Police kill Polish man @ Vancouver Airport

[TheCroShow]

<font color="red"> ****WARNING**** One of the links I post has a link inside that shows the actual video. The video is violent, displays a man getting tasered, beaten and as a result, he dies. This goes without saying, it's NSFW and I encourage you to avoid this footage. </font>

Video Released This is the article with a link to the video.

Eye-Witness States Polish man was calm

Expert states Taser was Unecessary

I've been following this story from the beginning and it's tragic. Mr. Dziekanski came all the way from Poland to Vancouver, BC Canada to visit his mother. He was stuck in the terminal for 10 hours. He did not speak English at all. Mr. Dziekanski threw a few chairs and broke a computer monitor.

Security could not handle him so the police were called. Once the police showed up, Mr. Dziekanski calmed down, raised his hands showing that he submits. The police surrounded him, tasered him and three of them constrained him. One had his knee pressed on his neck (from what I could see) and it looks like Mr. Dziekanski took an unecessary beating after he was tasered. Mr. Dziekanski died after the taser and take-down.

There are several people up in arms here and I can understand. It can be argued that the police used excessive force and could have physically restrained him.

It can be argued that the police were protecting themselves, as well as the citizens around them from a potentially dangerous situation.

I have a few questions of my own. Was the taser necessary? The knee in the neck, is that necessary?

I'm certain the police must have a lot of training/education regarding the physical aspects of tasering a person.

This situation has upset me since day 1. What do you think 2p2?

[Taso]

Why was he throwing chairs and such?

[TheCroShow]

He was in the airport and nobody on-site could understand him. After reviewing the tape, translators concluded that he was asking for help.

[KilgoreTrout]

I stopped the video after he was tasered. The guy was clearly highly agitated up to the point when the police showed up. It does appear that he submitted, and that he was tasered the instant he had assumed a compliant posture.

From the police perspective, here's a guy acting wildly at an airport, unable to communicate, speaking a strange language. The cops had to be jacked up on adrenaline, not that it's an excuse for their actions.

The victim was highly distressed at the onset of the video. He appeared to be sweating and disoriented. Being unable to communicate is a scary thing. From his perspective, he's stuck in an airport for hours and doesn't know why. Maybe he thought he was being detained. At the very least it's clear he didn't understand the situation. Maybe the guy just needed a cigarette. Who knows?

I'm surprised no one present attempted to communicate with him using gestures or other languages.

On a red-eye flight departing Vegas a few years ago, the plane was delayed for 40 minutes on the tarmac due to a problem with a brake line. The pilot announced that a cable was leaking and would have to be replaced, and that it would take about an hour. After a half hour, the flight attendants began quietly moving through the aisles asking if anyone spoke Italian. I know a little bit, and can read the language, so I offered to help.

An older couple, ashen-faced, were beginning to panic. I approached and it was evident that they were not speaking Italian. I tried French. The woman knew a little French and I was able to tell her that there was a minor problem with the brakes, repair was underway, and we would be on the way to Boston soon. They were concerned about missing their flight. The attendants were able to make arrangements for their overnight stay in Boston and that was that.

Turns out the couple were speaking Romanian.

Airports are scary places these days, for obvious reasons. The inability to communicate compounds this. Traveling alone is no help. Maybe signs need to be less anglocentric in our North American airports. Maybe passenger manifests should identify non-English speakers. Maybe security personnel could have assumed a less aggressive posture. I don't know, but this awful incident didn't need to happen.

[Phil153]

Tasering seems to have become standard protocol in America. When the things originally came out it was claimed they could be used in place of guns, to save lives. Now they are used as a matter of course to control people who aren't in any way dangerous. It's wrong and I can't believe there isn't more oversight and control.

[katyseagull]

I couldn't agree more, Phil.

Cops shouldn't taser someone who is throwing a chair. It shows how little people understand tasers and the human heart, and how little we value life. Police think that a stranger's life is expendable. The fact that society turns a blind eye and accepts this activity is pretty disturbing. What's next? We start killing people who are drunk and who backtalk the cops? We start tasering and killing juveniles who become sassy? God.

[Manque]

[ QUOTE ]
Tasering seems to have become standard protocol in America. When the things originally came out it was claimed they could be used in place of guns, to save lives. Now they are used as a matter of course to control people who aren't in any way dangerous. It's wrong and I can't believe there isn't more oversight and control.

[/ QUOTE ]

I must really be out of the loop. When did Canada join the US?

[PBFan]

that is fkin sick.

[Bellagibro]

How hard would it be to get a translator at the airport? Canada is one of the most multi-national countries in the world. I'm positive there was somebody who spoke polish at the airport.

This situation should have been handled better from the beginning. I would be freaking out if I was detained for 10 hours and nobody said a word that I could understand.

[housenuts]

[ QUOTE ]

The knee in the neck, is that necessary?

[/ QUOTE ]

yes, that is standard procedure when taking someone down. people have been tasered and still been able to fight. the knee in the neck isn't meant to cause more harm, it's just a control method.

as for the taser being necessary, that's a whole 'nother can of worms.