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Millions watch video of Taser death (Vancouver, Canada)
The Toronto Star ^ | Nov 15, 2007 | Terri Theodore

Posted on 11/15/2007 5:39:32 PM PST by fanfan

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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
"For those of us who don’t care to watch someone die, what is the verdict?"

LOL. The guy was never went for the cops, then was standing against the wall in a nonthreatening fashion, w/o making any moves and they blasted him.

41 posted on 11/15/2007 6:54:59 PM PST by spunkets ("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
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To: fanfan
I saw this on the news..lawsuit? I think the judge should dismiss the whole thing. Apart from the fact that the man spoke no English, his behaviour became dangerous thrwoing things. When police arrived he tossed a chair and folding tray table through the doors..so what were the cops to do? He presented a danger to them. It is sad that he died as a result and an autopsy should define the cause of death..either by tazer or some other cause.
42 posted on 11/15/2007 6:57:39 PM PST by celtic gal
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To: BerryDingle
"I was stuck in Seattle/Tacoma for 12 hours back in the 70’s because of a Northwest Orient strike, I was almost at that point. "

LOL! Damn lucky they didn't shoot you, because you looked mad and ready to fight.

43 posted on 11/15/2007 7:00:56 PM PST by spunkets ("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
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To: fanfan

The rationale or lack thereof for use of the taser can be debated all day. What I’d like to know is why the hell the officers involved didn’t recognize the need for basic life support? Anyone authorized to use supposed
“non-lethal” measures had damned well better have at least some basic life saving knowledge. Police officers of all people should possess those skills as they are often the first on the scene of medical emergencies or involved in risky confrontations such as this one that may deteriorate
with life threatening consequences. Regardless of whether or not the authorities give a damn about their suspects, they need to be able to demonstrate that an effort was made to minimize injury in order to avoid liability. I had no sympathy for Rodney King, but then again there are too many instances of apparent callous disregard and outright brutality on the part of some LEO’s—just a minority of officers, but enough to give all a black eye.


44 posted on 11/15/2007 7:01:51 PM PST by karbine
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To: fanfan
Tasers are pretty dicey.

a deftly handled club would be preferred

i took my knocks from them and still here 30 years later

I think cops used to be better back before black became their fashion color of choice and they still carried wheelguns

45 posted on 11/15/2007 7:03:12 PM PST by wardaddy (This country is being destroyed by folks who could have never created it.)
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To: Eternal_Bear
They had 18 hours.

That's what I don't understand. Why was he kept in that room for 18 hours? If they wanted to hold him, why not take him to a police station? Did they give him any food or water?

I'm a diabetic. I can guarandamntee you that after 18 hours of no food, low blood sugar, held in a little room, and after a trans Atlantic flight, I'd be insane too.

It's the wrong place to go nuts, but I don't blame a lot of these people.

46 posted on 11/15/2007 7:07:44 PM PST by radiohead (Dissolution of the IRS as we know it - Fred Thompson. Stop...You had me at "dissolution.")
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To: cizinec
Take away these little lads’ tasers and I’d have no fear at all. I doubt these little girls have had the training to properly subdue a dead chicken. If they have, they are murderers for being lazy and not subduing this guy properly. If they haven’t received proper training, which I suspect, then the Canadian people have a lot to answer for.

Right on, the police used to subdue criminals all the time without shooting them or the use of tasers, since tasers didn't exist. The use of such a weapon, and it is a weapon, breeds the tendency to over use it because it is hailed as a non-lethal means to subdue perps. What is missing however is the correct training and the information that tasers are indeed lethal if used against people with bad hearts, pace makers and other disorders.

People, like household appliances, run on electricity and whenever you disrupt that flow of current, which tasers do, you run the risk of killing the person being tased. The main thing is too many cops seem to take a what the hell attitude and use the taser at the drop of a hat, ditto for pepper spray and mace.

More training in needed in how to subdue without the use of these aides, and that is all they should be, aides. The primary means to subdue criminals who display minimal violence should be the old fashion way of physical force, followed by the other items mentioned here.

Police shouldn't risk their lives unduly but at the same time lack of respect for the abilities of a taser to kill is causing unnecessary deaths in the US and, it appears, in Canada also.

47 posted on 11/15/2007 7:08:58 PM PST by calex59 (N)
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To: fanfan

If 4 police officers can’t subdue one man without resorting to shocking him, they have no business being police officers. They didn’t even try to cuff him, just pulled out the taser and zaaappp! I hope they all go to jail.


48 posted on 11/15/2007 7:12:14 PM PST by Decombobulator
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Comment #49 Removed by Moderator

To: celtic gal
"When police arrived he tossed a chair and folding tray table through the doors..so what were the cops to do?"

No. The cops didn't show up until the end. They were the guys in black body armor. As they walked by the camera guy, one of them said the word stun. They guy didn't do anything violent in their presence, whatsoever. He backed away into a wall and allowed hinself to be surrounded. He was up against the wall and they blasted him for no justifiable reason. It was the most cowardly act I've seen in a long time.

"I think the judge should dismiss the whole thing."

The family deserves considerable compensation for the death of their loved one at the hands of these incompetent cowards.

50 posted on 11/15/2007 7:16:51 PM PST by spunkets ("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
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To: traviskicks

51 posted on 11/15/2007 7:17:56 PM PST by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: abercrombie_guy_38

“So the next time a Muslim starts freaking out at an airport we should wait for the government to haul in an Arabic speaker to find out WTF is going on with the guy?”

I think 18 hours is long enough to get an interpreter from anywhere in the western hemisphere. Poland doesn’t have an embassy in Canada?


52 posted on 11/15/2007 7:18:59 PM PST by PLMerite ("Unarmed, one can only flee from Evil. But Evil isn't overcome by fleeing from it." Jeff Cooper)
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To: farlander
He was a very big man, a head above any of the officers. I’d say he constituted a viable threat.

Definitely a big guy, and I have no delusions that the cops should take a beating while trying to subdue a suspect.

He was definitely acting crazy. However he was also backing away from police. They had him surrounded and when he was tasered he was actually shifting his weight back away from the officers.

They may very well have ended up being justified in tasering him, but it sure seems like the officer that tasered him did so before it was necessary.

Of course it may have been a reaction to something the guy said, or a look on his face that indicated to him that the guy was about to attack, but from what I saw, it doesn't look good.

53 posted on 11/15/2007 7:20:01 PM PST by untrained skeptic
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mark for later


54 posted on 11/15/2007 7:22:27 PM PST by Titan Magroyne ("Shorn, dumb and bleating is no way to go through life, son." Yeah, close enough.)
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To: farlander
I’d say he constituted a viable threat.

And I would say you don't know how to read!

55 posted on 11/15/2007 7:26:24 PM PST by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Mounties gone wild..


56 posted on 11/15/2007 7:27:38 PM PST by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: fanfan

The thing that’s amazing to me is how quickly almost everyone adopted the media contention that the laser caused the death. Seems to me it’d be worth waiting for the autopsy before reaching that conclusion.


57 posted on 11/15/2007 7:35:46 PM PST by ArmstedFragg
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To: spunkets
They guy didn't do anything violent in their presence, whatsoever. He backed away into a wall and allowed hinself to be surrounded.

You can hear them saying in the backgroud when the guy rips apart the computer that he did it in front of the police, so while they aren't visible yet, it sounds like they were there sizing up the scene already.

I do however agree that the guy didn't make any aggressive moves toward the police that I could see and actually seemed to be shifting his weight back on his heels, away from the police at the time when he was tasered.

The family deserves considerable compensation for the death of their loved one at the hands of these incompetent cowards.

Has a coroner ruled on the cause of death yet? From what I can see, the police should have made more of an effort to calm the guy down first before hitting him with the taser, but the guy was acting violent and erratic, and was giving the officers good cause to subdue him. I just question why they were so quick to taser him.

It is far more likely that his death resulted from the struggle on the ground than the taser, and I'm not sure it is reasonable that such a struggle could be avoided at that point. The guy was tearing the place apart and obviously wasn't going to be very cooperative.

58 posted on 11/15/2007 7:41:49 PM PST by untrained skeptic
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
My opinion:

I couldn’t tell why the guy was acting as he was. He was throwing some stuff around a bit, but I’ve seen worse on TV reality shows.. He could have been on drugs, stress, or just p*ssed off.

Things happen quickly when the RCMP show up near the end of the video. They enter the room and the guy backs up to a counter in the middle of the room. I saw no aggressive move on his part towards any person, and it took me a second to realize when he first got hit and he jerked away that it was a reaction to the tazer. It seemed to be fired at a random point in time, not as a response to any particular move on his part. His body language seemed nonthreatening at that moment to me.

What bothered me the most about the video is that after they realize the guy is not conscious anymore, they check his pulse, and just look at each other leaving the guy handcuffed on the floor. The video ends abruptly so I don’t know if they started CPR or not. I can’t tell if he still had a pulse at that point. If not, I certainly would have expected resuscitation efforts to begin within the time span included in the video.

Based on what I saw only, I don’t think tazing was called for up to that point.

As far as the fighting he did after the tazing started it is immaterial to whether the tazing was justified. I think anyone would struggle while having a heart-attack or stroke and four guys are trying to pin you to the floor.

59 posted on 11/15/2007 7:52:51 PM PST by HundredDollars
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To: fanfan

Instatutionalize or euthanize....prevents stress


60 posted on 11/15/2007 8:01:40 PM PST by Shamrock-DW
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