counter-taserism

the New Scientist Last Word blog has an interesting question this week:

Purely in the interests of research, what could be done by an individual to lessen the effect of being tased?

they have a series of answers here
the best reply was:

Tasers work by shooting two darts into the skin of the subject and running high-voltage, low-current electricity through the muscles, resulting in painful spasms and loss of voluntary control. Wearing a pair of rubber shoes or standing in water would have no effect because the current passes between the two darts in the skin and not through your body to the ground.

An all-encompassing rubber suit would only protect you if it was thick enough to prevent the darts penetrating to the skin. Thick clothes too could have this effect, but because a Taser will still be reasonably effective even if it strikes an extremity like an arm or a leg, any layer would have to cover your whole body to be effective, which would be hot and cumbersome.

The best defence is probably to keep moving as fast as possible across the assailant's arc of fire, making it as difficult as possible for the Taser operator to keep you in their sights and therefore maximising the chance of one or both of the darts missing your body.

The best defence against a Taser attack is probably to keep moving as fast as possible

Peter Oliver, Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, UK

Something to keep in mind as the police have become taser-happy, tasering people for asking long-winded questions as you may have seen on the infamous "don't tase me bro" youtube video: