Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Langley RCMP kill unarmed (and seriously wounded) man with taser

cpl peter thiesen RCMP LangleyAnother day, another taser death. Who's still counting all taser deaths?

A man is dead after he crashed through a second-storey window, naked and bleeding from a chest wound, and was hit with an RCMP Taser.
If this man was seriously bleeding from a chest wound, then why would someone taser him? Is having crashed through a window any reason to taser someone to death?

RCMP say they converged on a home in suburban Langley, B.C., Tuesday, following an armed robbery earlier in the day. A witness who saw a vehicle leaving the scene of the hold-up alerted police and followed the car to the home.

That's quite the stretch, "following an armed robbery". Is the account of one eyewitness enough to taser somebody to death?

Cpl. Peter Thiessen said police heard a man and woman arguing inside the home, and then witnessed the man come through an upper-floor window and hit the ground.

Did the woman throw this guy out? Then why taser the guy and not the woman?

With the gun used in the robbery nowhere in sight and the suspect trying to run inside the home despite a serious chest wound, police decided to use the Taser, Thiessen said.

What do you mean, despite? If I was naked and bleeding like hell I wouldn't consider going for a drink or see a movie; I would go inside, call an ambulance and if possible get dressed. What's so weird about that reaction?

[Thiessen] said the man was still alive when he was arrested but died en route to hospital.

Does anyone else have a Robert Dziekanski deja-vu here? Robert was still alive when he was arrested. But not much later he was dead, thanks to the great work of the RCMP.

Thiessen said a woman who was inside the home was arrested.

Well, problem solved then. It was all the woman's fault. How wonderful to turn the single reason for tasering the now dead man (to protect the female) into the perfect scapegoat.

This story stinks, and I don't like it.

LINKS
- Canadian Press: Langley RCMP kill seriously wounded and unarmed man with taser
-Truth not Tasers: 371+ Taser deaths, and still counting...

Full Article follows, comments at the bottom.

PS: RCMP spokesman Cpl. Peter Thiessen says that they killed the suspect "in the interest of public safety and the safety of police officers". Well done, Peter.

Wounded B.C. robbery suspect dies after being Tasered

LANGLEY, B.C. — A man is dead after he crashed through a second-storey window, naked and bleeding from a chest wound, and was hit with an RCMP Taser.

RCMP say they converged on a home in suburban Langley, B.C., Tuesday, following an armed robbery earlier in the day. A witness who saw a vehicle leaving the scene of the hold-up alerted police and followed the car to the home.

Cpl. Peter Thiessen said police heard a man and woman arguing inside the home, and then witnessed the man come through an upper-floor window and hit the ground.

With the gun used in the robbery nowhere in sight and the suspect trying to run inside the home despite a serious chest wound, police decided to use the Taser, Thiessen said.

He said the man was still alive when he was arrested but died en route to hospital.

Thiessen said a woman who was inside the home was arrested.

The RCMP Major Crimes Unit and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team are investigating the incident with the oversight of Vancouver police.

The use of the shock weapons has been under scrutiny since Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died after RCMP officers shocked him with a Taser at the Vancouver airport in October 2007.

A public inquiry into Dziekanski's death is scheduled to get underway in November.

Last week, Vancouver police used a Taser on a 16-year-old mother who refused to hand her one-month-old baby over to social workers.

Police said they acted because of fears the "mentally distraught" mother might smother the little boy during the three-hour standoff.



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

No doubt the police will blame the man's death on his knife wounds and not on being tased. Since he was naked there obviously wasn't a weapon to be afraid of, so there was absolutely no need to taser him to death.

Erik said...

Very good point, anonymous.

If this man was severely wounded (as police are claiming now, obviously to support the underlying but tacit proposition that it was the wounds/fall that killed him, not the police with their torturous tasers), then shouldn't it have been easy for all those policemen to tackle and arrest him without a taser?

Once again the RCMP appears to be far too taser-trigger-happy.

Anonymous said...

He was a armed robbery suspect, who crashed though a window then attempted to run back into the house where there was a female inside and an unaccounted for gun.

Beleive it ot not the Police could have made a case for using deadly force fearing death or grevious bodily harm to the man himself, the female inside and the police officer on scene. They could have shot him, nnot with the harmless tazer, with a real gun.

If that had happened the media story would have read violent man shot by Police after attempting to return to reach his home with gun and wife/girlfreind. None of us would be questioning it.

You folks need to educate yourselves insdead of just blindly nay saying everything the Police do.

Look, its a hot topic. Do tazers kill, probably not. But maybey. The fact is the Officers are trained that the tazer is completly harmless... and to tell you the truth the media is brainwashing us to beleive they do kill when the facts are point to the opposite.

Did you know that an estimated 10 people a month die of excited delerium and or cocaine psycosis in the LMD. Normally they are found at home dead, with no clothing on soaked in their own sweat (excited delerium cause body tempt to shoot WAY up) or they will frequntly be found in bathtubs with ice.

June 18th 2008, A surrey man gets in a fight with an RCMP officer and dies after being placed in cuffs.... no tazer used.

July 2nd.... pretty much same thing except he died before police arrived... no tazer.

August 2008. Man tried to take over trnaslink bus... bus stops man runs into itersection of KGH and Hwy 10 and dies... police arrive later....

The common theme here people is that these people suffering from excited delerium will usually die no matter what. At the same time these people exhibit extreme behaviour and irrational thoughts, which in turn brings them to the Police attention. Now usually they die before Police arrive, but if they happen to still be alive then they their behaviour makes them perfect candidates for the tazer.

The incedents that do not include the TAZER do not sell newspapers, and you never hear about them.

To the common argument of "why don't Police just tackle the guy". Well folks the tazer has been deployed by the RCMP over 5,0000 times in the last three years. Approximately 10 people have died after being tazered and none of those deaths have been attributed to the tazer. but... lets say for te sake of argument that ALL of the deaths were a direct result with no other contributing factor other than the Tazer.... it would still make sense to use the TAZER over a physical fight any day. The rate of injury and death is FAR, FAR greater for those involved in physical confrontations with officers (or any person outside law enforcment for that matter).

Physical fights nearly always lead to injury or death. Blows to the head, broken bones...ect. Being TAZERED is statistaclly far safer even if you beleive it kills.

Most people who are Tazered are so to save THEIR lives. Emergency personell and the sergen genral of canada policy dictates that persons suffering from excited deleruim need to be brought under control quickly and be rushed to immediate medical attention. The stats say the TAZER is the best way to do this as the most unobstrusive method.

Did you know that if you are in a physical confrontation with Police and they are equipped with the TAZER and do NOT use it on you, but you are injured in the scuffle you can SUE the force if the officer cannot explain why he reverted to a "higher level of force" when he had the TAZER avaliable to him to safely subdue you.

In addition.... I'm not sure about municipal forces but ALL RCMP officers who are tazer trained (which is most... about 9,000) have been tazered as part of their training...... not one death.... however there have been injuries from falls (hitting head on ground ect,,,)

The last part... why I am so passionate about this... personal embarassment. I was writing a criminology thesis and was fully expected to end up flaming the Police and they're use of tasers. Like everyone else I had learned everything I knew about the subject from the media and I ws outraged.. however... after doing my research I was wrong... very wrong.

Lets face it folks... this guy was going to die no matter what... the Police tried to give him a fighting chance and in turn also saved the female from potential injury or death.

TO the person who asked why the female wasn't tazered.... Police force is not a punishment.... it is used to control immediate threats. The Police where not inside with the female.... they were outside with the crazy, uncontrollable armed robbery suspect.

She was arrested without incedent.

I know ignorance is bliss folks... but its just wrong to opinion shop until you find a spin on a story that fits your preconceived biased notion. You should educate yourselves.

-Bill

Erik said...

thanks for your comment, Bill. As you already know, I have to disagree with you on most points of your comments.

Here are the most obvious ones:

Believe it or not the Police could have made a case for using deadly force fearing death or grievous bodily harm to the man himself

Working for the RCMP, Bill? Everybody who has been reading this blog knows I do proper research, often far beyond that of the media. It takes some extra effort to get beyond the spin of the corporate media, but once it is un-spun, you can read it here!

The people that obviously do not get the proper education around here are the RCMP officers (including you) who support this abusive behaviour (you again, Bill)

Did you know that an estimated 10 people a month die of excited delirium and or cocaine psychosis in the LMD.

Did you know my dementing neighbour sees UFO's every sunday? Neither UFOs nor excited delirium have been proven to exist, but I'm sure you educated yourself on this, Bill the RCMP officer.

Being tasered is statistically far safer even if you believe it kills.

Saver for who? Are you saying that Robert Dziekanski was lucky to get tasered?

I agree that in a court of law it can be hard to prove WHAT exactly killed him MOST (tasers or the officers), but it's safe to say the combination of overly-aggressive-and-stupid RCMP officers (- agressive:shot him down without any discussion; multiple shockgun jolts - stupid: knees in neck of Robert, no CPR given) and the weapon used electroshock gun aka taser) did kill him. But I'm sure he feels very save now, under three feet of sand.

BTW, Bill, did Taser International order you to write this post? Just curious, especially because you continuously use Tazer/TAZER instead of of the proper word. Perhaps one of their SEO practises? (I corrected them in this post; you're welcome).

Lets face it folks... this guy was going to die no matter what..

Nice!

the Police tried to give him a fighting chance and in turn also saved the female from potential injury or death.

That only makes sense to bigoted RCMP officers. If killing him was intentional (you just gave him a chance, Bill the RCMP officer?), then we're talking murder, Bill. Are you aware of the difference?

To the person who asked why the female wasn't tasered.... Police force is not a punishment.

Thanks Bill the RCMP officer, that is a very wise thing to say. Too bad it seems to contradict your earlier "we just gave the guy a chance; we were going to murder him anyways" crap.

I fully realize that good policing is a balancing act between risks and responsibilities. But you should be ashamed of yourself, Bill, coming on MY blog with that kind of crap. The RCMP have dropped the ball a multitude of times, like they did with Robert Dziekanski.

In my opinion everybody is allowed to make mistakes (even the RCMP) but when cover up and spin is all you can do to "resolve" these mistakes, than we will never see any improvement which is seriously needed at the RCMP.

Coming from Europe I'm appalled, yes, appalled by the crap that you guys come up with whenever one of your fellow member's abuses get exposed. And crap written during office time, with my tax dollars? You seriously should be ashamed of yourself, Bill.

Please do not respond during office time, Bill, but use the time to IMPROVE the RCMP, Bill. It's never too early for improvement, Bill, but often too late. Ask Robert Dziekanski...

Erik said...

Bill said:

Hi Bill again,

I work for the City of West Vancouver... NOT as an RCMP officer (we don't even have the RCMP in West Vancouver). I live in Pitt Meadows (yes there is RCMP here) and I have the world crappiest commute.

I really don't have anything to do with any Police force


[imagine all kind of crap here that shows that Bill didn't take any of my comments seriously, on the contrary; he simply labels it as "empty childish rhetoric" and "sensationalism". What's wrong with you Bill? You don't understand the basics of a good debate?]

I will take my debate elsewhere.

-BILL

Thanks Bill, that's all we needed to know.

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