Well, it seems my job is done! After spending about an hour doing some research, I found two wonderful pieces, an editorial by Michael Den Tandt, and Commissioner Fantino's published reply. I must thank the Commissioner for clarifying matters. It seems now that Tasers actually do not save lives at all, it is simply that they have never been found to have been the direct cause of a fatality.
"...the irrefutable bottom line is there have been no studies, no research, no factual evidence to date that prove that the use of a Taser by police officers in the lawful execution of their duty has ever been found to have been the direct cause of a fatality." (Commissioner Fantino, in response to an Editorial piece by Michael Den Tandt - Note the emphasis is my own)
Pardon me for stating the plainly obvious, but it seems there is a significant contradiction in the two statements! Earlier we had the Commissioner stating "Tasers save lives", and next we have him claiming they simply are not the 'direct cause' of any fatalaties (provided they are used by a police officer in the lawful execution of his/her duty, of course). Well Commissioner, which is it?
And of course I was not serious about my job being done. I will not attempt to refute this most recent statement by the commissioner, because as it is specifically worded, it can be considered both truthful and accurate. The interesting issue is the number of carefully worded conditions that he had to include to 'render' his statement true, conditions which I have highlighted in case some readers didn't notice them jump out of the page! Have a bit of fun for yourself, read the statement, then read it again omitting those words italicised and bolded!
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