[Peace] Re: [Imc] Taser strategy and Champaign City Council

[J. Wason]

At 01:38 PM 03/03/04 -0600, Chas. 'Mark' Bee wrote:

>> What are the dangers of sending a 50,000 watt voltage dart into a
>> person with a heart condition or epilepsy?

>   It's 50,000 volts.  And the same watts as a battery.  Carpet static
>sparks are around 10-20,000 volts.   -cmb

Are watts a measure of amperage?  I know that the effect of electricity is
a combination of voltage (the "speed" of the current) and the amperage (the
"amount" or "volume" of the current).  Static electricity is mildly
unpleasant because it has almost no amperage.  On the other hand, I grabbed
a spark plug wire on an idling automobile that I was tuning up once, which
puts out something like 20-30,000 volts, and I was literally knocked on my
ass.  Not rendered unconscious, but certainly incapacitated for a period of
time and scared (shocked?) shitless.  I was young and strong at the time;
if I'd had a heart condition I'm pretty sure it would have had serious
consequences, or could have at any rate.

All that to say that tasers, according to all I've read (mostly from Kim)
are designed to incapacitate a person, render them immobile.  Thus I
imagine that they're much more like that spark plug wire than they are like
static sparks from a carpet.  Stronger than the spark plug wire, I'd guess.

John