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Comment by maloney | Hacker News Reader

"why would you risk killing someone for that"

I think that's the main point of the article. Taser markets these weapons as non-lethal, going to great lengths to make sure investigations point the blame somewhere else when a death occurs.

Police don't treat these weapons as lethal, which is clearly not true.

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I heard from an officer (in my city at least) that part of their training is getting shot by a taser. They even let citizens who join their "explorers program" get shocked by one for the experience (clip on the ends, not shot).

I would be interested to know what, if any, emergency medical presence there is during this training. Might go to show what level of confidence they have in the true non-lethality of the weapons.

The big differince is where you are tased, and for how long. I have done taser training and we usually got it in the leg, rather than across the chest, as most deployments happen.

As an electronic engineer, I've probably received more electric shocks than most people. It very much depends on where you get shocked, if you avoid the area around the heart then you could get away with it. It still hurts though.

They also don't shoot people in the chest or let them fall onto concrete.

They should do the testing a 30 minute drive from the hospital without medical personnel on hand at the top of a flight of cement stairs with no one around to catch their fall.

I'm sure the police would not volunteer for that test.

A mandatory part of Austin PD's academy is being tased. The taser is fired into the student's back, the student is held securely by two other students and then lowered to the ground.

I don't believe the trigger is depressed during this, so it's just the contact shock, not a prolonged/repeated one.

I also have no idea what medical personnel are on hand, but all police officers are trained in CPR and I'd imagine they have an AED on premises, even if there are no EMTs right there.

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