"In the minutes prior to my “exposure” to the TASER, after watching several videos of X26 deployments, I decided that my only “goal” would be not scream while I was being tased. “Only five seconds,” I rationalized. I was instructed to stand in the center of a mat, facing away from the firer, with a classmate on either side of me supporting me under my arms. I did not hear the sound of the blast doors of the TASER cartridge blow out of the way as the darts were propelled from the unit, and I did not feel the darts as the impacted my back.
The experience of being tased is one that is difficult to put into words. My initial thought as I was laying on the ground after being tased was that “this must be what it feels like to be struck by lightning.” 50,000 volts of incapacitating electricity coursing through my body, for what felt like the longest five seconds of my life, was quite an interesting experience. I made it through the first one or two seconds in silence, and let out a roar as I felt each of the pulses of electricity going through my body. My body was involuntarily lifted to my “tippie toes,” and my back arched so dramatically that I was afraid it would cause an injury. The TASER’s Digital Pulse Control (DPC) sent nineteen shaped pulses through the probes per second (TASER International 2007e). These pulses are audible, and sound like a very fast electric clicking sound, similar to a mosquito being “zapped” by a “bug light.” I could feel all my muscles contract with each of the ninety-five pulses that entered my body during the five second exposure. After what felt much longer than five seconds, the pulses stopped, I dropped to my knees, and was lowered to the ground by my spotters. One of my spotters then knelt down next to me, and removed the probes from my back."