The police doesn't know or doesn't care about the conditions of their victims, who are often on drugs. In the article, the victim was "really, really, really bad” and wanted to go to the hospital before getting tased.
Here, hopefully, the employees are most likely asked for medical conditions and they are not on drugs. They are shot from the back (probably safer than on the front), there are people next to them to cover their fall and they are wearing safety goggles. They are also not shocked repeatedly. These are ideal conditions that almost never happen in real life, and I guess that although there is a risk, it is very safe.
And high heels have definitely caused (often minor) injuries to the wearer, like from falls. And maybe a death or two, who knows.
I am no saying that getting tased is good, just that in these controlled conditions, you most likely won't die. It fact, it may be less dangerous than alcohol fueled "after work" parties, which is also the kind of thing where "opting out" may be difficult in some companies (which may also include Axon).
The safest thing is to not get tased, there is no risk of death from that. It seems ridiculous to take on a risk of death for no benefit.
Though if your argument is that your less-than-lethal product is safe.. testing it on yourself seems pretty on point.
The alternatives to tazing someone are pepper spray (has it's own deaths caused by it) or 9mm which is quite a bit more fatal.
> The alternatives to tazing someone are pepper spray (has it's own deaths caused by it) or 9mm which is quite a bit more fatal.
The alternative is none of the above. American police use "less-lethal" weaponry to a far greater extent (and with far more ease) than comparable countries.
If you remove LTL options, then yes American cops will do what UK cops do and use unarmed strikes. That means repeatedly striking, hitting and keeping in a stress position a suspect.
Striking people kills them. It kills them at a much, much, much higher rate than pepper spray or tasers.
In theory it is good to have a middle ground between batons and pistols for handling e.g. knife wielding mental patients or whatever. But I don't think these kind of special weapons like papper spray or tazers should be given to anything but designated units specialized in handling insane people. Ordinary cops are just too stupid to be given ways to "safely" hurt people. They will use it too much.
One of the selling points of a baton is that it can be used lethally. If you start engaging with a baton and the suspect pulls a knife, you still use the baton but use different strike areas.
Pepper spray causes irritation and is corrected with water. Deaths usually occur in someone with compromised airways or who has heart issues. Tasers leave no impacts and cause deaths in those with heart issues.
Batons break bones and disable joints. The old school method was to break the suspects collarbone which makes raising the arm very hard - but that is difficult for a smaller person so now they use disabling joint strikes. The side of the knee cap is a nice prime spot.
The comparison to being asked to wear high heels (which is stupid) is distasteful: tasers kill people, and Axon is well aware that their product, in particular, has deaths attributable to it[1]. You might feel stupid in high heels, but they won't kill you.
[1]: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-tase...