I thought the days of the Wild West were over. Those were the days that you could shot first and ask question later. In this case, the Vancouver airport was transformed into a seen of an old Clint Eastwood movie. Canadian Royal Mounted Police were widely criticized on Friday for using stun guns on an unarmed Mr. Dziekanski, who collapsed and died after being stunned and restrained, all displayed in a graphic 10-minute video.
Mr. was in the airport for many hours before he was “Stunned” on Oct. 14. He spoke no English.
Moments after being stunned, three or four officers pinned Robert Dziekanski to the ground as he screamed in pain. One officer placed his knees against Mr. Dziekanski's back and neck until the 40-year-old went limp. This is absolutely unacceptable. Limp, meaning the life had been drained out of him!
Meanwhile, Mr. Pritchard, taped the entire ordeal.
At the request of police, he gave them the video on the understanding the RCMP would return it immediately. When they then refused to give it back, he launched court action. Police returned it last week. Why would they refuse to give it back, did they have something shameful to hide? I think so!
Dziekanski, who came to Canada to live with his mother in BC mistakenly waited for her in the baggage area rather than passing through the customs section to enter the main part of Vancouver's airport. A simple misunderstanding leading to excessive force and unprofessional conduct resulted in his death.
After several hours he became frustrated and threw a small table at a window seen below. He was standing still when police arrived and fired at him almost immediately.
Police first said “they could not use pepper spray because there were too many other people in the vicinity”. The video footage, shot by another passenger, showed no one else present apart from the police and Dziekanski.
The footage of Robert Dziekanski howling in agony after he was hit by 50,000-volt Taser blasts at Vancouver International Airport is another blow to Canada's famed Mounties, who have been shaken by a number of recent scandals.
Earlier this year, an inquiry cast severe doubts on the RCMP's explanation about how a police officer shot and killed a young man who had been arrested in 2005 for holding an open can of beer at a sports game in British Columbia.
The quick use of a weapon designed only to be fired as last resort raises very troubling questions. Should these devices even be used, clearly after a rash of teaser related deaths? Should deadly force even used? I don’t think so.
Since the full length video has not been released anywhere other than youtube.com at this point, I can only link to the video rather tahn download it and embed it in the blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHKk5qQRz
The following is a video from the USA where a lady gets tasered after failing to cooperate.
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