Rick Smith’s Tasers and the Social-Control Economy

Elvert Barnes Protest Photography via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Human primates seem extremely keen to shock each other these days. Arizona-based Axon Enterprise, Inc. (formerly Taser International) produces electroshock weapons. And its market cap amounts to tens of billions in USD.

Axon’s corporate slogan is Protect Life. CEO Rick Smith has gone so far as to suggest that using a Taser 10 is safer than playing volleyball. Hello?

We’ve read the stories for years, featuring people like Kenneth Espinoza...