Videos of man being tasered banned online
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- A surveillance video of a mentally ill man being tasered by police can’t be shown online.
The man, Howard Hyde, died a little more than a day after he was hit with the electrically charged darts and a video of his wife, Karen Ellet, talking about his death while he was in police custody, is still available.
But video images of Hyde struggling with police are “disturbing” and can’t be posted because they, “need to be understood in context,” a judge has decided, says the Globe and Mail.
“The videos, which are central to an inquiry into Howard Hyde’s death in a Dartmouth jail late in 2007, can be screened in court,” says the story, “And they will be shown fleetingly to the public as proceedings are streamed on-line at www.hydeinquiry.ca, with the tasering expected to be seen Tuesday. But they can’t otherwise be displayed, provincial court judge Anne Derrick decided.
“The ruling was a blow to family members of the 45-year-old paranoid schizophrenic who had wanted to be able to disseminate the video images.”
But as Ottawa law professor Michael Geist says in the story, “Once it’s streamed, it’s relatively trivial for someone to capture that stream and go ahead and post it.”
The, “power of images to sway public opinion was highlighted after the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who was tasered five times by Mounties at the Vancouver airport only weeks before the Hyde incident,” says the Globe and Mail, adding:
“Police initially confiscated amateur video of Mr. Dziekanski’s death. Paul Pritchard went to court to get his property back and then sold it to the media. His video undermined police descriptions of the incident and caused an uproar that reverberated beyond Canada’s shores.
“At the time, an RCMP spokesman said that the video did not tell the whole story.”
Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died in agony after being tasered five times within 31 seconds by four RCMP officers at the Vancouver International Airport.
The Mounties describes the gun has as an “energy weapon”.
Globe and Mail – Judge will not allow taser footage online, July 6, 2009
died in agony – Tasers can kill, RCMP admits, February 12, 2009
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July 7th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
If the police are afraid of public reaction to their actions, maybe they should learn to react in a different way, maybe?
If they don’t want to get into trouble, they do not do anything that would get you into trouble! In other words, actually obey the laws you swore to uphold and be accountable for your actions!
Forget your union’s views or your police chief’s views, mostly targeted to get you off regardless of the mistakes you made, but a respectable individual, set an example and be accountable for your actions! If you screw up, admit it and face the consequences! The public will be more lenient on you and the rest of your “team” if you guys and gals would actually admit to mistakes and face consequences.
You want respect? Don’t hide, don’t try to remove videos by pressuring judges, admit you should have used something different, accept a punishment, straighten up your belt, polish your boots, face the consequences, and do NOT do it again!
Then you’ll earn public respect and have an easier time on the job. Keep abusing your power, keep lying and hiding, and you’ll continue to lose the trust of the public, which means resistance to whatever you say and however you say it, and that means your job is much more difficult than it needs to be.
The public didn’t put you into this situation, YOU DID! So change it! Be respectful and accountable and honour the law you were sworn to uphold!
July 7th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I don’t have the technical capability to do it, but I sincerely hope someone records and redistributes as much of that video as possible. Canada’s legal system is pathetic, and the police are no better these days.
July 7th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
“…video images of Hyde struggling with police are “disturbing” and can’t be posted because they, ‘need to be understood in context’…”
In other words, …”because it involves our police force, we need to have the opportunity to edit the video, and/or only show those parts that don’t directly imply that the police are guilty of anything.”
July 7th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I think tasers should be taken away – police should just use guns all the time.
July 7th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
What about phasing out the tasers?
Unless they made tasers illegal I will for now on wear special clothing and carry a gun at anytime.
I don’t think this will make the cops safer but He! you have to do what you have to do to protect oneself!
Sorry!
July 7th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Cop are abusing the tasers. This is the problem.
Taser are supposed to be used to defuse dangerous situation only. Instead they are used by some cops for anything such as coercion and/or torture.
This is why the tasers must be forbiden or very strong laws should be passed to regulate their use and alow their use only in dangerous situations.
Unless one ot these is done cops will continue to kill with tasers, resentment against the police will continue to grow and nothing good will come out of this.
July 7th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
“This is why the tasers must be forbiden or very strong laws should be passed to regulate their use and alow their use only in dangerous situations.”
I doubt the intent was ever to kill the guy. A lot of the problems found within law enforcement can usually be traced to a lack of proper training. When the adrenaline is flowing it’s probably easy to forget that these weapons are called “less-lethal” and not “non-lethal”. I’m not justifying what happened, just stating a highly probable fact.
July 7th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Any cop that uses a taser in a situation where it wasn’t required, should have to undergo the same amount of tasering themselves. They’d think twice about using them if they knew there was a real possibility that they’d have the same done to them.
July 7th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
put up a copy watch it get uploaded 10-15 times alone by myself. Police misconduct needs to be understood in the real context in which it happened , not after they explain themselves. Their credibility cant get any worse in my mind. robert dzenski deserved better and thanks to his video being posted we all know it!
July 7th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
The taser has helped highlight a point about this “adrenaline rush” you’re talking about.
Good training addresses this.
Unfortunately, they seem to have been trained only in the execution of the weapon itself, and not so much about the various types of people they’re going to be dealing with, or how different situations should be assessed and diffused.
The Robert Dziekanski case was a perfect illustration of bad training (and possibly something else).
It was quite obvious to anyone watching the footage that this man not only had problems communicating (he didn’t speak very much English), but was already in a panic. FIVE officers should have been able to diffuse this situation without too much trouble.
But from the time the officers approached this man, they didn’t exhibit any comforting behaviour toward him, abruptly surrounding him and pulling out the tasers… causing his panic level to go through the roof! The tasers were then deployed immediately and REPEATEDLY (even while he was already on the ground!). We don’t need this type of enforcement.
These cops should have received better PEOPLE training before being handed the tasers.
How are they supposed to deal with the mentally ill, or even a simple domestic dispute, if the only thought that comes to mind is to pull out a taser whenever there’s any “tension” in the air??
July 7th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Utube put up an Iranian girl shot in the chest and who died before our eyes.
The media carried it also.
But lets censor what happens in our own back yard.
No freedom of expression in Canada except for what they allow.
July 7th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Maybe if enough people are outraged the Supreme Court of Canada will toss that provincial ruling out.
July 7th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
“being tasered five times within 31 seconds”
Inexcusable. I don’t care what the guy did, there’s no call for brutally electrocuting him like that.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:54 am
I had thought that the trend towards hiring thugs for police was limited to the US. There is very little “protecting and serving” going on when the average person feels threatened by the police. I suspect this is largely due to the type of people they are hiring who are seeming more and more like mercenery enforcers who shoot first and ask questions later (if at all).
Was this man armed? What about pepper spray to subdue him? How could ONE tasering not be enough unless he was on PCP? WTF? What kind of “context” could possibly justify this?
July 8th, 2009 at 7:10 am
It makes perfect sense. The video of the LA police beating Rodney King was responsible for causing the worst riot in US history.
July 8th, 2009 at 7:51 am
@RW
The riot could have been avoided by police doing their jobs properly. They were trained, they should be practising takedowns. Tokyo riot police are trained in Aikido, so should our police, but not 1 month, it should be for the entire duration they are on the farce.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:22 am
although i do not agree with the video being banned, i do not agree with banning tasers.
officers need to use more restraint with their use.
they are still a better option than billy clubs or guns.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Bullshit. Tasers serve no purpose other than to electrocute people, and whether or not they prove lethal is left entirely to chance. There are still plenty of safer methods of restraining suspects, like tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:13 am
None of those are all that much safer than a taser. They are all less-lethal, not non-lethal. It all depends whether or not they are used correctly. Again, proper training is the key. Refresher courses should be a requirement too. Law enforcement needs to be constantly reminded of the difference between the two. Does anyone know the ratio of people tasered every year compared to deaths attributed to it? I’d imagine it would show tasers as being MOSTLY safe as a deterrent and that deaths only occur when the taser has been misused/abused.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
not even a [cam]?
July 12th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
If I had a copy of this video, I’d post it and SCREW CANADIAN KANGAROO COURT rulings. Yes, the U.S.S.A. also has kangaroo courts, and I don’t respect them either.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:40 am
Honestly you try risking your life for others! You people dont understand that these men & women and risking their lives EVERYDAY for you people they might never get to see their family again & all you can do it whinge that theyre not doing a good enough job id like to see you try do it. Honestly its either they arent doing enough or they are doing too much to subdue people if he was doing the wrong this then he deserved it YOU DO THE CRIME YOU DO THE TIME. They arent allowed to use a gun unless in extreme circumstances if you take the tasers off them they are just sitting ducks, next time someone points a gun at you your mind will change about the police