Less than a week after a Connecticut man died in police custody after being shot with a Taser gun, another man has died in a West Babylon prison shortly after police deployed a Taser on him, CBS reports. Daniel McDonnell began "acting irrationally" on Friday morning in his cell, so police shot him with what is supposed to be a nonlethal weapon. After suffering "respiratory distress," the 40-year-old died at the hospital.
TASER International manufactures the devices, and touts that "the numbers tell the story, TASER products safe lives, prevent injuries, and reduce litigation," which would seem to wrap up highly controversial product in a nice big bow. The website also claims that Taser guns have "saved more that 75,000 lives from potential death or serious injury" without any supporting numbers.
A graph that is headlined "TASER Is Safer Than Other Arrest-Related Activities," is shown to compare the use of a Taser with the use of a police dog, a heavy bag, a 150 meter sprint, and other things that could happen incidentally during an arrest. The graph makes it appear that the use of a Taser rarely requires hospitalization, but reading the abstract of the actual study, the scientists merely determined that "the simulations of physical resistance and fleeing on foot" led to factors that would require hospitalization. It's attempting to make the point that running is more harmful than being shot with a Taser. But it's tough to run 150 meters from inside a jail cell.
