have are potent enough. I’ve never heard a riot officer decked from head to heels in armour with a bullet-proof riot shield and multiple weapons in their arsenal–pistols, riot sticks (like normal night sticks but bigger and heavier), rifles and shotguns, tear gas grenades, tasers, rubber bullets, beanbag bullets, and more–complain about not being armed enough.
The purpose of this is to ask why, in a rather pointed tone, police officers need these rather gratuitous new weapons. There is so much potential for misuse here. If you’re not outraged, you’re either not listening or you’re an idiot.
14 May 2008 at 4:16 pm
I have to say that your argument doesn’t make sense.
Is your argument,
A: Tasers are leathal
B: Cops shouldn’t be trusted
C: The product is overly cruel
D: Taser is an iresponsible company
After spending 20 years in close concert with 3 major police departments I have to say that this device has real potential to “help” people. The only alternative device that would be uses in similar situations to the device you have listed here is a bean bag shotgun round which can cause much more damage. Not to mention the fact that sometimes the police have to shoot the person more than once with a bean bag round which can kill much easier than a taser round can.
I find it odd that you would be against products that will reduce the number of people killed by police officers. This less-than-lethal approach is the result of a more compassionate policing policy that is sweeping the nation.
Now if you want to talk about situations where excessive force is used then that’s another argument. Police officers need to be trained to use these tools appropriatly or they will end up with more “Don’t Tase Me BRO” incidents which is a problem. But again this has nothing to do with taser and everything to do with training and the policies and practices of an individual police department.
I mean seriously Reed the other alternative is to shoot someone with a bean bag gun, you think that is better? The possibility for internal injuries is huge with that kind of approach. Also don’t forget that some police departments don’t have bean bag guns or other less-than-lethal tools so when they find themselves needing to use them and don’t have them then chances are the “correct” response is actually lethal force.
Remember that some cops are big dumb gorillas that don’t jump into the triple digits IQ wise, however for every idiot there are several very well meaning Police Officers that just want to get through their day without having to mess with anybody.
P.S. Happy Birthday Early
16 May 2008 at 4:44 am
Oh come on.
I don’t think that the cops are going to just walk through a crowd of protestors and nudge them with shields, causing them to have an electric convulsion. They wouldn’t do that. Sure, it’s Virginyer, but they ain’t inclined jus’ ter tayser peepul jus’ cus they’s protestin’.
Aside from that: why would they do that to a group of people protesting Scientology? If they are fascistsz (Lord knows, they have the tendencies), the chiefs of police would really only order the foot men to fire on people protesting the Government.
Of course, if this technology makes it’s way to Europe, and it will . . . that will be terrible. I mean, the liberal version of fascism, political correctness, renders it ‘wrong’ to criticise any group (political, social or religious) AT ALL.
So, there’s a whole load of people demonstrating for Omar Bakri to be deported, and the police fire these motherfuckers into the crowd. YAY! LET’S HELP SILENCE THE CRITICS OF ISLAM!
But would they really do this? I mean, the rest of the country, outside of Virgina, must at least have SOME levelheadedness. The cops ouldn’t launch unprovoked attacks, surely?
Not when the ideals of freedom, democracy, etc. have been instilled in Europe and America for at least two hundred years? Surely, the cops must have some morals and common sense, and know not to fire into a peaceful protest (at least generally). Amirite?
16 May 2008 at 5:47 pm
In Virginia, yes, the cops will taser protesters whether they agree with the protesters or not. It’s “disruption of the peace.”
16 May 2008 at 7:24 pm
Damn. Damn damn damn.
What happens if they do? Is there any discipline from those higher up? Aren’t there a few levelheaded officers (or any “genuine, loving, Christian ones”, so to speak) to help temper the religious fascism of each of the fundamentalist officers?
Again, I have to say, it’s not the technology that I’m against, but it’s the misuse of it. After all, “science gives you the ability to do terrible evil, but in the right hands tremendous good can be done with it.”
It would be handy in dealing with the scum in the Manchester football riots a few days ago, for example.
17 May 2008 at 5:53 am
Yes, because the higher-ups of the police forces are SO much more tolerant, humane and rational than the grunts. That was sarcasm.
17 May 2008 at 8:54 am
Ahh. Just hoping that there would be some, but - since it IS Virginia - I doubt it. Still, here’s hoping (although I doubt that hope will work) that the Feds in Washington never have to step in and deal with the rogue officers, eh?
I have a real personal problem with the Virginia Police Departments as it is. Given that the politicians in Virginia still seem to think it’s 1776 and that the evil British are trying to invade, my uncle’s in for a hard time.
You see, he’s a cop, and he reckons that he’s possibly going to relocate soon to Virginia. I’m hoping that he doesn’t get shot at by his subordinates for being an Englishman in charge of a few Republicans.
And he’ll have a hard time getting his officers to NOT shoot anything that moves and actually FIRE AT THE CRIMINAL.
He had a bit of stick from the local department he worked at in Texas, so I doubt he’ll have a free ride in Virginia - also, he’ll be an atheist in the Bible Belt, so that will redouble his problems.
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