Friday, May 09, 2008

TN! of the Week: Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Scott Wilson

Let's all congratulate RCMP Cpl. Scott Wilson for his nomination of taser-nazi of the week.

What got him nominated? His response to this "event" that happened at a Kamloops hospital yesterday:

An elderly man in Kamloops, B.C., was zapped three times on the torso by a police stun gun while lying on his hospital bed, CBC News has learned.

Frank Lasser, 82, appeared fragile Thursday when he showed the Taser marks on his body and talked about the ordeal he went through Saturday.

Kamloops RCMP said Thursday that officers had no other option but to deploy the [electroshock weapon] when Lasser refused to drop his knife.

What? A 82 years old man recovering from a pneumonia carrying an oxygen apparatus, and no other option than to deploy the torturous taser? Then what did (3) police officers (yes, there were three at the glorious event) do in the age before Taser's wonderful invention? Cry and run? Or shoot and kill?

But at least the police apologized and said they would never do it again, right?
Not Scotty, our nominee:
"Whether the person is 80 or 20, we are dealing with a person who had a deadly weapon in their hand," Cpl. Scott Wilson told CBC News.
With this kind of reasoning Scotty can walk into any restaurant and start tasering anybody; lots of people with knives in their hands (note to self: avoid Vancouver Transit, Vancouver's YVR Airport and all hospitals and restaurants in the Kamloops area).

Congratulations Cpl. Scott Wilson, defending the tasering of an 82 year old hospitalized man has gotten you nominated for The Taser-Nazi of the Week award!

LINKS
- CBC : RCMP subdue hospitalized man, 82, with Taser

5 comments:

Skinny Dipper said...

If the Taser is a substitute for a firearm with bullets, then would the police have fired bullets at the man in the hospital, at Robert Dziekanski at the airport in Vancouver, and transit evaders also in Vancouver?

Erik said...

Good point, Skinny Dipper. And the answer is 'of course not'.

Coming from Europe I'm appalled by the RCMP's general behaviour to begin with, but these taser "incidents" make me mad!

They show again and again the lack of compassion for good policing. I'm wondering if they lost this compassion, or if they never had it in the first place? Their track record in their dealings with Canada's aboriginal communities isn't that lovely either, or is it?

Whatever the answer is, there needs to be a complete overhaul of the RCMP, or perhaps even better get rid of this institution all together. If three officers can't bring up the effort to subdue this man 82 year old hospitalized man WITHOUT the use of the torturous taser, then we know there's something seriously wrong with the RCMP's policing culture.

An apology would have helped, but after reading about Scott Wilson we can forget about that; they are "proud" users of this wonderful taser. Absolutely appalling.

Anonymous said...

The RCMP in this country is WAYYY out of control, and unfortunately, until our politicians can pull their heads out of their asses, these types of things will probably continue.

I am also wondering what these fools did before the advent of tasers? I mean do they not go through hand-to-hand combat training etc in Regina? Maybe they should cancel that all together as it doesn't appear that they utilize those skills when they are on the job.

And the "no choice" and "deadly weapon" thing is absolute bullshit. I can't even beleive they would allow him to look into the camera and say that it's so laughable. Sorry PIG, a swiss army knife is not a deadly weapon by any stretch - especially when there are 3 grown male officers looming over an 82 yr old. I think these idiots must be the same group that goes out and rapes old women and steal from young kids....it follws the same ideaology.

Anonymous said...

I posted on my Excited-Delirium.com blog why the RCMP's story smells fake.

http://tinyurl.com/6g5hhr

Extract:

Based on the reports, it appears that the police used the taser in Drive Mode. This is the close range direct-contact mode, as opposed to firing the barbs trailing the long wires which would allow the taser to be used while standing-off at a safe distance from this blade-wielding octogenarian potential-ninja. If so, they would have had to walk up to the patient's hospital bed, within an arm's length, in order to apply the taser to the elderly man's torso.


More on Excited-Delirium.com
300+ posts all about Taser, tasers, and abuse.

Unknown said...

As I've said before, the rcmp's new motto should be "shoot first, ask questions later"! I lived in Van for 12yrs and heard all about the excellent "service" provided by these modern-nazis; busting in the wrong door of apartments and shooting 12yr old holding blowdryer, pepper spraying lawful-citizens protesting peacefully in public, riot-baton attacks on homeless, tasering helpless individuals in hospital beds, etc, etc, etc.
I don't know when it all started, but even my retired parents agree now that the rcmp is not an organization to look up too anymore! Pretty amazing when even the older generations start to wake up to the sad realitys of the cops dominating us at the whims of the politicians (anyone remember the pepper-spray and water cannons used in Ottawa against citizens protesting suharto?!). I've also said before that the rcmp have a tough-job, but their training and qualifications have dropped as their membership has increasingly become more violent and disrespectful towards the general public, who do they "protect and serve"? Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but they've got the guns and not afraid to use them, eh?

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