Tasers Galore!

To start off what otherwise might be a drab and depressing column about Tasers with a bit of humor, here is a case, from Hamilton, Ontario, of Tasers accidentally setting a perp on fire. With a mind to use it as an improvised weapon, the suspect hid a can of hairspray in his belt, which ignited and set the poor victim of physics aflame briefly. The officer, who extinguished the flames, has been completely cleared of any wrongdoing.

In a twisted web of impartial recollections, contradictory statements, and colorful characters, a Palo Alto man without address is questioning whether police were justified in deploying Tasers against him. I'm not sure how it's reasonable to assume a two liter bottle is a dry ice bomb and thus justify deploying a Taser, but that's what makes this case so interesting.

In a tragic case of would haves and could haves, Robert Ingraham of Thibodaux, Louisiana died after officers deployed a Taser on him. Sadly, this article is lacking in detail, but statements like "he should have gone to court" or "he should have not hit his wife" seem rather inconsequential when one remembers that a man died. The only real questions are "how did a 27 year old man die from a Taser shot?" and "how could this have been prevented?"

In a rare show of positive PRwerk for Taser International, the New York Times reports a study into a case where Taser put someone back into a normal cardio rhythm after 40 minutes in a cold lake in Connecticut. Please don't try this at home, or even in a hospital for that matter.