Because Steve LLOOOOVVEEEESS torture! He always did and always will! Torture is cool, as long as nobody knows about it.
Better keep Colvin quiet and don't get your hands dirty.
Have a look at the following video. It's self-explanatory, and a lot of "fun" :)
http://wcco.com/video/?id=69634@wcco.dayport.com
Todd Lappegaard, you are the Taser Nazi of the Week.
Congratulations!
H/T Excited Delirium
LINK
- Star Tribune, Minneapolis: Todd Lappegaard exposed
By Kris Kotarski, Calgary Herald October 19, 2009 9:18 AM
Earlier this month, just days before the second anniversary of Robert Dziekanski's death at Vancouver International Airport, Taser International posted a bulletin for law enforcement organizations instructing officers to avoid shooting people in the chest, and encouraging them to target the abdomen, legs or back.
"When possible, avoiding chest shots with electronic control devices avoids the controversy about whether ECDs do or do not affect the human heart."
Aim lower. Avoid controversy. Words to live by.
Considering the ongoing public-relations disaster that is the Braidwood Inquiry into the Oct. 14, 2007 death of Dziekanski after he was repeatedly stunned by RCMP officers with Taser International's weapons, it is not surprising that "the controversy" is a matter of grave concern for the company.
Controversy is not conducive to a healthy bottom line, and even fundraisers featuring Playboy bunnies cannot make people forget the stunning video of Dziekanski screaming on the floor before he died, with four RCMP officers standing over him with Tasers drawn.
The Braidwood Inquiry has heard a number of compelling arguments to ban the weapons completely, and Amnesty International's running tally of American fatalities that occurred shortly after a Taser discharge (presently at 351 since 2001) is enough to give anyone pause.
Yet, as Taser International and police spokespeople are quick to point out, there are also compelling reasons to continue to arm officers with the weapons, especially in light of the very real dangers faced by the police.
The second anniversary of Dziekanski's death is a good moment to reflect on this ongoing argument, and to consider what electroshock weapons have done to our society. Do Tasers make us safer? And, more importantly, do they make us a better people?
Writing at Salon.com,American blogger Digby has argued that "Tasers were sold to the public as a tool for law enforcement to be used in lieu of deadly force." "Nobody wants to see more death and if police have a weapon they can employ instead of a gun, in self-defence or to stop someone from hurting others, I think we all can agree that's a good thing. But that's not what's happening."
A quick YouTube search shows a number of incidents in the United States and in Canada where officers use the weapons against people who, as Digby puts it, "have not broken any law and whose only crime is being disrespectful toward their authority or failing to understand their 'orders.' "
Here's but one example. After getting into an argument about a parking ticket with a Kelowna RCMP officer in 2007, 68-year-old John Peters was punched in the head and Tasered twice while sitting in his car next to his horrified wife. It is not difficult to imagine how the argument between Peters and the officer may have progressed, but it does require a major stretch of the imagination to see how a 68-year-old stroke survivor who is partially blind in one eye could have possibly threatened the officer in a manner that justified his treatment.
In that case, the RCMP has since admitted its mistake and the officer was disciplined by the force, but that hardly makes up for the terror of the initial situation. And that is the problem with Tasers. Anyone who has read about cases like Dziekanski's or Peters' is entitled to feel disgusted by the practical-- if not the theoretical --use of the weapons.
The basic premise underlining community support for police work is fairness. Without fairness, there is no chance for trust, and without trust, the dangers faced by police officers and ordinary citizens increase exponentially.
Weapons like Tasers continue to shock the conscience not because of how they are used in theory, but because of how they are used in practice. And, despite assurances by Taser International, aiming lower will not solve the underlying issue of fairness, or stop the very credible accusations of cruelty, negligence and abuse.
Kris Kotarski's Column Runs Every Second Monday.
It took almost seven years, but there seems to be some movement in the 2002 Bob and Mike Wasylyshen Taser Kids for fun case:
[Mike Wasylyshen, the] Edmonton police constable who Tasered a passed-out teen in 2002 and avoided punishment from the police chief of the day--his father [Bob Wasylyshen] --will likely now have to face a disciplinary hearing.Great, well done, Mike. And you too, Bob, for supporting taser use on drunk kids. What a hell of father you make!
Not so cool, Mike, but let's not forget who thought that what Mike was doing was "all fine": indeed, his own father Bob Wasylyshen.
In a ruling last week, the Law Enforcement Review Board ordered Police Chief Mike Boyd to lay several charges against Const. Mike Wasylyshen related to the Oct. 5, 2002, incident in which 16-year-old Randy Fryingpan was Tasered eight times in about one minute.
Fryingpan was passed out drunk in the back of a car that police were called to investigate. Everyone in the vehicle, except Fryingpan, got out when police ordered them, and Fryingpan was Tasered.
1. Mike deployed his Taser on (Fryingpan) eight times in the span of 68 seconds, in what appeared to be an effort to remove the passed-out youth from the vehicleCongrats, Bob and Mike Wasylyshen, you both are Taser Nazis of the Week!
2. No evidence was presented to justify the use of a Taser; nor was any evidence presented to explain why the Taser was deployed eight times in just over a minute
[Mike] Wasylyshen had been out drinking with some other officers at a bar on Whyte Avenue (Edmonton) in December 2005 and had become very drunk.At about 2:30 in the morning, he left the club and spotted Devin Stacey, who was hailing a cab across the street. Stacey had just had knee surgery and was using crutches to get around.
Crown prosecutor Marta Juzwiak told the court [Mike] Wasylyshen started yelling and berating the 22-year-old man, and called him a "cripple". He then ran across the street and punched Stacey in the ear, and moments later struck a security guard who was trying to stop the altercation that had broken out.
Wow! And this jerk is still working for the police? What's wrong with the Edmonton Police?
In an interview with CBC News on Thursday afternoon, [Devin] Stacey said he thinks Wasylyshen should no longer be a member of the force.
"If you're a cop and you assault someone, especially on Whyte Avenue, you shouldn't be able to be a cop anymore," he said.
Well said, Devin!
Tasers are more effective than ever, especially in the "head zone":
Sue Bailey
THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA – Stun guns can cause seizures if their tiny electric barbs pierce the scalp and shock the brain, says a new article on the accidental jolting of a police officer.
The unnamed Ontario cop, in his 30s, was chasing a suspected robber when he was hit in the back of the head with a Taser fired by his partner.
Within seconds, the officer collapsed and went into a full-blown seizure – foaming at the mouth – for about a minute, says the article co-written by Toronto neurologist Dr. Richard Wennberg.
[The accident] is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal released Monday.
[...]
"Our report shows that a Taser shot to the head may result in brain-specific complications. It also suggests that seizure should be added to the list of Taser-related adverse events."
What appears to be a rare if not isolated case should serve as a cautionary tale, Wennberg said in an interview, especially as Taser use grows.
"In that [a seizure caused by a taser] hadn't ever been reported before, we felt sort of obligated to report on it in the medical literature so that people would know that for sure this can happen.
"To discharge that amount of electrical current in a region overlying the brain, it didn't seem impossible to me that this could happen in a mechanism similar to giving electroconvulsive therapy or something like that."
Wennberg says stun guns pack about the same jolt used to induce seizures in electroshock therapy. [...]
The police officer came out of his seizure bewildered and with a severe headache. He was later diagnosed with a concussion, likely from the impact of the dart or from hitting his head after collapsing. He still suffers headaches and has difficulty concentrating 18 months later, Wennberg said.
He has not had any seizures since. [...]
"Taser International is aware of a few incidents during training in which an officer experienced a seizure following a hit by a Taser device."
Those incidents were not written up in medical reports. But the company's document 'Product Warnings: Law Enforcement' clearly warns against targeting sensitive areas such as the head and further states that the risk of a seizure "may be heightened if electrical stimuli or current passes through the head region." [...]
"They certainly don't mean for these things to ever be aimed at the head – nor was it meant to be in this case even. But it wouldn't always have to be an accident. I'd be surprised if (a seizure) didn't happen most of the time to people if they actually did get Tasered in the head."
Taser International has steadfastly defended the relative safety of its devices although it stresses that no use-of-force tool is risk-free.
More than 20 Canadians have died after being Tasered. [...]
From The Real News:
Michael Ratner is President of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York and is shocked about what has has happened:
A Canadian Foreign Affairs training manual has created a diplomatic firestorm. At issue is a list of countries with possible torture and abuse cases. The list includes the United States. The manual was inadvertently released to lawyers from Amnesty International working on a lawsuit involving alleged abuse of Afghan detainees by Canadians. US Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins has stated that the inclusion of the United States is absurd. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxine Bernier promptly issued an apology, stating that the manual will be reviewed and rewritten. The Real News spoke with Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a leading expert in international law and torture and abuse cases.
Michael Ratner:
I mean, there should be just people in Canada screaming at the government about this, just screaming. It's pretty shocking that the United States ambassador picks up the phone or says something publicly and is able to essentially change what the truth is, basically change the facts, and say despite the fact that you know about Iraq, that you know about Khadr in Guantanamo, or we know torture was an everyday technique used for interrogation in Guantanamo, that one phone call, Canada would just fold when it actually, as I said, was sort of heroic for us in the United States, that our northern neighbor who had its citizens, at least Arar—and it didn't protect Arar initially—that it then went ahead and did.
An anonymous person shared a link of the Blue Line Forum with me. What follows is a selection of what Canadian Law Enforcement has been expressing on this "wonderful forum", right after the release of the RCMP Taser Killing video:
"Setting up a barricade at the doorway does not strike me as the actions of a confused traveller. It indicates to me that he was preparing for a confrontation with the authorities."See for yourself how a single member of this forum (named VoteQuimby) gets bullied by all other members: start reading here or here.
"well IMO with the control tactics/use of force training I have I can see the RCMP being 100% justified in how they reacted to the situation."
"Why in God’s name should a copper get hurt just to avoid tasering or OCing a subject that it violent and out of control?"
"Today we have use of force tools that allow us to effect our purpose without getting a "bloody nose". Getting hurt isn't part of my job. My job is to get the job done and go home safely to my family."
"what would look worse to the general public, 4 coppers on top of this guy using knee strikes, arm bars, or possibly, batons to restrain him, or 2 "zaps" with a taser which drops him...they then place him in cuffs?"
"I don't go to work to become a punching bag, and weapons and tools are available to me so I go home. These guys are cops who are no different. At the end of the day it's ME who goes home, if some jerk-off who tried hurting me gets hurt or killed in the process, that's just too damn bad."
"Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six."
"Hell, WHY did this guy pick up a solid metal object with sharp corners? Do you REALLY think he was going to staple some loose papers in his passport? [..]Did this guy at one point have : ABILITY, INTENT, MEANS? Bet your ass."
"Again, no one has asked the obvious question: Why for the love of mike, if you had 7 years to learn even simple English phrases like " I am lost, can someone call my mother?" didn't he do so?"
"Broadcasting the videotape did nothing but inflame public opinion, without providing any additional information on whether the officers' actions were justified. [...] But, you do see the guy writhing in pain and then go limp - images which do little but crank up Joe Q. Public and the media."
"And as for Mr. Pritchard, if he sold this video for profit, he is less than a "global citizen" IMHO"
"I like that Ottawa Police demonstration of the Taser to the CBC, but it should have been someone in the CBC that they tasered....."
"Wow this [Paul Pritchard] guy is now Canada's newest hero. Yep 25 years old now he can move out of his parent's basement and change the world. One shitty, grainy video at a time. I noticed he did sweet nothing to try to calm the guy down, or maybe he could have subdued him by himself. Funny how easy it is to lay blame when you are sitting on your useless ass watching. Loser."
"Why is no one talking about how this Candian hero is benefiting financially from someone's death??"
"I'm glad all the RCMP members involved in the incident made it home to their families after shift."
"I'm always amazed that people try and profit from someone else's misery, either #1 I wouldn't film that, or #2 if I did, I would give it to the police and never think about it again. "
"i don't even read the news stories now. it's too frustrating."
"I guess that's what separates us from the scum of journalism. They see a duty to film. We see a duty to actually do something. Then they see a duty to criticize. Gaping crap pipes."
Yesterday about 500 people gathered at the international arrivals gate of the Vancouver International Airport, only meters from the place where Dziekanski died.
"We are not here to point fingers -- we all know what has happened," said organizer Martin Karcz. "I know many of you are angry. We failed to protect a person whose only crime was an inability to communicate.Rallies in support of Robert Dziekanski and family have been organized (for next Saturday, November 24th, 2007) in Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto. Here's an overview:
"We hope the RCMP will never let this happen again."
There's more video of the RCMP Taser Killing of Robert Dziekanski, still in the hands of the investigators (RCMP, I suppose), which has not gone public.
[Larry] Berg [, president and CEO of the Vancouver Airport Authority,] said 14 security cameras monitor the area, and the footage from those cameras has been turned over to investigators.The RCMP has probably been studying these tapes like crazy, to see how they can spin their own story in order to get away with manslaughter, but this time it might be harder to so than ever. The release of Paul Pritchard's video has given the whole world a good view on what went wrong, and most people agree that actions of the four policemen and their superiors were sub-standard (to say the least).
Many things have been said about the latest Taser killing of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport. But why is it that the police keeps trying to convince us that the use of the Taser is safe, and that they need the weapon?
Amnesty International has an interesting take on the issue:
Amnesty International has serious concerns about the use of electro-shock devices in general, both in terms of their safety and their potential for misuse. Portable and easy to use, with the capacity to inflict severe pain at the push of a button without leaving substantial marks, electro-shock weapons are particularly open to abuse. Amnesty International has documented numerous cases of serious abuses involving electro-shock weapons around the world.I'm sure Amnesty added the latest case.
The New Zealand Herald reports that a polish YouTube blogger has translated the last words of Robert Dziekanski:
"I want to get out, help me find the way...Police! Police! Can't you help me?"He got his way out, I suppose...
RCMP spokespeople have continuously spread lies about the Vancouver Taser incident; here the two most obvious ones:
1. Sergeant Pierre Lemaitre (and possily other RCMP officers) have said repeatedly that there were only three RCMP officers involved in the incident, but the video shows four men in RCMP uniforms
2. Sergeant Pierre Lemaitre (and possibly other RCMP officers) have said that officers "did not use pepper spray because of the large number of people at the airport at the time". The video shows that this part of the airport is virtually empty.
Who's going to fire him?
After seeing the RCMP Taser Video I can only conclude the following:
1. This teaser death was completely unnecessary.The video shows pure police brutality resulting in death. These officers are not our friends; these guys act like coldblooded beasts out to taser the hell out of somebody, nothing more, nothing less. Where is the compassion? Why can't these officers handle this confused man in a humane way?
2. The officer in charge and the officer who applied the taser should be fired and prosecuted for the use of excessive force (torture) resulting in death.Again, there really was no reason to use the taser, and definitely not twice. Whoever (most likely an officer) yelled "[taser] him again, [taser] him again" should also been charged for encouraging violent behaviour.
3. All officers who were trained to assist with CPR but neglected to do so should be charged with gross neglect.There was a living being, dying right in front of all officers eyes and not a single RCMP officer had the decency to give CPR? WTF!
4. Sergeant Pierre Lemaitre should be fired for purposely misrepresenting the facts and suppressing the video on a false premise.From the BCCLA complaint:
Of course it is. And it's not a new technique either; the French used waterboarding during their occupation of Algeria in 1950s and 1960s (first used during the Spanish Inquisition).
86 year-old French journalist Henry Alleg describes at Democracy Now! how he was subjected to waterboarding by the French during the war for Algerian independence:
HENRI ALLEG: Well, I was put on a plank, on a board, fastened to it and taken to a tap. And my face was covered with a rag. Very quickly, the rag was completely full of water. And, of course, you have the impression of being drowned. [..]In other news:
So, very quickly, the water ran all over my face. I couldn’t, of course, breathe. And after a few minutes, fighting against the impression of getting drowned, you can’t resist. And you feel as if you were drowning yourself. And this is a terrible impression of coming very near death. And so, when the paratroopers, the torturers, see that you’re drowning, they would stop, let you breathe, and try again. So that impression of getting near to death, every time they helped you to come back to life by breathing, it’s a terrible, terrible impression of torture and of death, being near death. So, that was my impression.
Protesters staged a waterboarding Monday outside the Justice Department (Washington, calling for a Senate committee to reject attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey because of his reluctance to define the interrogation tactic as torture.So much for human rights in America.
It certainly looks like Rumsfeld will have a hard time traveling to Europe in the years to come. There have already been war-crimes cases filed against Rumsfeld in Germany (one was dismissed, one is being appealed), in Argentina, Spain and Sweden. Today France and the US have been added to the list:
French, German and US human rights groups have filed a lawsuit in France accusing former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld of torture during the "war on terror."With the increasing amount of evidence on Rumsfeld's torture practices, these human rights groups actually have a strong case:
The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), the French League for Human Rights (LDH), the US Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Germany's European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) filed the joint suit before a Paris prosecutor on Thursday.
In a statement posted on the FIDH website, the groups say that during his time as defense secretary, Rumsfeld authorized interrogation techniques that led to rights abuses in US-run detention centers at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, as well as elsewhere.- Deutsche Welle: Human Rights Groups File Torture Suit against Rumsfeld
The rights groups notably cite three memorandums signed by Rumsfeld between October 2002 and April 2003 "legitimizing the use of torture" including the "hooding" of detainees, sleep deprivation and the use of dogs.The group also has testimony from Janis Karpinski -- the one-time commander of US military prisons in Iraq -- to bolster its claims. more
Environment minister John Baird is not only deceiving Canadians:
This is what conservatives mean when they say they are accepting the principles of Kyoto; we like Kyoto, but we're not saying that we're going to comply or not. Trust us, we're good Canadians.Canada has not said whether it will breach the U.N.-sponsored Kyoto Protocol even though the country's new climate change plan is weaker than its goals under the international pact, the U.N. climate chief said on Tuesday.
Canada is way over target and its plans to extract oil from sands in northern Alberta, a highly energy intensive process, could deflect it further.Oil is good; I don't see an issue here.
The Conservative government last week laid out new plans on tackling climate change which appeared to confirm it felt Kyoto was unachievable.Sure, it would be fair to assume that. But not with the current neo-con administration, Yvo!
"It's not entirely clear to me how the two (sets of targets) relate to each other," U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said in a telephone interview."If a country signs an international agreement then I assume they stand by that agreement until they tell me otherwise."
"They've not told us they intend to back away from Kyoto."No, and they won't either. Their deceiving inactions are not limited to the exposure of the Canadian public. Afghan detainees (those terrorists) have suffered from Conservative inaction, and it look like the United Nations (those idiots) are next.
This doesn't look good, does it?
"His tormentors were the Afghan police, he said, but the Canadian soldiers who visited him between beatings had surely heard his screams."
The internet is a wonderful thing. It's big, fast, and, once you figure out how search engines work, one can find answers to questions quicker than ever before.
Of similar speed are current political/news blogs. Before you know it someone has already written on the very idea you were going to write about. written on what you were planning to say.
This is what was on my mind (by Eugene Plawiuk:
The Conservative Governments rejection of its international obligations under Kyoto are driven by its ideological messaging that this was a Liberal policy, when in fact it is an international Accord signed by the government of Canada, regardless of the party in power it is binding on the Canadian State.You can post your comments at the original post: Harper the Warlock (Plawiuk)
Not unlike the Geneva Conventions, which the Harper government is now in violation of and is ignoring. Harper defends actions on Afghan detainees
But unlike Kyoto they cannot blame the Liberals for signing that accord. Canadian Politics: Canada Ignores Geneva Convention In Afghanistan
Instead Harper like Bush is ignoring Canada's international obligations by deliberately confusing sovereignty with isolationism. Since the Bush regime has ignored both Kyoto and the rule of International law in regards to war by refusing to recognize the ICC. But the US is not signatory to either accord, while the Canadian Government is.
This must be what is 'new' about the Harper government, that it believes it can ignore international commitments made by previous governments.
It looks like the new government support for the torture of "detainees" has reached new levels. Did I hear "war crimes"? Some professors don't seem so amused:
More to follow:
In case you missed what this is about, then watch this first:
In 1971, psychology professor Philip Zimbardo created the Stanford Prison Experiment in which 24 college students were randomly assigned the roles of prison guards and prisoners at a makeshift jail on campus.
The experiment was scheduled to run for two weeks. By Day Two, the guards were going far beyond just keeping the prisoners behind bars. In scenes eerily similar to Abu Ghraib, prisoners were stripped naked, bags put on their heads and sexually humiliated. The two-week experiment had to be canceled after just six days. Zimbardo tells the full story of the landmark study in his new book, "The Lucifer Effect." (Democracy Now! (video - real player) - Recommended! | Read the rush transcript)
Lucifer Effect website; putting the torture architects on trial
On the new Lucifer Effect website you are given the freedom to judge four US leaders who approved of the policies on which the abuse and torture [in the current "war on terror"] are based: George Tenet, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush. The charges for each leader are taken from public documents and analyses by Human Rights Watch. Vote here.
- See last Friday's broadcast of Philip Zimbardo on Democracy Now! (video - real player) - Recommended! | Read the rush transcript
- The Lucifer Effect website,
- Lucifer Effect Voting Booth
- The Stanford Prison Experiment on Wikipedia
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
Progressive Media
Democracy Now!
Center for Media and Democracy
Human Rights and Activism
Wikileaks.org
Amnesty International
Amnesty International Canada
Human Rights Watch
Transnational Institute
Council of Canadians
Dutch News
Nova
NRC Handelsblad
Radio Netherlands
Qatar
Al Jazeera
UK News
BBC News
Guardian
Independent
US News
Democracy Now!
BC Blogs
Paul Willcocks
US Blogs
Noam Chomsky
Norman Solomon
ZNet Blogs
Buttons
Sponsors
Marketas Bed and Breakfast Victoria BC
Victoria B&B
Personal Life Coaching
