Tasers can kill, RCMP admits
p2pnet news view | Freedom:- Special weapons called tasers, which fire darts carrying hefty electronic charges, can kill people, Canada’s Royal Canadian mounted police have now admitted.
Suffering from continuing public outrage following the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died after RCMP officers shocked him repeatedly with Taser guns, the Mounties will no longer use the weapons, “against suspects who are resistant,” says RCMP commissioner William Elliott.
Elliott, quoted by the Canwest News Service, told the Commons public safety committee it’s still believed the force now recognises the, “stun gun can cause death in ‘acutely agitated’ suspects”.
The policy also says Tasers must only be used in “reasonable” circumstances, says the story, adding:
“It is now mandatory for officers to report each use on the day it is used, even if the Taser is not fired. That data must be sent to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP to produce quarterly and annual reports.
“According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act by Canwest News Service, the overall use of Tasers by the RCMP soared to 1,119 incidents in 2006 and 1,414 in 2007, compared with only 597 incidents in 2005
kill people - No charges in airport taser death, December 12, 2008
Canwest News Service – No more Tasers on resistant suspects: RCMP, February 12, 2009
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February 12th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Tasers are fine, just dont taser someone multiple times… especially when they don’t even speak your language. It looks like the cops had itchy trigger fingers, and the two that shot him should be charged with manslaughter.
February 12th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
@Joe:
I think the police are scared more than anything. Some are definitely just lazy, but many are scared. How long do they go through training? Don’t they have hand-to-hand training anymore? Don’t they learn how to diffuse an incident BEFORE it escalates to violence or to calm a situation that has turned violent?
February 12th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Taser’s arent fine. Ban them. Heavily Sanction if not charge the individuals who are found to have used it inappropriately would be the response i was hoping for. This is a step forward. However at this pace it will take forever for the RCMP to reach the finish line. The public needs to continue pressure on the RCMP to stop using them altogether. Last time I checked 23 deaths and counting – Amnesty intl on Canadian taser deaths.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
I found it odd, in the case of Dziekanski, that 4 or 5 supposedly highly-trained RCMP officers would even need to consider using any kind of weapon, let alone a taser, against 1 man. Not exactly what I would call “exercising good judgement”.
So many years back, it was supposed to be mandated that ALL police forces in Canada were to be given training in dealing with things like agitated individuals. And even more education and training was supposed to be given to them about the mentally ill. Yet, still, it seems none of them have any training in this respect at all. Their ignorance of schizophrenia still results in abuse of the street urchins, and now pulling out the taser is fast becoming the first course of action.
February 12th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
The CBC reporter was saying that the rcmp said the video doesnt tell the whole story. thats complete BS, the video told the entire story without bias, the commentary by the guy may be biased, but the video itself doesnt lie, doesnt try to hide any fact.
If the RCMP were on the otherside of this, says as a survielance video, they would say this is the evidence, concrete evidence, enough to convict a man for murder. But because they are RCMP the video is doubted, doesnt tell the whole truth. pfft.
February 24th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
This was with no doubt in my mind, murder, I would like to see the RCMP and police be tased repeatedly, hold down on that trigger when there being trained to use the taser, did you ever see them being tased 0.5 sec maybe then they stop but when they are zapping someone else they just keep push on that trigger, ok I know things are changing its a lot more crazier out on the street but this guy just got off a plane did they think he had a AK47 or what ridiculous.