It ‘theoretically SHOULD’.
Theory is nice, but practice has a way of not following theory.
Your argument might be more convincing if it was based in reality instead of your fantasy world.
what are you talking about?
That tasers have lasting physical effects? What are they really? They don’t pierce the skin anymore.
Yes, they do. I think you’re confusing Tasers with stun guns.
My understanding is that they can, but don’t actually have to, and can deliver the shock even if they don’t penetrate the skin. So sometimes they leave marks and sometimes they don’t.
Of course, according to Bryan Ekers, anyone who disagrees with him is an idiot, irrespective of the evidence. The thread can now be closed, as can all threads, with the automated response “Just ask Bryan” to all OPs.
Well, that would greatly simplify matters.
I found one of the studies I was looking for:
from Academic Emergency Medicine May 2007, Vol. 14, No. 5, Suppl. 1 PDF
Right. But the OP seemed to think they won’t penetrate skin at all. That’s not the case. If the darts hit bare skin, they WILL penetrate. think clothing my prevent penetration, but as you note, the effect is not significantly diminished–the voltage is sufficiently high to break down the small air gap and deliver the shock.
In some cases, the voltage isn’t high enough to penetrate clothing. Here’s an instance from a couple years ago:
I’m very, very impressed by a sample size of 32 people who are supposedly physically fit and in good health (cops do have requirements for that, don’t they?) who were shocked once, briefly by someone they trust, not left lying there on the road with their head in traffic and darts in their skin.
Anybody happen to read the transcript of the internal affairs interview with the Austin cop? He pretty much said he used toe taser so that he could try to get through things faster after having hit the motorist with the door of the car after ordering the motorist to get out of the car.
That was a disaster from the get go, although the driver should have gotten the ticket for not having the rear license plate.
I wonder what this cop would have done if he had pulled me over - my car is registered in PA - and noticed I don’t have a front plate? Would I get the taser if I tried explaining that we don’t have front plates in PA?
So what do you suggest as a better study methodology?
How about shocking people randomly during traffic stops? 
Either right then or shortly after you begin screaming “I know you’re gonna tase me so go ahead and do it, you badge-wearing bully! RODNEY KING! RODNEY KING!”
Maybe they could advertise a study and get a few hundred random people off the street who are willing to be tased for varying durations and varying numbers of zaps.
Not that I think advertising such would be very successful, since I can’t imagine they’d find a few hundred people who want to be tased. Maybe if they offered the right kind of incentive?
You can laugh all you want. I was threatened with arrest by a cop in Ohio who pulled me over for not having a front plate (on a car bearing a PA rear plate), and when I said ‘I can’t put a front plate on my car because PA doesn’t issue them.’ He told me that I better not get smart with him or I would ‘regret it.’
Since there’s no YouTube video of the incident I will accept your version of events. My own personal experience is that the dickishness one gets from a cop is correlated, to some degree, with the dickishness one projects. If you informed him about the front plate in a calm, polite manner and he snapped at you that’s one thing—telling him the same thing while raising your voice, scoffing, or rolling your eyes is much more likely to put him on the defensive and into Dickhead Cop mode (regardless of the fact that either way, what you’re saying may be right).
The attitude you display here toward police leads me to believe you may not be all sweetness 'n light when you’re pulled over. While yes, it sucks to have to feign politeness to someone you may not respect, it’s about keeping cool and making the situation work to your advantage, so you can be on your way—just like getting what you want out of a bank teller or customer service moron or anyone else, except the stakes are higher.
(And yes, I’m well aware that a bank teller isn’t allowed to tase or shoot you, so let’s bypass that bit of obviousness.)
They aren’t? I’ve got to change banks!
I haven’t been able to find any studies like that, but some further research turned up this study: Tasers Used By Law Enforcement Are Safe, Review Suggests
Casting my mind back to some of the people I’ve stood behind, I sort of wish they were.
The attitude I have toward police is due to the way I have been treated by them, not the other way around. I don’t like cops because I haven’t found them to be at all respectful to me when I have had to deal with them.
I’ve encountered far too many Buford T. Justice wanna-bes in life, from growing up in a town where a cop thought the best way to break up a keg party (which I was not a part of) was to fire a few rounds into the keg in a room full of high school kids, to being threatened with arrest and whatever else by the cop who pulled me over in Ohio for not displaying a front plate, to the cop who expressed a problem with my walking down a city sidewalk one night while I was in college because he thought that it was too late for me to be out by myself.
The behavior I’ve seen out of cops at the firing range has been downright scary in many instances, as they displayed blatant disregard for firearms safety and in general acted like macho jerks, and quite frankly if they’re dangerous with a firearm in a controlled situation like a firing range, they’re going to be worse when the adrenaline is pumping.
Over the years I have developed a reaction to cops which is pretty much distrustful avoidance. Avoid cops and avoid doing anything that might make Buford T. Justice feel the need to play with his gun. The remark I made to the cop in Ohio who threatened to arrest me for not having a front license plate was made AFTER the threat of arrest.
He asked if I knew why he pulled me over, and I said ‘No. I wasn’t speeding. I don’t know.’ He told me it was for failure to display my license plate properly on the front of my vehicle. I said ‘I’m from Pennsylvania. We only get one plate, for the back.’ He indicated that he didn’t believe me and I was going to get a ticket anyway. I said ‘Officer, I live in Pennsylvania, and it’s a three hour drive to get here. Can you possibly confirm with Penn DOT that we don’t have front plates instead of ticketing me? I can’t just drive back here to come to a court date.’ He told me he should arrest me for driving an unregistered car. That’s when I said that I can’t put a front plate on the car because PA doesn’t issue them.
Eventually another Ohio cop came and told him to let me go because they can’t ticket me for failing to have a front plate on a car that’s not registered in Ohio.
While the sample size is larger, the article you link does indicate that the ‘tactical physician’ who reported the findings to the study researchers did not actually examine the people who were tased and that these tactical physicians apparently worked for the law enforcement agencies themselves. I’m still unconvinced that the use of tasers as a time-saving, forced-compliance tool is safe and should not be considered torture.
While I’m generally on your side vis a vis the use of Tasers, you’re certainly not going to get very far in life if you’re a bitch to everyone you meet. You seem perpetually pissed off at the rest of the world.
I’ve actually encountered some very nice, polite cops. Why should I punish one of them because some other cop was a dick?