Under construction!!
I have nothing, per se, against Dr. James Cairns, so I am not beating some tired old drum.
But what I see happening on the taser front all around me is certainly cause for concern and that doesn't make me "hysterical" - it makes me concerned, a concern based on a lot time put into researching and analyzing a criminal justice system phenomena which is symptomatic of a break down in the rule of law going on globably.
Dr. Cairns is not showing me what experience our experience is, he is showing me just how well Taser International's disinformation, public relations and greed is working. And what is frightening, causing me to be more concerned as to where this will all lead for I possess imagination. Call me visionary or call me a hysterical kook but I can read and figure out what the underlying assumptions are in an argument.
In this case, it is assumed that excited delirium is something REAL. Excited delirium is actually something made up and has no basis is fact but when it comes time to justify death, disability, pain and suffering it being taken as something very real. Basically, Taser International has taken many symptoms of many various disorders and lumped them together into a definition that excited delirium can be used to cover any, heavy emphasis!, any condition that 'justifies' use of the taser, by anyone who happens to use one that has been issued one lawfully. Those conditions include (but not limited to):
drug overdose,
standing up for one's rights,
coming into an airport and not speaking English,
being drunk and 'disorderly',
speeding and being issued a ticket when no one appears to be watching,
going to a demonstration,
being six-years old and out of sorts,
being upset when a cop manhandles you when you are already in handcuffs,
being a pig who wants a drink of water while in the presence of a taser,
playing with matches in a public wildlife area,
being agitated in a public hospital - or private,
asking if John Kerry is the member of a secret organization,
and so on -
Now what do all these circumstances have in common? They are all now CRIMES, including being a pig in a research program.
It is not a coroner's job to come up with ever new and inventive ways to justify police overkill, overreach, and overreaction. But that is what we are seeing as Taser International gets the medical profession to "come on board" and buy into the propaganda that these weapons of torture and not weapons. (remember: war is peace!)
Nor is it a coroner's job to accept travel expenses to go to Taser International's air fares to go to its marketing seminars. It would be a public function of a coroner, say, (1) to go to a seminar that teaches how the research into the efficacy of research and testing of the weapons is conducted, (2) do a thorough check of all available literature of all the evidence that has come in about them, particularly that put forward by those who have looked at them long and hard, (3) speak to those directly who have raised serious concerns about their use and what that concern is based upon, (4) develop relevant statistics on the actual death rates and disabilities developing as a result of their use, (5) question thoroughly the motivations of Taser International and its investors after two decades of condemnation by such heavy-weight organizations as Amnesty International, (6) pressed governments to exercise caution when developing new and creative uses for becoming judge, jury and execution when isuing tasers and (7) take into account the current public outrage and outcries as symptomatic of a "product" that has become totally socially unacceptable .
The number of people admitted to hospital for misuse of this weapon is also being ignored - young people use them while drunk at parties. They are usually drunk when turning on the voltage, which is an "excuse" for using them at all. But this should have shown up on the hospital statistics for emergency room registrations by now.
Is the coroner watching these developing strange phenomena or merely counting how many pennies he "saved" the Ontario government by accepting Taser International's well-developed PR budget monies?? Is Dr. John Cairns so incredibly stoopid that he cannot see the potential for conflict of interest before he takes the money?? Well, he sure has JUSTIFIED taking their money; but that doesn't make it the correct and proper thing to do. A coroner must truly reject anything that smacks of improper conduct. He's a PROFESSIONAL, supposedly trained to act in a professional manner. But we don't see professionalism at work here - we see a genuine lack of proper use of public money in this office, otherwise he would have gone to an Amnesty International seminar and gotten knowledge of what was in the public interest, and in the interest of an entire lot of Taser International test pigs.
He might have, imaginatively, sought public input and created a real report showing all the various perspective on the use of tasers and the breakdown of the rule of law.
I have no trouble finding relevant information and I am not a coroner - why I am forced to do the coroner's job! He saved the taxpayer a few pennies and I work night and day to figure out how to SAVE a few lives, not justify them being taken away.
And therein lies a huge difference.
Let's get this straight -
tasers are a weapon,
they have been described as a weapon of torture for over two decades,
tasers are proscribed by the Geneva Convention as weapons of torture,
tasers are tested by the US Air Force not by doctors,
tasers have serious design flaws,
tasers are being accepted as "kinder and gentler" when they are not,
tasers are being put into many of the wrong hands, and are on the open, unregulated market to anyone,
tasers are becoming a new means of torture by many of the wrong people
tasers are being sold by some highly suspect people,
tasers are merely the tip of the iceberg on a whole series of new, yet-to-be-released weapons to be used to subdue crowds which will not be able to target those who "break the law"
excited delirium is totally fictious, a "state" made up by a private company, a definition aided and assisted by persons such as Dr. Cairns to give them credibility,
tasers are used increasingly against women, free speech and freedom of assembly advocates, the disabled, the young and anyone at all not working in a "criminal justice" capacity,
there are other options than tasers available that can be used,
there is hysteria, it is the hysteria of law enforcement to have increased budgets and means of CONTROL over wider sectors of the public while at the same time enjoying the "hospitality" of Taser public relations experts,
Veeger
Coroner hit for Taser link
Thu, December 6, 2007
Taser International paid for Jim Cairn's travel to its U.S. conferences
An expert who testified at a landmark inquest in London into police use of a taser is under fire for his links to the stun gun manufacturer.
Dr. James Cairns, the provincial deputy chief coroner who appeared at the 2005 probe of the death of Londoner Peter Lamonday, is facing criticism for having Taser International pay his travel expenses to lecture at their American conferences.
Although a Commons committee set to review Taser use will examine the relationship, the coroner's office is adamant there is no conflict of interest.
"He's not endorsing a product," Dr. Bonita Porter, Ontario's chief coroner, said yesterday.
"He's showing what our experience is. It's not something we should discourage."
Porter cited Cairns's testimony at the Lamonday inquest, held in May 2005, as evidence of his expertise.
One Liberal MP who sits on the public safety and national security committee that will examine Taser use in 2008 said Cairns's travel creates the perception of a conflict.
"That's just highly improper," Ujjal Dosanjh said in an interview from Ottawa.
"Any evidence that Dr. Cairns may have given -- and that's not to judge the evidence -- anything he said with respect to Tasers will be considered in light of the fact he's accepted the fare paid by Taser."
Lamonday, high on cocaine, was hit with a police Taser three times outside a Hamilton Road convenience store late on May 14, 2004. He died 50 minutes later in hospital.
The inquest, held a year later, was the first to examine a Canadian death that followed the use of the powerful but controversial stun guns .
In testimony, Cairns defended the use of Tasers and noted the timeline of that fateful night was proof the weapon wasn't responsible for the 33-year-old Lamonday's death.
"If you're going to die from an electric shock, you die when you get the electric shock, not minutes or hours later," Cairns told the jury.
"Death cannot be attributed to the Taser if there is an interval between use and death."
The inquest jury ruled Lamonday died of a cocaine-induced excited delirium and recommended more officers be armed with Tasers.
Cairns couldn't be reached yesterday, but in a recent interview, he made it clear he's remained impartial on the stun guns.
"I am not an agent for Taser or anything else," he was quoted as saying. "I do not own Taser shares. I wanted there to be no conflict of interest."
To Porter, having Taser pay Cairns's way to its conferences is to the benefit of taxpayers.
"It saves the Ontario government paying the fare," she said. "There's a hysteria now about Tasers."
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