Progress

by digby

They whooped and hollered when they heard about it:

Taser International unveiled its first new stun gun since 2003 on Monday, a device that can shock three people without being reloaded.

Older Taser stun guns, in use by 14,200 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States, have to be reloaded after one shot, which can be a problem for an officer who has missed a target or has more than one suspect to subdue.

Taser CEO Rick Smith and his brother, Chairman Tom Smith, unveiled the new device to hundreds of law enforcement officers and distributors at the Scottsdale-based company’s annual conference. They stood on stage, each holding two new Tasers, and fired six rounds a piece at metal targets to whoops and applause.

“This is as big a step as when firearms went from a muzzle loader to the revolver,” Rick Smith said later. “If I was a cop I’d want to carry one.”

[…]

While the device can be used against three people, it targets the same person more than once. Smith said each barb would deliver a separate shock.

Gosh, that is such a great improvement. Instead of having to reload to shock people multiple times while they are already compliant and in custody, they can do it in rapid succession. After all, it only leaves a couple of tiny marks.

I hear Taser is working on something really innovative: a chip that can be implanted in every citizen which can be activated by remote control to drop you to the ground writing in pain whenever the authorities perceive that you are being uncooperative. Wouldn’t that solve all of these problems? And seriously, what would be the principle against against it?

Oh, by the way, here’s some very special news:

He said the devices are in line the costs of other law enforcement tools, and that Taser hopes law enforcement agencies can tap tap federal stimulus funds.

I guess that’s one way to define “stimulus.”

This would be an outrage. Joe Biden has said they can’t spend stimulus money for public swimming pools. I can’t see how they can justify spending it on new and better torture weapons. But I won’t be surprised if they do it anyway. I think we’ve seen with the Gates controversy that the cops are now part of the “troops” — no Democrat will be allowed to do anything but bow and scrape before the badge.

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