The Dziekanski Inquiry

By BJ

The inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski at the hands of four Taser-weilding RCMP is in full swing, and the first of the four RCMP officers to take the stand has offered a pretty weak defense.

One of four RCMP officers who confronted Robert Dziekanski testified on Monday the Polish immigrant's "combative behaviour" led the officer to fear for his own safety and justified the use of an electrical stun gun.

. . .

Referring frequently to his training, Rundel testified that the Taser is a legitimate response to someone who's resistant. But inquiry lawyer Patrick McGowan had trouble understanding how Dziekanski had been resistant.

"What is the command that he disobeyed?" McGowan asked.

Rundel sat in silence for more than 20 seconds before telling the inquiry that Dziekanski disobeyed a command in English in an indirect way.

"He disobeyed a direction from Cpl. Robinson by flipping up his hands, turning around and leaving — that became resistant behaviour," Rundel said.

"My observation of that is saying, 'To hell with you guys, I'm out of here.' That's non-compliant, and his behaviour then became resistant."

You don't need much more evidence to see that these guys obviously see the Taser as a pain-compliance device. A non-English speaking person doesn't immediately obey when we give him a command? Shock the bastard! That'll learn him!

Comply or be shocked. It is telling that this is the best defense the RCMP could come up with after months of preparation. Of course, they already know that there will be no consequences for their actions:

The Crown announced in December that none of the Mounties will face criminal charges. The Crown said that while the officers contributed to Dziekanski's death, their use of force was reasonable in the circumstances.

It must be nice to be pre-cleared of criminal charges before the inquiry even takes place. I so have to find myself a gig that allows this kind of consequence-free environment. Maybe a Wall Street investment banker?

It is somewhat heartening to read the comments to the story, which are quite overwhelming in their disgust at the officers actions and poor defense of those actions, (granted that I only read the first 40 or so). The best is probably from a retired officer who is ashamed at what the force has become.

Not too surprisingly, the main police associations are out defending their use of the Tasers, saying that they've never been directly responsible for civilian deaths. The direct cause, of course, being "excited delirium", a made-up medical term that only seems to affect those in police custody. What's really odd is that they seem to have forgotten to mention this to the RCMP Commissioner.

In any case, I'd advice these police associations to take a good read of the comments left by ordinary Canadians on the Dziekanski story. Continue down the path you are on and you'll lose their trust and their cooperation, at which point everybody is going to be a lot less safe.

Comments

[Excited-Delirium.com]

My blog has about 800 posts all about tasers.

Plenty of very intriguing information.

www.Excited-Delirium.com
(don't forget the dash)

[Ajlouny]

A taser is usually used to subdue someone that is drunk or just out of control, but a non threatening person seems unreasonable. This tool killing people, maybe this should be a priority to be looked at and re-evaluated.