The National Post has an interesting article on tasers and the various lawsuits against the company that manufactures them, Taser International.
A former employee, Pam Schreiner, claims that Taser has harrassed and intimidated her into silence over her witnessing Taser officials shredding incriminating court documents regarding the safety of their products.
Her claim could be easily dismissed as that of a disgruntled employee if it were not for the claims by RCMP officers injured in training related incidents. Police officers are encouraged to experience a Taser shot as part of their training. (Odd that it is not mandatory, perhaps they know something they are not sharing)
Dan Husband, an RCMP officer in Revelstoke, has a claim making its way through court claiming that he suffered back injuries after such a voluntary shocking.
The NP reports, “Its litigation record is impressive: 61 lawsuits have been dismissed; at least two brought verdicts in Taser’s favour; and 39 suits are pending…”
After the taser was used to kill Mr. Dziekanski the Taser lawyers got to work and sent more than 60 legal demand letters to media outlets seeking correction of what it called “false and misleading headlines.” The company took issue with the term “Taser death.”
They have also sued chief medical examiners for “erroneous cause-of-death determinations.” That is like saying, “He didn’t die because I shot him, he died from a lack of blood to the brain…which just happened to be spilling from that massive hole I blew in him.”
Note how carefully this article is to make it clear that there is no evidence that the man killed while in polcie custody dies because of the multiple Taser shocks he recieved….ya, right. I guess their legal team is earning their salaries this week.