(Canadian Press) – A video has surfaced showing a 45-year-old disabled man being jolted by a Taser inside the Kamloops, B.C., RCMP detachment.
John Dempsey, who suffered from torsion dystonia, a muscle disorder similar to Parkinson’s Disease, was being subdued by two officers in 2004.
Dempsey had refused to walk through a doorway and had wedged his foot in the door frame.
On the time-lapse security video, one officer is seen throwing Dempsey to the floor while the second officer uses a Taser on the handcuffed man.
Dempsey launched a civil suit several years after the incident, saying he didn’t file a complaint at the time because officers told him he would have to stay in jail and he believed he would not have access to his medications.
The fate of the lawsuit is now in doubt because Dempsey died last month in an unrelated accident when he wandered into traffic on the Coquihalla Highway.
There is an old saying that if you mess with the bull you get the horns. If you are not doing anything untoward I doubt that you will draw the attention of the police. If in fact you do draw their attention, don’t whine about the treatment. Even if they are a bit heavy handed so what? I have news for some people, life is not fair. Get used to it. People are not perfect, get used to it. Stuff happens, get used to it.
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Mopar, I agree that unnecessary force is not right, but who decides what is necessary? Because someone dies does that automatically mean that the police were heavy handed? Or were there other circumstances that also lead to the persons death? It’s true that people have died while in police custody, but is it always the police the caused the death, or are there other factors. Absolutely there have been case of gross misconduct on behalf of the police and people have died because of their actions, however these cases are small and do not represent even a small percentage of the violent encounters that the police are involved in every day.
I was previously edited by making reference to your 2 uncles not representing the majority of police officers in this country, and that their actions and words speak for there personal character flaws as human beings and not necessarily as police officers. ( Let’s see if this watered down version makes it through the censorship).
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Gus you speak of how they put their lives on the line everyday and yet people continue to die at the hands of those said protectors. We could debate this for eons and really solve nothing here. I just think that they should be told to use less force especially when dealing with the general public that is not risking their precious lives. We all risk our lives everyday in one way or another. Does not give us the right to go out and perhaps take a life now does it. I would almost think you are a cop from your post but whatever the case, using unneeded force to deal with people that will not be a problem to their lives is just ridiculous.
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[Edited to remove personal attacks] [...edit...] Thousands of police officers risk their health and sanity trying to fight the good fight to make things better for the rest of us. Your stereotyping does nothing to solve the problem. Just because of the actions of few doesn’t mean the rest are to blame.
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What ever happened to the old saying to protect and to serve. Seems to me that the police just like to be the big bullies on the block with no concern of what is right and wrong. I sort of know this first hand as 2 of my uncles were cops and they always said nothing is illegal as long as you do not get caught. That is a nice sentiment really. Unreal in fact is more the case. I think what we need are a few less gung ho cops out there and maybe a few more that really want to do a good job and not take their position of power for granted. It all just leaves a bad taste in the general publics mouth if I am so brave to speak for the masses. I really feel that internal affairs should do more for getting bad cops out of uniform and back in the real world, where they too can be a target for police abuse that they once took part in. I wonder how they would like being on the opposite side of the fence on that one.
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To be fair, I haven’t seen the footage. But, how 2 officers can’t handle a handcuffed man is beyond me.
Maybe it is time the RCMP once again began hiring the farm boys of yesterday. Guys who have taken a punch in the mouth one in their life and don’t need to resort to crap like tasers.
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