Shock-proof jacket ensures a tasering to the face
With non-lethal weapon manufacturers such as TASER International constantly finding new and insidious ways to incapacitate "non-compliant individuals," it's only natural that those folks who have frequent encounters with stun gun-toting authorities would want protection from their piercing, electrifying barbs. Well a gentleman from Arizona named Gregory Russell Schultz apparently empathizes with this demographic, and has filed a patent for an "energy weapon protection device" -- essentially a jacket embedded with alternating layers of conductive and non-conductive panels that complete an electrical circuit and leave the wearer impervious to the shocks of what would likely be a very surprised officer of the law. If they can retrofit our Members Only jacket in this manner, we're sold.
[Via Danger Room]
[Via Danger Room]



















Hey Mike,
You're a douchebag (and possibly a Nazi). The guy did nothing to 'deserve' being tazered aside from asking a question of John Kerry after being called on. Mr. Kerry was in the process of answering the question and strangely continued to answer even as this man was being brutally taken away. This is a free country and the guy had a right to ask Kerry about his membership in Skull & Bones (a strange secret society at Yale that many of our so-called leaders have been initiated into). WTF is wrong with you that you think his asking a question somehow made him deserving of being Tazered? I never even heard the cops/security ask him to leave, nor John Kerry for that matter. If your not willing to stand up for the rights of others, even when you don't agree with them, you don't deserve the rights yourself.
Wow. Member's Only. You're dating yourself, eh? :-)
Guess I am, too, by making the remark.
Gian
Dated? Doesn't Ando from Heroes where one all the time. I think Member Only is making a come back.
I AM THE LAW!
Don't tase me, bro!
damnit, you beat me to it.
You mean to say "Can't tase me, bro!"
I am tired of hearing this. Police always give a verbal warning to get down on the ground. You run...they taser you...you resist arrest at all in any mannor (by trying to get up without them holding you or cuffing you...running...fighting...etc) you gonna be tasered. Would you rather it be...verbal warning...you try and run and they shoot you in the leg? Tasers are no more dangerous then a good VanDaGraph generator. The student event where this came from was over-exaggerated and he was trying to make a scene. He deserved what he got. Now...in group situations like protests these vests would be great because police will taser anyone running without warning which is normal and standard procedure. Good for protection in protests and demonstrations but bad in a one-on-one situation.
-* Nods and unlimbers his 'silent guardian'® neural agonizer.. *-
If this guy asks you to come over and play GameCube while listening to Jack Johnson you should totally do it, but don't forget to wear your Axe.
Only thing is, if they can't use their Taser, they'll have to use their baton (possibly breaking bones, causing internal damage, or even brain damage) or their guns, which would kill you. OC spray isn't a viable option most of the time, as it is too easy to accidentally incapicitate themself.
Wear Kevlar underneath this, you will look like a blow-fish sure.... but you will be invincible!
Right up until the point where they shoot you in the face...
because nobody ever died from a taser right?
Carbon Fiber armor suite with layers of conductive fabric built into the panels as well. This will prevent the barbs from causing annoying surface wounds. The electric won't be able to get you thanks to the faraday cage, and the carbon fiber panels will protect you from the strength for the cop. That means they can fight you fist-fist, leave you alone, or shot you. Fighting you in hand-hand combat would be pretty bad if you have decent strength as he can't punch you and cause damage thanks to the armor. Letting you get away would cause outcry, and firing at you when you haven’t done anything is going to cause an even WORSE outcry.
I can't wait to see one of these involved in a minor crime!
Or diplomacy.
What's that club you've got on your belt officer
"it's not a club, it's a baton"
what do you do with it
"club people"
I think they should get that "Don't taser me bro!" kid to market and test this.
Sex offenders rejoice!!!!
This thing is never going to sell without some marketing behind it... "The NIKE SHOCK-BLOCK" "FUBU TASERILLA" "RBK Oh No You Dih Int"
Tru dat, but it also needs a USB port so it can charge my phone, BT headset, and iPod during my home invasions!
Just go back to regular guns. A bullet in the leg should do the trick.
They do not shoot for the leg typically, always center mass.
Police do not shoot to wound. Do you have any idea how hard it would be to shoot some one in the leg or shoot the gun out of their hand? Especially if they are chasing after some one. So if they remove tazers they will just shoot to kill like the old days or give you brain damage with a baton (dead people can sue so first one is a better alternative but has more paper work)
If you want to know the meaning of lawsuit, try shooting someone in the leg and miss. Nobody wants a lawsuit from someone whose wedding tackle was accidentally shot off.
Jeez, can't I be sarcastic anymore?
Ya know, Jedi's don't need tasers. It's all "negotiation by lightsaber"! Let's see this jacket stop that!!
I bet Static Shock is pissed!
er... Surely if the cops Taser you and don't go down in writhing agony, they're just going to break the Glock out and take you out that way, or am I missing something?
It would be more useful on a college campus, where the campus police/security typically don't carry firearms. (IME, at least.)
at university of central arkansas the campus pd have m16s... or ar 15 whatever
Still, I love the "bring it on, coppers!" look on that guy's face.
I agree. I love the smug wink and smile he's giving.
Ha! I didn't notice. That's got Sears catalogue written all over it.
Or ask for our ShockBlok II, with the zip-in Kevlar liner!
haha!! member's only... now THATS making a fashion statement!!!
Bet the "Dont tase me bro" guy wishes he had one of these...
Considering what happened in Vancouver a few weeks ago, I'd hardly call the taser a "non-lethal" weapon!
Considering what happened in Vancouver a few weeks ago, I'd hardly call the taser a "non-lethal" weapon!
Love the headline *golf clap* :)
in the FACE.
Maybe if they had this the police wouldn't have brutally murdered innocent people.
They didn't. You must be a criminal to see it that way.
Rank me low. Do you know how many civilian deaths have come out of the police state you call america? They just killed another person in BC! You people cant afford to be this ignorant. Watch these videos and then rank me why don't you http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2007/210907_b_brutality.htm it is blatant proof.
Except British Columbia is in Canada
You didn't read the article, sigh
I didn't ... but I damn sure thought you meant Before Christ ... cause America and Canada didn't click / clique.
Wow. That's very admirable. An inventor seeking to help criminals thwart the law.
Back to just shooting them
"...ensures a tasering to the face"...Or the jock.
It worked for Rodney King...oh wait...
I f'ing lol'd at the title.
I like how the "model" looks like he's winking at the person tasering him. Winking is the new DTMB.
This is when you have to resort to the back up weapon... And if you happen to have this (http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392807) then you may need this (http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=11101&storeId=10001&productId=14777&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=15707&isFirearm=Y) to at least knock them down.
I am a law enforcement officer and saw a material like this in action in training. it is just a copper wire mesh put into fabric material. seeing cooper is as expensive and it would be hotter than hell, not a realistic option.
a guy walked into a room... made a comment about people being able to take oc, said he could take taser. drive-stunned himself in the chest. had some of the material there. we were told it would be for training use... not so bad guys could run around with it.
people are right though... taser is a better option than a baton or expandable. five or more seconds of horrible pain... but then its over and there are no side effects.
bad idea to take the option away.
Nah, all it would take is a layer of mylar (Which is polyester sheet plastic with a thin layer of aluminum deposited on that. One could even deposit a thin layer of aluminum on most fabrics and still retain the breathability of regular fabric.
Of course this also turns you into a walking lightning rod! Dont go out in stormy weather!
hah, I want one just so I can tell someone to tase me.
I wouldn't be shocked if it worked.
I see what you did there.
Somebody in Montreal already got a Taser barb in the eye and will lose the eye because of it....
"Harry...what if they shot you in the face?"
Oh come on, rank this guy up. That was an awesome reference.
The core of the problem is the us VS them mentality between people and police. When a countries normal citizens feel they may need things like this there is something radically wrong with the government not the people.
Also there is a difference between tazing someone to make their job easier vs pulling your gun on an unarmed person and killing them. What would the outcry have been if they shot that guy for asking a question.
i've never heard any normal citizens express the need for taser defense. the fact is the dude dont tase me individual was asked to leave multiple times and didn't. granted the situation could have been handled better you clearly have zero concept on what working in law enforcement is like.
how well would you handle your job if every single incident your involved with could lead to your death? We had an officer in phoenix get shot and killed by an illegal immigrant because the officer wanted to stop him for jay walking.
If a so called "us this them" mentality is needed in order for me to go home every night to my family safe and unharmed. so be it. You obviously don't understand that people are out to KILL officer simply because we are officers.
Enjoy your job behind a safe desk.
How many police deaths have been saved by tasering "bad" "guys"? Any? The guy who lets you taser him isn't the guy whose going to kill you. If people are looking to kill you just for being police officers, perhaps it has something to do with all that tasering you don't seem to have any problem with. Or maybe it's your enforcement of "free speech" zones and other freedom-trampling fascist crap. Or maybe it has something to do with your compliance in allowing the police in the US to become militarized. Whatever the combination of reasons; your us versus them mentality does not protect you, it endangers you. Oh, and your fear of death is no excuse to abuse your powers and violently attack people. Any of us could die at any moment, whether on the jobs we *choose* or not. What's important in how we live while we're here. I will live free until I die, and I don't fear death. I won't let you apply some humanity-ignoring label like "bad guy" on me and then taze me. If you try, I'll do my best to kill you, and yes I know I'm nearly guaranteed to die as a result. I'll die defending freedom, you might die trying to oppress it. I don't think we'll end up in the same place.
Yeah, there definitely is a problem when people have the criminal mentality to wear devices to defeat the police in the performance of their duties. Its this criminal, "brat" mentality that gets them tased in the first place.
It's really difficult for some to stay out of trouble, huh?
Looks like the Taser can be countered with this interesting jacket. Looks like it's time for the SWAT-C8, which fires 8 PAVA pepper balls, which are 4x the strength of pepper sprays that explode on impact. He breathes the hot pepper dust and will be toast. The jacket will not protect you from scorching Pava powder!
Christopher Winkler
http://www.defendthyself.com/avurt/swat-c8.htm
the only appropriate name for this product is "The Bro".
IS IT RAEP TIME NAOS?
yes, yes it is. don't forget the goggles
Well, with cops champing at the bit to use their tasers on ANYONE who resists (even passively by not obeying an order) just as an excuse to make their job easier..... I am not suprised that this type of product has come about.
Police have tasered old women, young children, the wheelchair-bound & the mentally handicapped. The police are just too quick to whip out a taser in situations where it isnt warranted. Violent suspect? fine, physically resisting suspect? fine. Suspect that refuses to obey an order & is not threatening in any way?.... NOT FINE.
"Police have tasered old women, young children, the wheelchair-bound & the mentally handicapped."
Now this is laughable and most likely anecdotal. Even if there are rare cases of this, you make it sound as if police are going around tasering those people on a regular basis. Not to mention, I can easily think of situations where any of those people might need to be tasered - not just as punishment, but to prevent a situation where they might wound themselves, people around them, or law enforcement. But you don't even bother to put your claim into context.
I'd also love to see multiple links to stories where police just tasered those people without warrant. And I don't mean just a few stories (which would do nothing more than suggest the situation is rare) or something anecdotal, but something that shows that there is a real reason for concern in regard to police tasering innocent citizens, backed up with facts and figures. Otherwise, comments like that are just a joke.
In all my years, I've never witnessed a single person get tasered, and I'm not the house-bound type. And I seldom hear stories of it, except occasionally on the net or on TV. Of course, we're going to get the occasional story, but what you're trying to present blown completely out of proportion.
Great, the demograph that actually buys into this can be shot instead of tazered.
Darwin 1, Criminals 0
One of the first buyers of that jacket might be Chicago based CI, as their night manager was tasered several times when thieves came in, recently: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/03/2054208
Products like these just make me laugh (and scoff), because they're ineffective and their purpose isn't to protect a law-abiding society.
And as some have mentioned, getting Tasered in the face and neck is indeed an option. So is on the legs, ass, hands and feet. So this jacket won't accomplish jack-squat.
Of course, the inventor of this jacket has either forgotten or simply doesn't realize that whoever wears it, can also be face sprayed with mace (or tasered in another part of the body as I mentioned above), and during that pain and confusion get their jacket unzipped, and THEN tasered (or tasered again). Not exactly much of a defense. They can also be whacked with a baton or shot with a gun. You know, like in any other situation. It's not exactly going to prevent much of anything.
And even more important questions are, WHO would wear this thing? Who would wear it EVERYDAY? And who would feel they NEED to wear it? Certainly not any law-abiding person.
Of course, if this jacket actually gets made, what would also prevent Taser from developing technology to defeat it, just in case? They'd certainly have to try, simply for the safety of law enforcement (who uses their products), which just means they'd integrate it into their entire product line (including consumer-based models).
You can say, "not fine," but the courts have said otherwise. Passive resistance warrants pain and compliance techniques, impact weapons, chemical weapons (pepper spray) and tasers on the force continuum table.
Sorry. You can't resist police, even passively or refuse to obey a lawful order. That this bothers you speaks to your mindset.
'Lawful order' now includes just about any order imaginable as the powers of police and ant terrorism laws have made it so it's just about illegal to breathe. My point is that the so called lawful orders often impinge upon natural human rights, and the day will come when every morally aware citizen will need to stand up against the global police state by telling you to stuff their orders up your arse. . . no doubt in my mind that open warfare against the police and government will be needed before the world can be cleansed of the new fascists. You bloody cops don't know right from wrong and you never have, part of your training is to enforce the law no matter what the law says. . . . as soon as you buy into that you have sold your moral soul to the dark side, so shut the F up you are just robots.
.
Lawful orders are narrowly defined by case law and the courts; most likely you're simply trying to rationalize your own illegal and defiant behavior. It's natural for the criminals to hate the police and label those that enforce the laws that society have enacted as "the new facists."
"Just about illegal to breathe" panders to the typical leftist strategem to paint a far extreme metephor of reality to give your tenuous position some semblance of validity.
We absolutely know right from wrong, those with your mindset don't, hence the reason you clash with officers enforcing the law. You think the measure of an officer's professionalism is the amount of SHIT that he'll take from you, so utlimately, you'll likely be at the receiving end of the use-of force model, if you haven't already. (wink, wink)
My guess is that you've already told an officer to "stuff his lawful order up his arse" and you're still whining about the tune-up he gave you via the safety afforded you by the anonymity of the internet.
Once again, you cannot resist the law, and this is the crux of your frustration.
It appears that "mummy and daddy" allowed this one far too much latitude.
Oh come on, like the police are always justified. It seems that every time I see a use of questionable force being enacted by a police officer, the cameraman is always the next one in trouble.
If the officers really believe they are doing their duty, what reason can you give for them asking cameramen to cover up their camera lens, or putting their hands up in the camera, or trying to hide their badges, or forcing people to stand a certain distance away in order to block the incident from public view with a wall of officers.
What is wrong with collecting video evidence of a scene of a "crime"? If an officer is acting within the law, I see no reason for them to fear their actions being taped.
"what reason can you give for them asking cameramen to cover up their camera lens, or putting their hands up in the camera, or trying to hide their badges, or forcing people to stand a certain distance away in order to block the incident from public view with a wall of officers."
I don't know. I've never seen any videos with any of the actions you listed here, save for officers ordering subjects back while they're engaged in a fight with a suspect. If you can't understand why officers don't want other potential suspects approaching their backs while they fight with a suspect, you're not being realistic.
I challange you to post a link of any videos portraying the actions you've mentioned. I think I hear the sound of crickets chirping now.
"essentially a jacket embedded with alternating layers of conductive and non-conductive panels that complete an electrical circuit and leave the wearer impervious to the shocks"
I have underwear like that...i bought em of a civil protection company. they are called "Speedo's"
think they are water proof also!
How did I miss this story? Anyways, I've read the headline about 10 times now and laugh every time. Gets my vote for best engadget headline ever.