Studies on tasers are flawed, cardiologist tells inquiry

[LChoy]

I thought the controversy (besides him dying) wasn't that he was tasered, but tasered repeatedly. 4 times I believe, when I believe in training you only need to taser once to incapacitate someone.

[Daradon]

Exactly, for some reason, a lot of these people are tasered repeatedly.

If that isn't misuse I don't know what is.

[Dion]

Webster, a psychological consultant, said he's worked with police for more than 30 years and "I'm embarrassed to be associated with organizations that Taser sick old men in hospital beds and confused immigrants who are arriving in the country."

Outside the hearing room, Webster criticized the manufacturer for applying the notion of "excited delirium" and passing it on to police services "as if it's an actual existing disorder."

The police in that situation, he said, were not trained and should have had some crisis intervention skills.

Dziekanski couldn't understand English but Webster said police with proper training have non-verbal techniques they can use to calm people down.

"You can't expect a person who is hyper-aroused with cognitive process disrupted . . . you can't expect them to contend with commands," he told the inquiry.

Commission counsel Patrick McGowan asked Webster to elaborate on how he was "critical of police forces taking their information directly from the manufacturer."

"I would like us as a country to take a look at conducted energy weapons, their safety, where and when applied," said Webster, who lives on Vancouver Island.

http://canadianpress.google.com/arti...S_XG7C-isMe4VQ

[metallicat]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Exactly, for some reason, a lot of these people are tasered repeatedly.

If that isn't misuse I don't know what is.

So in no instance can a guy be tasered twice? That doesn't make sense. Why are there no YouTube videos of instances when Tasers have gone right, and done good?

[Dion]

In early December, Mr. Webster says he received a call from Richard Bent, chief superintendent of the RCMP E Division in Vancouver. The senior Mountie asked Mr. Webster, who lives on Denman Island, B.C., if the two could have a meeting. Mr. Webster knew something was amiss.

“That's when he said it was about the nature of my comments to the media about the Dziekanski incident,” Mr. Webster revealed in an interview Wednesday. “He said: ‘You've upset some of the members here and they're saying things.' I said, ‘Like what?' And he said: ‘Well, they're saying that maybe you shouldn't be getting any more work with the RCMP.'”

Mr. Webster said he told Chief Supt. Bent that he didn't respond well to threats. And that they wouldn't change his mind in any event. After stewing about the incident over Christmas, Mr. Webster articulated his anger in a letter to Chief Supt. Bent, which he copied to Gary Bass, the RCMP's top man in B.C. In it, he reiterated how offended he was by Chief Supt. Bent's comments, which he considered a blatant form of intimidation.

Sure enough, the call came. Two weeks later, Mr. Webster said he was having lunch with an RCMP inspector from headquarters who scolded him for his Dziekanski comments. He suggested the psychologist was being disloyal to an organization that had been good to him over the years. He said Mr. Webster should have waited until the RCMP had concluded its investigation into the incident before giving any kind of opinion on it.

“I told him I didn't need anything more than the 25 seconds of video that we've all seen over and over again to offer my analysis,” Mr. Webster said. “I really gave him a blast. It was just more of the same. The expectation is that if you work for the Mounties you align your values with the corporate culture and if you don't that's being disloyal and is unhealthy.”

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