When Canadian Police start behaving like Nazis we better call them on it: Sgt. Willie Merenick has been nominated for TN! of the week!

Who doesn't remember the Soup Nazi? Wikipedia remembers:

"The Soup Nazi" is the title of the 116th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, which was the 6th episode of the 7th season. It first aired in the United States on November 2, 1995.

The Soup Nazi is also the name of the titular character played by Larry Thomas. The term "Nazi" is used as an exaggeration of the over-regimentation he constantly demands of his patrons.

More recently another profession has increasingly been acting more like the Nazis: we're talking about the police here, especially when armed with or talking about the notorious stun-gun more commonly known as the taser.

Taser use by Canadian police force has grown exponentially in the last few years. Initially the use of the taser has been defended by the police as a replacement tool for the gun. But as of recent the taser has been used on “non-compliant” fair evaders on Vancouver transit. What's next? Tasering babies for crying out loud?

Amnesty International has reported that Taser use can amount to torture, and in case of the Vancouver Transit Police Taserings we couldn't agree more. If someone who hasn't bought a two dollar ticket can expect to be tasered into compliance by Vancouver Transit Police then we know we have given the police far too much leeway for taser usage; tasering someone into compliance is torture.

Torture was something the Nazis were specifically good at, sometimes with the same goal in mind: forcing the victim into compliance. And just imagine: if the taser had been invented during the 1930s, wouldn't all publicly paid Nazi officers have carried it?

Given the descriptions above, isn't it fair to compare current public officers that engage in or promote Taser use on non-compliant but non-violent members of the public, to their imagined Nazi counterparts by calling them TASER-NAZIS? We think it is :)

If you would like to nominate someone for “Taser-Nazi of the Week” then please leave a comment on this page. Here is the repressive “Getting it Right Policy” on nominating someone. The nominee should comply with at least one of the following policies in order to be considered:

1.Anyone paid by the public who uses or threatens to use a taser on a non-compliant but unarmed (non-violent) member of the public.

2.Anyone paid by the public who works at a policing agency (so not a law maker) and who actively advocates FOR the use of tasers while ignoring (either actively or tacitly) the rationale AGAINST the taser.

3.Anyone paid by the public who keeps repeating taser's unproven mantras (such as “the Taser saves lives” “the Taser prevents injuries” and “the Taser reduces injuries”) when hard facts have proven the contrary (many people have been injured and died after being tasered).

4.Anyone paid by the public who withholds information that can lead to the prosecution of officers that have used the taser gun to abuse or kill a "subject".

5.Anyone paid by the public who obstructs the process that can lead to the prosecution of officers that have used the taser gun to abuse or kill.

6. Anyone who lobbies on behalf of publicly paid workers and who participates in one of the activities described in 1-3.

First nomination for Taser-Nazi of the Week is: Sgt. Willie Merenick.

In an April 2008 interview Mr. Merenick confirmed that tasers have been used 10 times on members of the public in Vancouver by police officers from the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police. The taser was deployed “for the safety of the public, the people themselves and the police”.

The following is what got him nominated:

Sgt. Willie Merenick: “If we didn't believe that Tasers save lives, reduce injuries and are effective, we wouldn't use them.”

Well, Mr. Merenick, let me update you with some hard facts. Tasers do NOT save lives. In fact, there's isn't a shred of evidence that any of the thousands of Tasers out there has ever saved a single life, so who are you fooling here, Willie Merenick?

The same can be said about injuries. No data whatsoever that a taser can PREVENT an injury: If tasers really can prevent injuries shouldn't we all be wearing one? We do know that tasers have caused hundreds if not thousands of injuries (including burns, eye-wounds, broken limbs, and so on) and that many members people have died shortly after they were shot with a taser.

So there you go, Sgt. Willie Merenick, you've been nominated for taser-Nazi of the Week. Repeating corporate mantras while conveniently omitting contradicting facts (also called lying by omission) that would give a more balanced view on the taser has gotten you nominated. Congratulations!

LINK
- Vancouver Sun: Transit police back Taser use
- Amnesty International: Taser Related Deaths
- Democratic Underground: Taser Nazi nightmare needs to end

Ticket or Taser? Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 Transit riders warned

Babies that recovered from being tasered by tasering moms and pops now have something else to worry about: getting tasered while on Vancouver Transit. Vancouver's version of "trick or treat" is called "ticket or Taser". Visitors of the 2010 Winter Olympices, be warned and either rent a car, or grab a cab.

VANCOUVER — The country's only armed transit police have been tasering passengers who try to avoid paying fares.

According to documents provided in response to a Freedom of Information request, police patrolling public transit in the Metro Vancouver area have used tasers 10 times in the past 18 months, including five occasions when victims had been accosted for riding free.

Good old Freedom of Information request can come up with some nasty things these days. Read on.

In one incident, a non-paying passenger was tasered after he held onto a railing on the SkyTrain platform and refused to let go.

Holding onto a railing? You can't have that. Go ahead, taser, taser, TASER!!! Why can't these suckers buy a ticket, or travel by car like everyone else does? TASER those losers, with or without ticket, TASER TASER TASER!

“After several warnings to the subject to stop resisting arrest and the subject failing to comply with the officers' commands, the taser was deployed and the subject was taken into control,” said the report provided by TransLink, the region's transit authority.

Comply or be Tasered.

An internal review of the incident concluded that the action taken by transit police officers complied with the force's policy and was within guidelines “set out in the National Use of Force Model,” the report said.

Okay, Taser AND comply then.

On another occasion, a passenger was tasered when he fled from police who found him without a payment receipt during a “fare blitz.” This time, however, the passenger got away because, as recounted in the report, “the Taser was ineffective due to the subject's clothing and [he] escaped the custody of the officers.”

Lots more to read here.

LINKS
- Globe and Mail: Vancouver transit riders tasered for not paying fares
- Wikipedia: Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010
- Vancouver Transit: Translink
- Wikipedia: Skytrain Vancouver
- Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police Service - Strategic Plan Update (including use of Taser)

Vancouver Airport Taser tape conveniently erased

Does anyone remember me talking about an airport surveillance video of the Robert Dziekanski Taser-killing that could give some more insight to what exactly happened? Well, most of it is gone. Erased. And not a single investigating police officer has made a back-up copy of the whole ordeal. How convenient.

Border services says it deleted security footage inadvertently
Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun

Published: Friday, April 11, 2008

Several hours of surveillance footage recorded at Vancouver airport the night Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was Tasered and died were inadvertently erased by the Canada Border Services Agency a week after his death, The Vancouver Sun has learned.

The mistake is revealed in a series of internal CBSA e-mails on the Dziekanski matter released to The Sun in response to an Access to Information request.

Dziekanski was Tasered by the RCMP early on Oct. 14, 2007 after he began behaving erratically in a secure area of the airport -- pacing and throwing items against a glass wall.

However, before Dziekanski's interaction with the Mounties, he spent more than six hours in the airport's customs and baggage-claim hall without being noticed by anyone from the CBSA.

After Dziekanski's death, a CBSA officer reviewed all the agency's surveillance footage from that night to see if it provided any indication of what Dziekanski did for several hours in the customs hall.

That review found Dziekanski was picked up by CBSA cameras only about a dozen times, and just for a few minutes each time.

Between 4:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. -- a five-hour stretch -- the officer couldn't find Dziekanski on any of the footage, something the agency later said may have been due to construction in the area blocking camera angles.

The officer who reviewed the footage copied all the clips he found of Dziekanski onto a video disk.

However, weeks later, the CBSA decided it should take another look at all the footage to make sure it didn't miss anything.

"This is a significant undertaking, but close review may provide some additional information," John Dyck, head of the CBSA's Pacific Region Program and Communications division, wrote in a Nov. 1 e-mail to regional director Blake Delgaty. "We have requested that the full time period from all cameras be loaded to DVD for further review."

Unfortunately, by that point the original footage had all been erased.

In an e-mail to Dyck the same day, Binder Kooner, head of CBSA passenger operations at the airport, explained that there had been some confusion over how long the footage would be stored before being erased.

"I'm advised that footage was originally available for 16 days but due to subsequent modifications to the surveillance system, the footage is now only available for 7 days after which it automatically erases," Kooner wrote. "The footage is no longer available."

Kooner added that the CBSA officer who viewed all of the footage would write a declaration stating any clips of Dziekanski were included on the DVD.

Still, Dyck wrote back that "this is an unfortunate turn of events; we were under the impression that steps had been taken to preserve the video."

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, which is investigating Dziekanski's death, said Thursday it wasn't aware the CBSA's original footage had been erased.

However, IHIT spokesman Cpl. Dale Carr said the team is not worried because one of its investigators reviewed the complete footage before it was erased and was confident all clips of Dziekanski are on the DVD.

CBSA spokesman Derek Mellon refused to comment this week on why the agency didn't take steps to preserve the original footage or how confident it is that no shots of Dziekanski were missed.

In an e-mail, Mellon said only that he believed any questions about the footage were already answered in the documents released to The Sun.

The few clips of Dziekanski the officer burned to the DVD were released to The Sun earlier this year in response to a separate Access to Information request.

h/t The Coast of Bohemia: Tazer Video Deleted

LINKS
- Vancouver Sun: Video of YVR taser victim erased