So testified a constable in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as he explained why he deployed a taser five times within a 31-second time period on a combative man. The victim, a 40-year-old Russian, was behaving erratically at the airport, throwing luggage, and had picked up a stapler.Not an industrial stapler. An office stapler.
"At that moment when he picked up the stapler, I feared for the safety of the officers."
The man was then tasered, and fell to the floor. Four Mounties then grabbed him, and the was tasered four more times.
Then he died.
An autopsy found no evidence of drugs or alcohol.
Video (and more details) at the link.
Murder by taser, again!
ReplyDeleteI believe this Russian was from Poland...
ReplyDeleteAs odd as this sounds, there is a point where tasering an uncooperative suspect is appropriate...even if armed with an office stapler. The taser is designed as an intermediary control device that eliminates risk to the officers (and subsequently the suspect). If the stapler had been held like a blunt force object in a combative stance, the officer would be forced to disarm the suspect prior to arrest. What are you going to do? Shoot him? For holding a stapler? You could get out your baton and break his arm, but again you end up with some raised eyebrows. Tasers, while dramatically more painful, inflict far less physical damage on MOST suspects than either of the two above mentioned disarming techniques. I have been tasered before and it hurts like hell and usually triggers a cooperative response: Stop Resisting.
ReplyDeleteI understand why tasers are used.
ReplyDeleteThe point in this story as I understand it (and as the video shows), is that the man was tasered and dropped to the floor. Then four men grabbed him.
Four grown (and trained?) men should be able to control one man, especially post-Taser.
While the four were holding him down, he was then Tasered to death.
Not defensible.