A stun belt is a belt fastened around the subject's waist, leg, or arm that carries a battery and control pack, and contains features to stop the subject from unfastening or removing it. A remote-control signal is sent to tell the control pack to give the subject an electric shock. Some models are activated by the subject's movement.
The electrical pulse delivered by the control pack is based on the waveform developed by
Jack Cover, which he called the TASER.
These devices are used to control
prisoners in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Some stun belts can restrain the subject's hands and have a strap going under his groin to stop him from rotating the belt around his waist to reach its battery and control pack and trying to deactivate it. Stun belts are not generally available to the public.
In 1996,
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
called on the United States to ban the use and export of the machine,
arguing that it is a
torture device that is "in direct contravention of international standards on the treatment of prisoners". Since then, the United States has not complied with the organization's request. Presently, the U.S. and South Africa are the only two countries that still use the stun belt.
See also
*
Graduated Electronic Decelerator
*
Taser
Taser (stylized in all caps) is a line of handheld conducted energy devices (CED) sold by Axon Enterprise (formerly Taser International). The device fires two small barbed darts intended to puncture the skin and remain attached to the targe ...
References
External links
Cruelty in Control summarises some of the suits against the device including patent infringements
* Barry Yeoman
Mother Jones
* http://www.progressive.org/mag_cusactech
* http://www.stuntronics.com/ice-shield-1.html
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Non-lethal weapons
Physical restraint
Instruments of torture