Citizen Hero Recognized

UPDATED: CBC's The Current audio here. (Paul Pritchard, 1st segment)

The citizen hero who filmed Robert Dzianski's violent death was properly recognized for his responsible and commendable actions.

Per the CBC today:

Man who shot Dziekanski video gets journalism award
By CBC News | October 28, 2009

The man who used a digital camera to record the death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport says he feels guilty he didn't try to help the Polish immigrant even though others honoured his actions Tuesday with a citizen-journalism award.

The man who used a digital camera to record the death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport says he feels guilty he didn't try to help the Polish immigrant even though others honoured his actions Tuesday with a citizen-journalism award.

Dziekanski, 40, died Oct. 14, 2007, following several shocks from a Taser four RCMP officers used to subdue him after he caused a disturbance.

The incident might never have received much attention if Paul Pritchard had not decided to grab his digital camera and start recording the actions of the distraught Dziekanski before police arrived.

_______________


After the incident, Pritchard, who was on his way to his family's home in Victoria and had been waiting in the international arrivals lounge at the time, handed his video over to the RCMP to use in their investigation. The police promised it would be returned in 48 hours.

But when the RCMP's public statements about the incident conflicted with what Pritchard and other witnesses said they saw, Pritchard demanded the RCMP return the video so that he could release it to the public.

When the police refused, saying releasing the video would compromise their investigation, Pritchard hired a lawyer, held a news conference and threatened to use legal action to get it back.

The release of the 10-minute video, which contradicted the police version of the incident, led to widespread public outrage around the world and diplomatic tensions between Canada and Poland. It also resulted in the deepest scrutiny of the RCMP in decades in the form of a special inquiry into the incident, led by retired British Columbia Appeal Court Justice Thomas R. Braidwood.

Citizen journalism award

On Tuesday evening in Toronto, Pritchard's work in documenting what happened and waging a legal battle against the RCMP for the release of his video was honoured by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.

The organization gave Pritchard its first-ever award for citizen journalism, which recognizes the contributions of ordinary people in the field of journalism.

_______________


"I don't consider myself a hero, and to be honest, I'm not completely happy with the fact that I did that," said Pritchard. "Maybe instead of grabbing a camera, I could have gone and talked to him.

"If I feel I did something wrong, or feel I didn't do enough, I think the effort I put in afterwards is enough for me to live with that ? I did everything I possibly could do."

Personally, I consider Paul a hero for what he did.

Without his responsible actions, the whole affair would have been swept under the proverbial rug . . . .


(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Braidwood Inquiry : Taser slams "junk science"

A lawyer for Taser Int. told the Braidwood Inquiry yesterday that medical testimony linking the death of Robert Dziekanski to his being tasered five times is "junk science". Or, as amusingly reported twice by the Winnipeg Sun in their version of the story before they fixed it : "jump science".

"... there was no evidence that "the Taser device caused or contributed to his death."

"We say it is time this uninformed speculation about the role the Taser device may have had in this case be dispelled and the attack on Taser’s reputation ended."

Taser Int. filed an application in B.C. Supreme Court in August to quash all 19 of Justice Braidwood's recommendations in his report Restoring Public Confidence: Restricting the Use of Conducted Energy Weapons in British Columbia despite Braidwood's advocacy for the weapon. Taser Int. prefers to lay all the blame on the mysterious "sudden death during restraint" due to "delirium".

You know, Taser, I think a simple test here would help clear up all this "uninformed speculation".

The problem is that we see people being tasered and then dropping dead - in that order. The RCMP has hundreds of recorded examples of drawing their TASER™ device and then not using it. If, as you contend, people die of delirium during restraint and not from being tasered, then all you have to do is produce the RCMP body of evidence that just as many delirious people drop dead before they are tasered as after.

Jump science. Hope this helps.

Remembering Robert . . . .

The Braidwood Inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski resumes tomorrow.

Today's "24 Hours-Vancouver" had an interview with Robert's mother, Zofia Cisowski. Excerpts are below:

Who was Robert Dziekanski?
Polish immigrant killed at YVR remembered as a 'fantastic person'
By MATT KIELTYKA | September 21, 2009

A faint smile crept into Zofia Cisowski's face - but only for a moment.

It's a smile that has appeared far too rarely since her son, Robert Dziekanski, died on the floor of the Vancouver International Airport after being jolted by multiple Taser shots Oct. 14, 2007.

But as much as his death - and ensuing inquiry into the circumstances around it - has shredded Cisowski's life, she can't hide her maternal pride when thinking about her boy.

_______________


She raised Robert on her own in the town of Gliwice in southern Poland and worked long hours to support her lone child.

Late shifts were always risky propositions behind the Iron Curtain. She had to sneak around in the dead of night, taking shelter in the shadows of every building on her way home to avoid being caught breaking curfew.

At the age of 10, Robert may have been too young to understand his mom's stress and fear.

But he knew enough.

"He saw that I was over-worked," Cisowski reminisced, that smile beginning to show itself again. "That's when he made his first meal, crepes.

"He forgot to add eggs, but everything else was right. He added onions and pepper and everything," she said, eyes shimmering. "I was very thankful he would do something for me. That when I came back from work I would have something to eat. I will never forget that."

That was Robert, always willing to help.

"He would give people everything he had," Cisowski said. "He had a good heart."

Iwona Kosowska, a long-time neighbour of Robert, says that picture of Robert needs to endure.

She remembers him as a "fantastic person."

The two would spend hours in the garden together and Robert would play with her daughter.

"That's how he was and it won't change," she told 24 hours. "This is simply the truth."

Kosowska was livid when she was put on the hot seat at Braidwood Inquiry earlier this year as lawyers asked her about Robert's past, health and whether he had drinking and smoking problems.

To her, it was a thinly veiled smear campaign.

"Can we stop this line of questioning?" she pleaded during her testimony March 30. "You are trying to make a bad person out of him, which means that you can kill a bad person but you cannot kill a good person. I'm fed up. I'm not going to answer any more questions. How can you?

_______________


That's why the heart-broken mother speaks of the Robert she knew and loved.

"He had a very good heart, that's the most important thing," she maintains, as determined as ever. "He never did anyone any harm, he was a good person. But in this world, it's the good people that get taken away from us."

Robert, a good person who did no harm, dead for no good reason.

Gives one pause . . . .

(Cross-posted at Moved to Vancouver)

TASER™ media template

As reports of gratuitous TASER™ abuse by police pile up daily, here at The Beav we are pleased to provide this handy template to the media for all future TASER™ stories :

Officers who used a Taser on a ___ in a ___ found out only later he was ____ and didn't understand ____, police said Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Police Department said the officers' actions were justified
because the man was armed with a potential weapon -- a ____

In this story the blanks featured "man", "store bathroom where he worked", "deaf and mentally disabled", "what they wanted him to do" and "umbrella".

Previous options have included :
Blank A : new immigrant, young woman, 83 year old man, fare dodger, handcuffed child.
Blank B : airport, wedding party, hospital bed, Skytrain, jail cell
Blank C : distraught, pregnant, ill with pneumonia, mentally disabled, terrified
Blank D : English, what was being asked of them, ditto, ditto, ditto
Blank E : stapler, nothing, 3" knife, nothing, nothing.

There is apparently almost no situation that can't be further fucked up by a little escalation of farce.
At Taser International's annual bunfest this month, CEO Rick Smith explained:

"We are the new technology – it's splashy because of the electricity, you can make it scary."

Spaceman Spiff couldn't have put it any better.

ZOMG! TASER™ twitters!

From the official blog of TASER™ International:

"Some things never cease to amaze me. Yesterday, the blog "Hello Kitty Hell" posted a picture of a pink TASER C2 with “Hello Kitty” and the kitty’s face emblazoned on the side.
Just so the record is clear, TASER International does NOT produce nor sell a Hello Kitty TASER C2. It must be someone’s idea of cute, though that is open for debate."

Speaking of TASER™ and "cute", we learn via Wired that the new TASER™X3 due to be launched July 27th has its own facebook page ... and it twitters :

Check out my color screen. Like a Tele-Tubby … only a little more intense!

Cartridge just got off the shaker table… 2 hrs of intense vibration, no quarters required.

Roses are red, violets are blue, tell me the numbers on my display to win a hat for you.

Exponential Effect: If something happens 20% of the time. Chances of it happening 3 times in a row = 0.2 * 0.2 * 0.2 = .8%

Nothing on TASER™ twitter about your chances if it happens five times in a row however.


h/t Waterbaby for Hello Kitty Hell link

Earth Day. It's not just for chickens anymore...

You may never have heard of "Popeye's". If you're from Minnesota there is exactly one franchise.

For Earth Day, (You figure it out! It's like garbage collection companies using Killer Whales as a logo.), Popeye's offered a nationwide special on their spectacularly unhealthy fried chicken.

Except that the solitary Minneapolis franchise decided not to participate.

A near riot followed



Watch it again. Did you notice something? No... I'm not going to tell you... ever. Figure it out. You're smart enough.

In another place, an individual refused to cover his naked bod with a towel after being ordered to do so by police. Given his "natural state" a concealed weapon would have been a complete and utter impossibility.

So what did the cops do to gain his "compliance"?

Hit him with a Taser (TM, even though there's nothing else out there).

And then they hit him six more times in stun-drive mode.




And the only obvious thing is that the cops had spent way too much time eating at Popeye's.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

At least, that is likely what the board of directors of the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs would want you to do. It's a pretty sure bet that this Blatchford column in this morning's Globe and Mail will be held out, at the next CACP gala and love-in, as, "irresponsible journalism".

The technical adviser to the ethics committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has resigned over corporate sponsorship - including that of Taser International - of the group's annual conference.

John Jones, an expert on police ethics who has advised the committee for three years, quit Thursday after the committee's efforts to stop the practice was rebuffed by the board of directors.

"I said in that case, I can't remain a member," a saddened Dr. Jones, the author of Reputable Conduct: Ethical Issues in Policing and Corrections, told The Globe and Mail in a phone interview yesterday from his Ottawa home. "[Such sponsorship] doesn't pass the smell test."

And that smell has another name.

Dr. Jones and the members of the ethics committee were in Montreal in August for two days of meetings around the CACP's annual conference when they learned about Taser's sponsorship and that of others, including a joint Bell Mobility-CGI-Group Techna donation of $115,000, which went toward the purchase of 1,000 tickets at $215 each to a Celine Dion concert on Aug. 25.

Each registered CACP delegate received one ticket as part of his $595 registration package; if his spouse was also registered for the spouses' program, she or he received another. Virtually all meals were also sponsored.

Hold it!!! How many municipalities, cities, towns and provinces pay out of tax coffers to send serving police members to the CACP conferences? Perhaps none of them do, but that would be something of an outlier in the day to day budgetary operations of police departments. I'd bet you a dollar to a doughnut hole that somewhere in the annual police department budget submission of many municipal, city and provincial police services there is a line for "annual conference" or "professional development" which pays the freight for attendance of police department senior officers at these CACP events.

The CACP executive director, in attempting to defend the association and its solicitation of sponsorship funds manages to get himself caught out in a "misspeak"... (emphasis mine)

Mr. [Peter] Cuthbert was insistent there is nothing wrong with the sponsorship practice, and said that part of the association's job is to bring to the attention of the chiefs "the products and tools that are available to a police service." He then suggested that Taser was only one maker of "conducted energy weapons," but, when pressed, admitted he knew of no other and said, "I guess Taser is the only name out there."

I guess it is, which now makes pretty much anything else Cuthbert has to offer in defence of CACP sponsorship impeachable.

One of Mr. Cuthbert's defences for the association accepting sponsorships is the CACP does "no buying, no endorsement, no promotion" of any products, including sponsors', and makes no "binding recommendations."

And, of course, if you go looking for the August 2008 CACP conference main page where TASER™ is prominently featured, you'll find it has gone down the memory hole. Except that Alison grabbed it when it first went up.

[Dr. Jones] rued how the CACP conferences have become increasingly "gaudy" affairs, with each host city trying to outdo the other, with members expecting bigger and better freebies. Indeed, Mr. Cuthbert's own figures - he said it now costs between $800,000 and $1-million to hold such conferences - back up Dr. Jones' perception.

You should read the whole thing.

stunned and stunning report

The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP has released a report in which it rules that the use of a taser by RCMP officers against a bed-ridden 82-year-old man who was infirm enough to require an oxygen tank was entirely justified. No, really. Apparently three mounties in body armor can't be relied upon to disarm an knife-wielding octogenarian invalid. That whirring sound you hear is Sam Steele spinning in his grave.

RCMP : Getting away with murder

Exhibit A
In June 2008, in response to public outrage over Robert Dziekanski's death at YVR in 2007, the House of Commons public safety and national security committee threatened the RCMP with a complete ban on TASER™ use if "clear restrictions" were not put on officers discharging stun guns multiple times by December.
Eight months later, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott told the committee that the force had already introduced a revised Taser policy back in June 2008 to address that very concern :

"We have taken steps to restrict its use."

At the time, many of us wondered why Elliott had waited a whole eight months to signal compliance with a policy already implemented.
Last night CBC reported that, contrary to what he led the public safety committee to believe, Elliott had actually relaxed the 2005 restrictions on multiple zappings, removing the following rule from the RCMP operational manual on conducted energy weapons :

3. 1. 3. Multiple deployment or continuous cycling of the CEW may be hazardous to a subject.
Unless situational factors dictate otherwise (see IM/IM), do not cycle the CEW repeatedly, nor more than 15-20 seconds at a time against a subject.

Also deleted was the requirement to warn subjects before the TASER™ was used on them.
h/t Boris

Cpl. Gregg Gillis, the RCMP's national use-of-force co-ordinator, cited two studies to explain the new position - one was funded by Taser Int., while the other did not address the effect of multiple TASER™ use on the heart at all.
Three of the officers involved in Dziekanski's death were trained by Gillis three months before but were unable to recall the policy. When questioned, Millington, who deployed the TASER™ on Dziekanski five times for a total of 31 seconds over one minute, said he would have to check the manual first to answer why there was a policy on multiple use.

Obviously if even their own manual does not prohibit it, individual RCMP officers cannot be held responsible - or charged or sued - for deaths by multiple TASER™.
Further, if another confused and frustrated immigrant walks through the Canadian Border Services Agency administered area of YVR tonight where the observation cameras apparently don't work and even when they do the tapes get erased, Elliott's new rules dictate the same response and outcome that Dziekanski received.

In response to CBC's request for an interview, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott wrote: "Unfortunately I am not available to be interviewed."


Exhibit B
It is very unlikely that the Criminal Justice Branch of BC will change its decision to prosecute the RCMP officers who killed Robert Dziekanski - even following their appalling performance at the Braidwood Inquiry - because of the following criteria :

1) It must be determined that their prosecution would be in the public's best interest
2) There must be a substantial likelihood of conviction

That the Crown had already seen the Pritchard video and apparently did not consider it to substantially contradict the officers' statements tells us a good deal about their criteria.


Exhibit C
When the investigating officers from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) interviewed the four officers about Dziekanski's death, they failed to warn them first of their rights under the Charter that anything they said could be held in evidence against them or that they had a right to have their lawyers present. Consequently all of that now utterly debunked original testimony - Dziekanski running at them screaming and brandishing a stapler and needing to be wrestled to the ground following multiple TASER™ use or the CBSA room being too crowded - is now considered contaminated for use in the courts.

And even if the IHIT team had warned the officers, what they say in testimony at a public inquiry like Braidwood's cannot be used directly in evidence against them at any other proceeding. Plus the Braidwood Inquiry does not have any jurisdiction over the RCMP and cannot compel them to hold hearings or investigations.


The RCMP is a paramilitary organisation that from Elliott on down through the ranks ceased being accountable to the public quite some time ago.
What can you do? Here's one facebook petition nearing 10,000 members.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Braidwood Inquiry : First RCMP testimony today

Today the Braidwood Inquiry heard from the first of the four RCMP officers involved in the Vancouver airport death of Robert Dziekanski in 2007. The transcripts will not be available for a couple of days yet so here's some of what the media have reported. It is the first time the officers have spoken in public.

Constable Gerry Rundel, who was not carrying a TASER™ that night, testified that he feared "for my safety to a certain degree" although he was not clear on why.
Dziekanski did not appear to shoot any staples at the officers, Rundel agreed.

Global :

Rundel said he knew from the police radio that a fellow in the international arrivals area was "throwing objects" and breaking glass and was likely intoxicated.
(In fact, Dziekanski had thrown a small table but did not break glass or threaten other passengers. Toxicology reports after his death showed he had no drugs or alcohol in his system.)"

Rundel said Const. Bentley first spoke in a "calm, friendly" manner to Dziekanski, but the incident escalated swiftly after that. Dziekanski gestured toward his luggage but was told "No," by Const. Kwesi Millington.
Dziekanski complied with the request and moved away from his bags.
At that point Dziekanski threw up his hands and turned away from the officers in what Rundel interpreted as a "to hell with you guys, I'm out of here," stance.
"Within split seconds the Taser was deployed," said Rundel.

Pressed repeatedly by commission lawyer Patrick McGowan to say what specific command Dziekanski had disobeyed, Rundel became flustered but insisted that Dziekanski had moved away from his luggage, as he was commanded to do so by Cpl. Robinson, but then became "non-cooperative" or "non-compliant."

"Non-compliance" triggers the Taser deployment in the RCMP's training and use-of-force regulations, Rundel said.

The Star :

"He appeared to not be behaving like a normal person would behave," said Rundel. "It was all part of my observation formed by opinion."

A criminal investigation conducted by the RCMP into its four members' conduct, which was given to crown counsel late last year, determined that the officers' actions were not criminal.

Dziekanski died Oct. 14, 2007 after getting hit five times with shots from the Taser gun. He fell screaming in anguish to the ground and the officers piled on top of him. Within seconds, he had stopped breathing.

The inquiry had heard earlier testimony from firefighters who later attended the scene that the RCMP officers appeared to do nothing to help the man.

In other news, RCMP in B.C. plan to buy 40 new Taser weapons. The force is budgeting $50,000 for the new model X26E Taser guns..

Cross-posted at Creekside

Update : 14-year-old girl zapped in jail cell

for picking at paint on the wall. See post below.

Ban stun gun use on young people, Ontario child advocate urges
Ontario Child Advocate Irwin Elman :

"When I saw the tape, we had a young person who was peeling paint off the wall of a police holding cell with her fingernail and she was quiet and on a cot," he said. "And our estimation, the use of a Taser was not proportional to the need to protect, I guess, the paint on the wall."

"We're asking for a moratorium on the use of Tasers on children and youth, certainly in our province, until there's established, full research about their use on children and youth," he said.

Ontario rejects call for banning taser use on minors
Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci :

"... police officers should be able to use all the tools in their arsenal when dealing with a dangerous situation.

And he says age should not be a factor in deciding how to deal with an individual.
"That police officer should have all the tools necessary to ensure that he or she chooses a course of action that protects the individual, protects the public and protects the police officer — regardless of age," Mr. Bartolucci said.

Well that's just crap.
The "dangerous situation" was a 14-year-old girl lying on a cot in a police cell.
You're protecting paint here, Rick.
Paint, and the right to use a TASER™ on children for pain compliance.

According to a recent RCMP audit, 90 minors were shocked by stun guns between 2001-2008.

Cross-posted at Creekside

14-year-old mentally challenged girl in jail cell TASER™ed

for peeling paint off the wall.
Her father is suing the Ontario Provincial Police on her behalf.

"Ontario's provincial advocate for children and youth, Irwin Elman, who has reviewed a videotape of the incident and the OPP's internal investigation, said he can't understand why police needed to stun the girl, who was lying on a cot when the two officers entered her cell and allegedly zapped her."

"I can tell you from what I saw there was no harm to herself or to any other person. It's not proportional to use a Taser... . It's a 14-year-old child in a cell, not harming herself or anybody else," said Elman, Ontario's independent children's advocate."

"The lawsuit, filed Jan. 23 at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kenora, says the officers entered the cell without warning, "violently" pulled the girl to the ground and applied the Taser to her right upper thigh for three to five seconds."

"A doctor who examined the girl in the hours after the incident reportedly observed twin burn marks on her thigh."

"OPP spokesman Insp. Dave Ross said yesterday the force was not contesting that the girl had been Tasered, but that the OPP's professional standards bureau completed an investigation in December 2008 and cleared officers of any wrongdoing.

You're shocked and surprised at the results of the OPP professional standards bureau investigation I'm sure.
Did I mention she is First Nations?

Cross-posted at Creekside

No criminal charges for RCMP who killed Dziekanski

Dr. Dawg : "The four RCMP officers who killed Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver Airport are going to walk."

As I said at Creekside : "Without Paul Pritchard's ugly and incriminating 10 minute video of the whole event and his threat of legal action against the RCMP to get it back from them, we wouldn't even know what happened because prior to its release the official RCMP story was that there were only two cops and perhaps Dziekanski was a "drug mule" or had "an underlying medical condition", that he was "armed", that they had to use stun guns because "the room was crowded".
And then there were the internal documents between the Canadian Border Services Agency, the RCMP, and airport officials on their own security tapes of the incident : "The material has been cleansed too much," read one.

Which presumably explains why "the Crown concluded there was not enough evidence to warrant charges."


As to CBC's recent report that "four out of 41 guns tested actually discharged more electrical current than Taser International says is possible."
Well good on ya, CBC, but this isn't exactly news, is it?

"In 2004 Robert Bagnell was killed almost instantly after being shocked by a Vancouver police Taser.
"Engineering firm Intertek tested the two weapons fired during the Bagnell incident. Their research found while one Taser performed within a normal electrical output, the other was 30 times higher.
Taser International, a U.S. stun gun manufacturer, later disputed Intertek's test results. Since then, the two Bagnell Tasers were sent to the Canadian Police Research Centre in Ottawa for further examination. That was two years ago.

Victoria Const. Mike Massine, considered one of Canada's foremost police experts on stun guns, says Tasers are not tested by police. "I'm assuming (Tasers) are tested at the factory," he said. "We don't have the mechanism to do that."

But this latest whitewash is about more than just TASERS™. Four RCMP dropped an unarmed man who was no danger to themselves or others and knelt on his chest until he passed out, then stood round doing nothing to revive him. And then they lied about it.

Dr. Dawg : "It's time to disband this "horribly broken" outfit. And it's time to break up the cosy little cliques that have developed between police and Crown attorneys. Lives may well depend upon it."

Taser™ Nation

"A decade ago, ordinary Americans would not have tolerated such widespread use of the Taser, a stun gun delivering a 50,000-volt shock. They would not have tolerated the electrocution of unarmed, non-threatening civilians without following the normal "escalation of force" policy.

Ironically, American political leaders and the media once cast aspersion on the regimes of Guatemala and Argentina, which used cattle-prods on prisoners. Cattle-prods only deliver 25,000-volt shocks, half that of the Taser.

Guantanamo helped condition the American public. It raised the threshold of what Americans consider reasonable in violating personal space by the state - or by its private contractors, like Halliburton, which has built parts of Gitmo, or Lockheed Martin, which has provided professional interrogators.

The transfer of violations from Guantanamo to the US "Homeland" might be one purpose behind Guantanamo in the first place. After all, hardly any real terrorists were convincingly exposed at Guantanamo, and even some federal authorities wonder aloud that more than one-third of the detainees might be entirely innocent. By and large, Gitmo was populated with taxi cab drivers, goat herders and even teenage students, most having been delivered to US forces by bounty hunters and opium warlords."

Andrew Bosworth : Taser Nation

New report zaps TASER™

but first let's look at one that doesn't.

Two weeks ago the Annual Canadian Conference of Chiefs of Police, sponsored in part by TASER™, wisely decided not to release the still incomplete Canadian Police Research Centre's "2008 Conducted Energy Weapon Report" on TASERS™ pending further peer review.
However in July excerpts from it were available from TASER™ Int. who were already using it as a marketing tool :

Two-Year Study by Canadian Police Research Centre Finds TASER Devices a SaferUse of Force
TASER International, Inc.(Nasdaq:TASR), a market leader in advanced electronic control devices (ECDs)issued the following NEWS ALERT:

"A two-year study by the Canadian Police Research Centre found that TASER(r)Electronic Control Devises (ECDs) "scored high" in safety for both suspects and officers in Calgary. The 14-page report examined 562 cases in which Calgary police used TASER ECDs, pepper spray, batons, unarmed techniques, and chokeholds against people resisting arrest. Of those cases studied, nearly half were detained with a TASER device and one percent of those suspects resisting arrest ended up hospitalized and 87 percent sustained either minor injuries or no injuries, according to the report.
The study stated "the commonly held belief" that TASER ECDs carry "a significant risk of injury or death... is not supported by the data."

OK, that's enough of that.
Yesterday the Star reported on an independent study ordered by RCMP Commissioner Bill Elliott and obtained Thursday by the Star under Access to Information (and why was an AI requst even necessary?) :

RCMP didn't study Taser use enough: Report
Hard-hitting review says force relied too heavily on manufacturer's input

"The RCMP did not do "due diligence" when it approved the Taser stun gun for use as a less-than-lethal weapon by its officers, a hard-hitting independent review concludes.

The review says the RCMP relied too much on the advice of the Taser's American manufacturer in developing its policies and training, did not consult widely enough with medical and mental health experts about its impact on people, and did not treat the weapon as a "prohibited firearm" – its proper legal classification.

"Excited delirium" is not a recognized medical diagnosis, but a term sometimes used by emergency room doctors or coroners, the report says. However, its use by police amounts to "folk knowledge" and it should be eliminated from the RCMP's perational manual unless formally approved after consultation with a mental-health policy advisory body, said the review."

RCMP Use of the Conducted Energy Weapon(CEW) Final Report. Excerpted :

"The Commission knows that CEWs have been deployed or threatened to be deployed a minimum of 4234 times and that over the years the number of usage reports has increased."

"The main finding within this report is that the quality of data in the CEW usage database is so poor that any of the policy shifts following the 2001 introduction of the weapon cannot be factually supported. Supervision to ensure proper CEW deployment reporting is faulty and in some cases may be non-existent."

"The number of members present at a scene is also significantly related to the use of the CEW. More precisely, the two increase together. When only one member is present, the CEW is deployed in 71.4% of incidents. However, when two (2) or more members attend, the rate of deployment goes up to between 79.1 and 87.7%. So, if more than one member is present, the likelihood that the CEW will be deployed is increased."

"The command -Police stop or you will be hit with 50,000 volts of electricity! -is actually given prior to engagement in fewer than 40% of cases."

"Of the 76 public complaints about CEW deployment, 52 (68%) of the corresponding Forms 3996 could not be located in the RCMP database."

"RCMP training teaches that “excited delirium” is a medical emergency wherein gaining control of the individual for the purpose of treatment is paramount and where the CEW is viewed as the best option to gain that control."

Paul Kennedy, Chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, concludes :

"Simply put, if the RCMP cannot account for the use of this weapon and properly instruct its members to appropriately deploy the CEW in an operational setting, then such use should be prohibited until proper and strict accountability and training measures can be fully implemented."

Most importantly, the report also focuses on overall changes in police policy in part exacerbated by the use of CEWs (italics mine) :

"It is a harbinger of a new model of policing in Canada, one in which the police are a group distinct from the public and whose decisions are the preserve of public safety experts. It is a model in which officer safety takes precedence over that of the general public and where the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is significantly undervalued. The cumulative effect of these trends over time may reduce the degree of co-operation of the public that is essential to public safety in Canada."

Yes.
Stockwell Day, the man nominally responsible for public safety in Canada, has the reports.
We'll see which one he goes with.

See also Cathie from Canada and A Creative Revolution.
Cross-posted at Creekside

Annual Canadian Conference of Chiefs of Police, brought to you by TASER™

The Annual Canadian Conference of Chiefs of Police program notes :
"Welcome to our meeting with history and modernity.

Better diversity management through partnership."

One of this year's 'partners', a $25,000 "platinum sponsor" of the conference, is TASER™.
A presentation of the as yet incomplete "2008 Conducted Energy Weapon Report" on TASERS™, commissioned by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, will be given by Steve Palmer, executive director of the Canadian Police Research Centre.

Well that seems a tad ... cosy.
We already know that Steve Palmer is a TASER™ fan.

Following the death of a Montreal man zapped by a TASER™ while in police custody in 2007, Mr. Palmer said :

"There is a growing body of knowledge out there that these devices are safe when used properly," Palmer said.
"We don't speak often enough about the number of lives that have been saved, the number of people that are up and walking around today that might not have been had it not been for a Taser."

And look, it's right there on the TASER™ logo : "Saving lives every day".

Mr. Palmer fails to note that most of his "growing body of knowledge out there" in support of TASER™ is commissioned by, um, TASER™.

TASER™ Int. itself uses Mr Palmer's report as a marketing tool :

"Scottsdale, Ariz., July 31, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) --

TASER International, Inc. (Nasdaq:TASR), a market leader in advanced electronic control devices (ECDs) issued the following NEWS ALERT :
Two-Year Study by Canadian Police Research Centre Finds TASER Devices a SaferUse of Force

Even cosier.

Steve Tuttle, VP of TASER™, will be there.
"It is a major sales event. It is advertising," said Mr. Tuttle , adding "he has DVDs that contain 130 studies that have found the devices to be safe".
"I think that when Canadians look at the choices for use of force, do they want to go back to batons and nightsticks, or do they want to go to the future? The future is taser."

G&M : "Taser staff will be on hand to exhibit the company's trademark X26 model, a wireless taser round that is fired from a shotgun and has a range of 20 metres, and a system called Shockwave that fires multiple taser rounds that can incapacitate a number of people in an area up to 100 metres."
Also known as crowd control.
Stockwell Day will give the Opening Presentation in Montreal on Aug 25.

So to recap : TASER™ Int. sponsors the annual Canadian Conference of Chiefs of Police at which the executive director of the Canadian Police Research Centre gives a presentation on TASER™s that is used by TASER™ Int. to market its products.

"The future is TASER™"

Cross-posted at Creekside

Shock first and ask questions later

Imagine you're a small town cop in the heartland of America. You're responding to a report about a teen walking on the expressway overpass - a driver was worried the kid might get hit by a car or something. You arrive to find the 16-year-old lying on the shoulder of the highway 30 feet below the overpass. Do you:


1. Call an ambulance
2. Render first aid
3. Order him to get up and taser him 19 times when he fails to comply because its hard to stand up with a broken spine.



Seriously, what kind of IQ/psychiatric screening process does one have to fail to be issued a taser as a cop these days? I'm sure the big strong cops with their nightsticks, pepper spray, heavy flashlights, pistols and body armor (and likely a trunk full of rifles and shotguns) were scared that the teenager might have been on drugs or something since he was raving incoherently- as you might if you fell off a bridge and broke your back - but surely it would have occurred to most people after the second or third jolt that something was amiss with the young miscreant

Remember not to lose your temper in an airport, or question the authority of a campus cop, or fail to spring to attention when ordered to do so by someone in uniform, or be a loud drunk, or the wrong color..... for a whole round up you can look here or check out some of the bloggers addressing the misuse of Tomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle today.

Hat tips to the General and Corrente and Pam's House Blend

Crossposted from The Woodshed

RCMP TASER™ 16 year old girl in holding cell

A Manitoba girl picked up for being drunk says she was "held down by four officers, one for each limb, while a taser was used on her legs and groin area." Three times.
She says they warned her if she didn't stop screaming they would TASER™ her again but she couldn't stop screaming.

An internal RCMP investigation has "concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing."
"...the spokesman added that there's no prohibition against using tasers in cells. They are used when officers feel there is a risk to their safety, he said."

A risk to their safety.
An unarmed 130 pound 16 year old girl already inside a holding cell is a risk to their safety.

She was drunk, she was resisting arrest, and she admits she was obnoxious and panicking at being locked up : "She says she hit out in anger at the last officer to leave the cell, at which point he called the others back in and they held her down and tasered her."

"The police didn't tell the girl's mother about the incident when she picked her up the next morning, and the girl was too ashamed to tell. As a result, the wounds [on her thighs] became infected."

Following on the heels of the death of another Manitoba First Nations teen, 17 year old Michael Langan, "the family will now proceed with a public complaint against the officers involved."
Link.

Cross-posted at Creekside

TASER™ Saves Lives Inc. - Victim #21

A man was TASERED™ and then pronounced dead in hospital after more than five police cars with at least eight officers attended a citizen's call in Winnipeg today, bringing the total of TASER™ related deaths in Canada to 21.
Very few details and no citizen videos are available so far.
A Winnipeg police spokesperson said : "... at this point it's too early to tell if the cause of death had anything at all to do with the electronic control device."

Police in Winnipeg recently received 50 more TASERs™ which are classed in the same intermediate force category as pepper spray.

In other TASER™ news :

"RCMP officers who went to Poland to talk to people close to Robert Dziekanski seemed focused on finding negative things about him, says one of those interviewed.

"What kind of person was he, was he a drinker, drug user? Was he aggressive?" she said through a translator. "Most questions were to expose him as not a nice human being -- not to find out what kind of person he really was."

This fits in with some Vancouver news articles on Dziekanski that came out following the release of Paul Pritchard's incriminating video :

" the decrepit, $77-a-month flat Dziekanski shared with his alcoholic partner ... a five-year jail term for robbery when he was a teenager ... tumultuous common-law relationship ..."

Oh well then.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Police "brainwashed" by TASER™, says police psychologist

CBC : "Canadian law enforcement agencies have swallowed the propaganda of the company that manufactures Tasers, an expert testified Tuesday at a public inquiry in Vancouver examining police use of the weapons."

"When you think the only tool you have is a hammer, then the whole world begins looking like a nail," Dr. Mike Webster, police psychologist, told the Braidwood Inquiry into police use of the weapons.
Referring to excited delirium as a "mythical dubious disorder" used by Taser International in its training of police in Canada and the U.S., Webster said he has been "shocked and embarrassed" by recent "ridiculously inappropriate applications of the Taser" in low-risk situations :

"I am embarrassed to be associated with organizations that Taser sick old men in hospital beds and confused immigrants arriving to the country. Frankly I find it embarrassing, " he said.

Amnesty International has a slightly longer list of "ridiculously inappropriate" TASER™ use in Canada :

An Edmonton police officer in 2003 searching a hotel with two other officers for a robber armed with a knife, used his Taser to rouse two sleeping hotel guests. (The officer was charged with assault with a weapon.)

In 2004, Halifax regional police used a Taser three times on a woman who was handcuffed and held down in a police cell. (Both officers involved were cleared of assault.)

In 2005, a 42-year-old restaurant owner was shocked with a Taser as he lay unconscious. An RCMP officer ordered the shock in an attempt to revive him. (The officer pleaded guilty in court to assault with a weapon. He was given a conditional discharge and 50 hours' community service.)

A 66-year-old lawyer, Brian Fish, was taking photos of Edmonton police intervening at the 2006 Stanley Cup victory celebrations. When Fish refused a police demand to stop taking photos, an officer pushed Fish to the ground and Tasered him twice in his back. A police investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of the officers. Fish has filed a complaint.

RCMP officers in New Brunswick in 2006 Tasered a 17-year-old boy at least 13 times, hitting his lower back and his front, including his groin. A witness to the arrest disputed claims by the police that the boy was resisting arrest:
"They kept telling him to get on his back but every time he tried to turn, they'd keep Tasering him. It was just horrible."

More recently there was also that fellow who was hit with a TASER™ for not paying his SkyTrain fare and clinging to a railing.

Thank you, Dr. Mike Webster, for speaking up to the inquiry. Frankly, we are all embarrassed.

Cross-posted at Creekside