Now cops can taser a crowd (and themselves!:)

Written on November 14, 2008 – 12:06 am | by Schizo America |

Taser International came out with a new product, The Shockwave, which can spray tasers over a crowd, hitting individuals all at once. Amnesty International started tracking in 2001, and have counted 320 deaths by cop taser, and 90% of those deaths were unarmed individuals.

With the push of a button at a stand-off distance of up to 100 meter, the Shockwave unit deploys multiple standard TASER cartridges that are oriented across an area arc. Full area coverage is provided to instantaneously incapacitate multiple personnel within that region.

The TASER® Shockwave^TMsystem is the first generation of new TASER Remote Area Denial (TRAD) technology. Shockwave devices integrate TASER’s field-proven Neuro Muscular Incapacitation (NMI) technology into the first anti-personnel area-target system capable of not only denying personnel, but also incapacitating personnel with reversible effects.

I’m not feeling safer. According to an Amnesty International blog by Dalia Hashad, marketing of this new Taser system to police is going to further frighten Americans from dissenting.

Aside from taser’s questionable track record, the frightening trend in police crackdowns on dissent should make us particularly wary of the latest in taser technology. Forget disastrous preventative detentions at the RNC and tear gas at WTO protests. There is something new for protestors. Here is what Taser International has to say about it: With the push of a button at a stand-off distance of up to 100 meters, the Shockwave unit deploys multiple standard TASER® cartridges that are oriented across an area arc. Full area coverage is provided to instantaneously incapacitate multiple personnel within that region.

Development of weapons that allow police to tase en mass is not good news. This flies in the face of good law enforcement. Police shouldn’t be shocking entire crowds. Given the problems with tasers, especially among vulnerable groups like the mentally ill, police need to assess the appropriateness of taser use on particular individuals and should only elect to use the taser in dire circumstances when lesser alternatives aren’t available.

Coming off of years of crushing police responses to dissent, giving departments the technology to take down multiple people with just one pull of a trigger is a dangerous idea. I wonder what the chilling effect will be on public dissent. Would you be willing to go to a protest knowing that police on the scene were armed with Taser Shockwave? I wouldn’t bring my daughter, which means that I might have to stay home. Maybe that’s the point.

I believe that Obama’s win shows America’s desire to get back to an interactive democracy. This crazy apparatus should not be part of community policing.

Here’s the perfect video of the stupidity of Tasers, from FAILBlog. Notice the cop who tases himself is tasing someone who is MOTIONLESS, ON THE GROUND!