Licia Corbella (London Free Press) - Having the RCMP investigate the RCMP’s conduct into the taser death of a Polish immigrant at Vancouver International Airport is nothing short of absurd.
Indeed, having any Canadian police force — all of which must rely on the RCMP from time to time — to investigate the conduct of other police officers — is absurd.
It is long past due for this country to have an independent, civilian body to look into the conduct of police officers and to review police procedures.
The amateur video capturing the last 10 minutes of the life of Robert Dziekanski, 40, is extremely troubling on many levels.
First, it proves that the initial official statements issued by the RCMP following Dziekanski’s death were inaccurate to put it mildly.
RCMP admitted that they tasered the disoriented and agitated man twice.
“(The taser) didn’t seem to have any kind of effect on him,” said Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre shortly after Dziekanski’s Oct. 14 death.
In fact, the video clearly shows the taser having a profound effect on Dziekanski, who started to scream and fell to the ground writhing in pain and panic, which is when he was tasered again before lapsing into unconsciousness and dying.
Liberal Public Safety Critic Ujjal Dosanjh is right to call on the Harper Conservative government to establish public hearings in order to develop national guidelines for the use of tasers.
Police argue that tasers save lives since they give officers an alternative to using their firearms.
If that were the only circumstance in which these potentially deadly devices were used, then this debate, which is raging around the world, wouldn’t be taking place.
Instead, this gut-wrenching video proves that the RCMP officers who attended to a clearly disturbed Dziekanski used the taser as a first resort within 23 seconds of approaching Dziekanski, who was breathing heavily and sweating.
This shameful incident has sullied Canada’s
reputation around the world.
Independent oversight would go a long way to preventing this kind of abuse of power in the future.
1 response so far ↓
1 chilled // Nov 18, 2007 at 16:53
Liberal Public Safety Critic Ujjal Dosanjh is right to call on the Harper Conservative government to establish public hearings in order to develop national guidelines for the use of tasers.”"
It’s too bad the present critic, when premier of BC did nothing to rein in the RCMP. Dosanjh’s criticism’s and suggestions are meaningless to anyone with any comprehension skills and who has followed politics over a course of time.
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