Police kill Polish man @ Vancouver Airport

[KotOD]

One more thing about this story. The RCMP seized the video from the cameraman and would not release it back to him until he sued and the court forced the RCMP to do so.

[Peter666]

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I think you're doing the exaggerating. There have been over 8000 recorded uses of the Taser in Canada since its inception. 16 of those incidents have resulted in death, not necessarily attrituble to the Taser.

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Can you provide the source of your data, Peter? From what I've been able to gather 8000 seems very high. My only resource is Google so bear with me.

"The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have said they are reviewing Taser use. Eighteen people have died in Canada after being hit with a Taser in the last four years."

"The 606 incidents analyzed by The Canadian Press took place between March 2002 and March 2005, the latest data available from the RCMP under the Access to Information Act. (In 43 cases, officers removed a Taser from its holster but did not fire.)...In 105 cases, RCMP officers stunned prisoners they had detained -- the vast majority of them unarmed, many of them native." - CTV News

"Three out of four suspects stun-gunned by the RCMP were unarmed, indicates a review of 563 cases that shows Tasers are often used for compliance rather than to defuse major threats." - Canadian Press

I cannot find any hard data to support or refute 8000 but it seems high to me. Western Canada has the highest Taser use where the RCMP does far more policing than in the East. The RCMP reports indicate approx 600 uses since 2002 with 18 deaths (some of these 18 deaths are attributable to local police forces and not the RCMP).

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My source was also from google, and it was an RCMP official who said that the RCMP and local police departments have used the taser in about 4000 incidents each. I can't find the exact article now, but this one has the police say that 4000 lives have been saved by the taser in Canada, and that it has been used over 100 000 times voluntarily in police training throughout the world without fatality. www.cbc.ca/news/background/tasers/

I believe the statistics you have are from a report that looked at a specific number of incidents in western Canada, and not all of them in general.

[supafrey]

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been used over 100 000 times voluntarily in police training throughout the world without fatality.

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While this is somewhat relevant to prove general safety of the product, how many of those policemen had their arms clasped behind them, 4 guys on top of them, and 200lb being supported on their neck? Police are trained on taser use with medical staff five feet away, wearing loose clothing on karate-style gym mats with ample food/water/adrenaline doses/whatever nearby.

Give me 100,000 police in distress, surrounded by half a dozen armed men, in an airport, fiending for a smoke and terrified about the safety of their elderly mother, then taser them. We'll see how many fatality's we'll get then.

All this taser talk is sort of silly - the weapon itself is obviously less dangerous than a gun, and as such would be a good replacement for those kind of high-risk situations that police procedure ALREADY dictates. These men were NOT following standard procedure, and their incompetence mixed with the airport's apathy has resulted in a tragic incident - it's not their tool's fault.

[Blarg]

Have to agree that context is really important. A little anxiety about what a taser is going to feel like can't compete with the drama and fear going on when arrested, especially when swarmed by cops.

[KotOD]

Not to hijack, but here's another perfectly acceptable use of a taser:



*rolls eyes*

[Wires]

"I believe the statistics you have are from a report that looked at a specific number of incidents in western Canada, and not all of them in general. "

This is very possible. I've been curious about the hard numbers but I'm having a tough time finding the data.

[Peter666]

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"I believe the statistics you have are from a report that looked at a specific number of incidents in western Canada, and not all of them in general. "

This is very possible. I've been curious about the hard numbers but I'm having a tough time finding the data.

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I've finally found this quote: "In all, 18 people have died in Canada since 2001 after being shocked by a Taser. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day says the device has been used more than 8,000 times by police in Canada since being introduced six years ago." http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index...&Itemid=161

I also find it strange that they don't make this kind of information readily available on the internet.

[5thstreet]

This was a completely disgraceful act from our police department, and big news here. I feel really sorry for this man and his family because the use of tasers in this situation was absolutely ridiculous. The guy just wanted to find a way out to get to his mothers house and was just pissed off. The fact that the police used 2 tasers instead of one just blows my mind also, because he was a completely unarmed guy who just needed to communicate.