"Let Them Be Tased!"

[Nullifidian]

From the Agence France Presse:

PARIS (AFP) — Antoine di Zazzo says he has been 'tasered' more than 50 times and never felt the worse for the ordeal.
One of the biggest Taser representatives outside the US base, Di Zazzo also gave a surprise blast of the stun gun to French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen and offered a test dose to Nicolas Sarkozy before he became France's president. [...]

'You cannot call it real pain,' said di Zazzo. 'I just found that time was infinitely long.' In reality, a shot from the gun, which packs a 50,000 volt punch immobilises suspects for a few seconds.

National Front leader Le Pen, who was 79 at the time, went to inspect the gun last year because of the headlines it made when Sarkozy made his pledge [to provide every gendarme with a Taser] as interior minister. 'He did not want to try it but I took him a bit by surprise,' said di Zazzo.

'He has special protection because he is a leading politician but I got round them and fired into his shoulder. He fell over but got up again and then went around telling people: 'You are shaking the hand of the man who has tried Sarkozy's toy'.

My initial reaction is one of horror that anyone would think that tasing a 79 year-old man wouldn't be potentially problematic, but I have to admit that it is Le Pen and some definite schadenfreude is creeping in. Perhaps we could improve every police response to protests if the political and police leadership, smugly secure their persons, were tased for every time they ordered it done to the ordinary citizens.

Otherwise, it's a peek into the kind of disturbingly nonchalant approach to "less than lethal" weapons which is threatening to turn the U.S. and other industrialized nations into police states. Here's a peek at what the future may hold for anyone who takes it to the streets:

Di Zazzo's French company is also developing a mini-flying saucer like drone which could also fire Taser stun rounds on criminal suspects or rioting crowds. He expects it to be launched next year and to be sold internationally by Taser.

So there's the new sophisticated, technological philosophy of government. Faced with an unruly mob of the poor and marginalized? "Let them be tased!"

[ChuckF]

Ha! I lurve it! Now let's get Rudy to agree to some waterboarding. Or he could be surprised with some extraordinary rendition.

[ZEZOZE]

tasers are big news here in canada...

CBC News In Depth: Tasers

they should be banned or given to tactical police units. we are not cattle.

[chunksmediocrites]

Maybe the shy politicians are waiting to sign up for the faux heat-ray the US military has developed.

My favorite (read: saddest example) control system of the last few decades is the Stun Belt or RACC. Worn by prisoners and remotely operated by law enforcement.

[viscousmemories]

to the ff, chunksmediocrites.

[Caligulette]

Portland seems to be a very free-thinky place! Hello, new member.

[Nullifidian]

And to respond to your post, that stun belt is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. Yet another case of people in prison being the guinea pigs for new forms of social and political control.

I'm holding out for deadlocks, myself.

[Crumb]

Welcome to the fellow Cascadian, chunksmediocrites!

[chunksmediocrites]

Thanks for the warm welcomes, all-
Uthgar the Brazen thanks especially to the link to that awesome movie- I have heard about it but not seen it, though now I think I will. My other favorite prison-movie ideas include Face/Off, with the off-shore oil platform converted to a maximum security prison (where the prisoners wear magnetic boots that switch on if there is a fight...hmm) and I think there is another future-prison movie out there where "the yellow line is pain, the red line is death", but I haven't bothered to track it down yet. And of course No Escape with Ray Liotta and Escape from New York...

[Sock Puppet]

Originally Posted by chunksmediocrites

I think there is another future-prison movie out there where "the yellow line is pain, the red line is death", but I haven't bothered to track it down yet.

That'd be Fortress. The device was called an "Intestinator," a little remote-controlled metal thingie that lodged in the intestine. Cross the red line and it explodes. Not a great film, but it had a few interesting concepts.

I should probably warn you that "awesome" is in the eye of the beholder, and my central, magic-nullifying eye has a great love for John Carpenter films. Caveat emptor and all that.