unimaginative2
Senior Member
Here's the Globe's surprisingly excellent editorial.
The taser death of Robert Dziekanski
November 16, 2007
The taser death video that was being broadcast around the world yesterday is a source of shame and disgrace for Canada and for its national police force.
The RCMP can seek to justify police actions all they like. They can argue that the four officers who tasered a Polish man at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14 were just following procedures.
They can argue that we don't know for sure his cause of death, and that tasers are safe. They can argue that the video is only one piece of evidence and that people should wait for the results of an inquest before forming their judgments. They can say all of that, but the killing of Robert Dziekanski will be seen only one way: as the summary execution of an innocent man for the crime of being disoriented, for not understanding, for being a stranger.
The video, which was shot by Victoria resident Paul Pritchard, is almost impossible to watch for its tragic inevitability. It's like watching a snuff film. But apart from police, there is some humanity in it. A woman in the video responds in a way the situation called for. She seems to understand that this is a person in distress. She approaches Mr. Dziekanski gently, opening a hand to him. She attempts to communicate with him. A man's voice is also heard on the video trying to calm Mr. Dziekanski saying, "There's nothing wrong ... It's okay." These two citizens were responding as human beings, offering help to someone in need.
At one point, Mr. Dziekanski seems to be organizing chairs to keep an automatic door from closing. At another, he throws something. He's upset. No wonder.
Think about what he had been through that day. He had flown for the first time in his life. He first travelled five hours by bus in Poland and another 10 by plane to reach Vancouver. He arrived in a strange country where no one spoke his language and waited for several hours to meet his mother. She was outside the baggage area, which is secure. He did not realize this, and waited in the secure area for her. He could not make himself understood. After hours of waiting he was clearly frustrated, agitated. Who wouldn't be?
Then the police arrived. Here were four members of ostensibly one of the finest police forces in the world, and what did they do? This is where the video is so critical. Everyone can now see they had a whole range of options.
Did they pause for even a moment to assess the situation? Did they question the civilian witnesses who had been trying to calm and provide aid to the man only moments earlier? Did they gesture for him to calm down? Or sit down? No, they already knew what they were going to do.
This man was not armed. He was in the arrivals lounge of an international airport. There is no place on Earth where police would be less likely to encounter an armed man. Nor, as an autopsy showed, was he drugged or drunk. Nor was he violent; he did not resist police or confront them. He was a man in distress, a man who needed help.
But help was not on offer. The ordinary people who were present left matters to the experts. But these experts, four police officers who were armed with guns and a taser, who were wearing body armour, who were wearing the proud uniform of the Mounties, confronted the lone, upset, lost Polish visitor and immediately tasered him with a 50,000-volt shock.
Mr. Dziekanski collapsed screaming and writhing to the floor. He was not resisting arrest. He was in agony. What did Canada's finest do next? At one point someone yells, "Hit him again." Mr. Dziekanski was tasered at least once more. The four officers piled on the man. One placed his knee on Mr. Dziekanski's neck. Soon the writhing stopped. He was unresponsive. He may already have been dead.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day yesterday ordered a review of the use of tasers as a result of this outrageous and tragic incident.
He is correct to do so. All that is wrong with tasers is in plain view in this video. The officers didn't attempt any interaction with the man. They didn't try to negotiate. They didn't make calming gestures. They didn't have to. They had their tasers with them, and lost their humanity.
Tasers were never intended to be an alternative to those values the RCMP cite in their published "commitment to communities," values such as "compassion" and "respect." They were meant to be an alternative to the use of firearms, and live ammunition would never have been justified - indeed, would never have been used - in this situation. To have done so would have been viewed as an extrajudicial killing. How is the use of a taser in this case really any different?
The taser death of Robert Dziekanski
November 16, 2007
The taser death video that was being broadcast around the world yesterday is a source of shame and disgrace for Canada and for its national police force.
The RCMP can seek to justify police actions all they like. They can argue that the four officers who tasered a Polish man at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14 were just following procedures.
They can argue that we don't know for sure his cause of death, and that tasers are safe. They can argue that the video is only one piece of evidence and that people should wait for the results of an inquest before forming their judgments. They can say all of that, but the killing of Robert Dziekanski will be seen only one way: as the summary execution of an innocent man for the crime of being disoriented, for not understanding, for being a stranger.
The video, which was shot by Victoria resident Paul Pritchard, is almost impossible to watch for its tragic inevitability. It's like watching a snuff film. But apart from police, there is some humanity in it. A woman in the video responds in a way the situation called for. She seems to understand that this is a person in distress. She approaches Mr. Dziekanski gently, opening a hand to him. She attempts to communicate with him. A man's voice is also heard on the video trying to calm Mr. Dziekanski saying, "There's nothing wrong ... It's okay." These two citizens were responding as human beings, offering help to someone in need.
At one point, Mr. Dziekanski seems to be organizing chairs to keep an automatic door from closing. At another, he throws something. He's upset. No wonder.
Think about what he had been through that day. He had flown for the first time in his life. He first travelled five hours by bus in Poland and another 10 by plane to reach Vancouver. He arrived in a strange country where no one spoke his language and waited for several hours to meet his mother. She was outside the baggage area, which is secure. He did not realize this, and waited in the secure area for her. He could not make himself understood. After hours of waiting he was clearly frustrated, agitated. Who wouldn't be?
Then the police arrived. Here were four members of ostensibly one of the finest police forces in the world, and what did they do? This is where the video is so critical. Everyone can now see they had a whole range of options.
Did they pause for even a moment to assess the situation? Did they question the civilian witnesses who had been trying to calm and provide aid to the man only moments earlier? Did they gesture for him to calm down? Or sit down? No, they already knew what they were going to do.
This man was not armed. He was in the arrivals lounge of an international airport. There is no place on Earth where police would be less likely to encounter an armed man. Nor, as an autopsy showed, was he drugged or drunk. Nor was he violent; he did not resist police or confront them. He was a man in distress, a man who needed help.
But help was not on offer. The ordinary people who were present left matters to the experts. But these experts, four police officers who were armed with guns and a taser, who were wearing body armour, who were wearing the proud uniform of the Mounties, confronted the lone, upset, lost Polish visitor and immediately tasered him with a 50,000-volt shock.
Mr. Dziekanski collapsed screaming and writhing to the floor. He was not resisting arrest. He was in agony. What did Canada's finest do next? At one point someone yells, "Hit him again." Mr. Dziekanski was tasered at least once more. The four officers piled on the man. One placed his knee on Mr. Dziekanski's neck. Soon the writhing stopped. He was unresponsive. He may already have been dead.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day yesterday ordered a review of the use of tasers as a result of this outrageous and tragic incident.
He is correct to do so. All that is wrong with tasers is in plain view in this video. The officers didn't attempt any interaction with the man. They didn't try to negotiate. They didn't make calming gestures. They didn't have to. They had their tasers with them, and lost their humanity.
Tasers were never intended to be an alternative to those values the RCMP cite in their published "commitment to communities," values such as "compassion" and "respect." They were meant to be an alternative to the use of firearms, and live ammunition would never have been justified - indeed, would never have been used - in this situation. To have done so would have been viewed as an extrajudicial killing. How is the use of a taser in this case really any different?
