Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:25:11 PST Joyce Hung http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120201/00075917609/park-ranger-tases-guy-walking-dogs-without-leash.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120201/00075917609/park-ranger-tases-guy-walking-dogs-without-leash.shtml tased in the back by a park ranger, who was apparently trying to make an example of him. The problem was that the guy, Gary Hesterberg, was walking the dogs at Rancho Corral de Tierra, which used to be an off-leash walking area until it was just recently incorporated into the National Park. When the park ranger confronted Hesterberg and asked for his identification, for reasons unknown, Hesterberg gave her a fake name, and then tried repeatedly to leave. Finally, when he started to walk away, the ranger shot him in the back... because she was trying to "educate residents of the rule." Then, he was arrested "on suspicion of failing to obey a lawful order, having dogs off-leash and knowingly providing false information."

It seems that the use of a taser in this situation was excessive and unwarranted. The guy wasn't threatening the ranger in any way, and even if he had lied about his name (not that lying should be a reason to tase someone), the ranger wouldn't have known that at the time, since Hesterberg only gave his real name to the authorities after he got tased. Did the ranger accomplish her goal of "educating" visitors of the park rules? Yes, if educating means "scaring into submission." As Eric Cartman would say, "Respect my authoritah!"

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]]> watch-your-back http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120201/00075917609 Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:37:10 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110923/12354816075/police-caught-tasing-teen-without-warning.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110923/12354816075/police-caught-tasing-teen-without-warning.shtml quack points us to a story in which police in London Ontario came to break up a fight among some teens. Rather than say anything, asking the participants to stop, or even holding any of the participants, a cameraphone video from someone across the street shows the cop just walk into the area and immediately shoot his taser into one kid's face. A report on the incident has the police saying that the officer acted appropriately. The mother of the kid who was tased argues otherwise. She says her son was the victim, was attacked by two other boys and was trying to defend himself when he got tased. Furthermore, the taser got stuck in his face and had to be removed by medical professionals.

Of course, if the whole thing weren't on videotape, most people would probably have taken the police officers' word on the story. But the video shows that he made no other effort to stop the fight, when it seems clear that he easily could have used less dangerous methods. Hell, by the time he gets to the area and shoots the kid with the taser, the two boys have already separated. He easily could have stopped the fight by stepping into the space between the two of them.

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]]> is-that-really-the-best-use? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110923/12354816075 Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:58:02 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090727/0314225672.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090727/0314225672.shtml suing Second Life's parent company Linden Lab because some users in the game had created fake Taser-like virtual stun guns. Yes, seriously. It was hard to see how Linden Lab would be responsible for the actions of its users, but Taser has a long history of being ridiculously overaggressive in trying to protect its brand. However, perhaps someone explained how unlikely its chances were in court, because the company has dropped the lawsuit. Anyone know if Taser-like devices are still around in Second Life?

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]]> focus-on-your-first-life,-please http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090727/0314225672 Mon, 5 May 2008 03:23:57 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080504/2213361028.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080504/2213361028.shtml judges to change the "cause of death," overruling the local medical examiners. It appears that the company has taken the exceptionally aggressive step of suing some of the doctors who list a Taser shock as one of the causes of death. It then uses research and "experts" paid for by Taser to make the claim that a Taser cannot lead to death -- preferring the basically made up diagnosis of "excited delirium." Somehow, it seems that Taser attacks seem to cause a disproportionate amount of "excited delirium." Either way, in suing to have the final diagnosis overturned, the company is clearly intimidating doctors, who may now be afraid that listing a Taser as a cause of death (no matter what the evidence) will lead to a courtroom battle.

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]]> cause-of-death http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080504/2213361028 Mon, 7 Jan 2008 20:33:52 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080107/175806.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080107/175806.shtml through all the noise, rather than adding to it?) and it occurred to me that it makes almost no sense for anyone to launch new consumer electronics products this week. There's no way to stand out against the zillion other product releases. Even if you can get a post on one of the gadget blogs, you're probably off of the front page in 30 seconds or so. However, one way to stand out and get some attention is to come up with what may be the most ridiculous combination of gadgets out there: a taser holster that includes a 1GB mp3 player. I'm not quite sure what this is saying? Are police officers supposed to be enjoying their tunes as they tase someone into submission? And I'm not even going to touch on the fact that the latest Taser devices are now available in stylish leopard print skins. There's been a ton of controversy over just how dangerous taser devices really are... and their response is to offer an MP3 player and more stylish devices? Seems like a bit of a disconnect.

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]]> don't-mp3-me,-bro http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080107/175806