Word: tasers
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Tabatabainejad’s attorney, Stephen Yagman, stated that Tabatabainejad eventually agreed to leave the library but when a police officer refused to remove his hands from Tabatabainejad, Tabatabainejad fell to the ground in further protest against his unjust treatment. The attendant police then used a Taser on Tabatabainejad, who reacted by trying to get “the use of brutal force to stop by shouting and causing people to watch,” the LA Times quoted Yagman as saying...
...then the stock abruptly hit a wall. Just days after the company wrapped up its best year ever, with $68 million in revenues, the SEC and the Arizona attorney general announced informal investigations of the company, and Taser warned shareholders that the pace of new orders might slow down. In the first 11 days of January, Taser's shares lost nearly 60% of their value...
...things get so bad so fast? "The problem with a stock like this is that it attracts fanatics," says Brian Ruttenbur, an analyst at Morgan Keegan. Enthusiasts, says Ruttenbur, treated Taser like a dotcom, sending its price soaring, even though the company posted just $4.4 million in earnings in 2003. The company's rapid growth--some 10% of the nation's 1.1 million officers now have a stun gun--led investors to hope that soon every police officer would get a Taser, just as most carry batons and pepper spray...
...Taser unsafe? Rick Smith, the company's CEO, staunchly defended its technology in a press release issued the same day as the Amnesty International report, claiming that "while not risk-free," it was "safe and effective." (The company has not responded to TIME's repeated requests for interviews.) Matthew Tobias, a special-operations commander for the Chicago police, says the department stands behind Tasers and plans to keep using them. "Tasers reduce injuries to officers and citizens," says Tobias. Police in Cincinnati, Seattle and Madison, Wis., have also backed Tasers in written reports...
Such endorsements could help the company rebound. In the 1990s, medical concerns about pepper spray--which came to a head when several people died after being sprayed--led to studies that indicated the spray was not to blame. With more studies, Tasers could be similarly exonerated. And even though Taser's stock has plummeted, it is still above where it was in early 2004. "The company has performed extremely well, but its rate of growth has slowed," says Joe Blankenship, an analyst at Source Capital Group, who notes that Taser is flush with cash. As it fights its many battles...