No charges for RCMP in airport Tasering: Report
I have to say I don't find this particularly surprising. Have you ever tried to recount an adrenaline filled, extremely stressful and very short experience down to every detail before? Your mind can't process everything and your memory plays tricks on you. I've seen it happen countless times at work.
Yes, I have. I wish I was never put in the position where I've
had to, but again....yes, I have. You'd think that between the
Four officers, one of them would have testimony and
documentation that would at least be similar to the video?
One officer has yet to testify though....
Dziekanski video showed reality you won't hear from Mounties
globeandmail.com: Dziekanski video showed reality you won't hear from Mounties
VANCOUVER — It wasn't the first time the RCMP officer who tasered Robert
Dziekanski had watched video of the incident. But this time, Constable Kwesi
Millington had to watch it while reconciling the visual evidence with the statements
he made immediately after the incident.
Constable Millington took the stand yesterday at the inquiry into Mr. Dziekanski's
death at Vancouver International Airport in the early morning hours of Oct. 14,
2007. It was not pretty. Consistently, information he supplied to an RCMP
investigating officer shortly after the incident was contradicted by the now-
infamous video.
After nearly a week of testimony from three of the four Mounties involved in the
confrontation that day, it is clear that if it were not for that video, the version of
events supplied by the officers wouldn't have come close to what actually happened.
Draw your own conclusions why.
On the stand at the inquiry that former B.C. Supreme Court justice Thomas
Braidwood is holding into Mr. Dziekanski's death, Constable Millington said the 40-
year-old Polish immigrant was obviously agitated when the officers caught up with
him. Yet the video of the encounter showed Mr. Dziekanski was anything but
agitated and was standing there quite calmly but obviously confused. Why wouldn't
he be, given he couldn't understand a word the officers were saying?
At one point, Mr. Dziekanski put his hands in the air and started walking away. He
grabbed a stapler from a counter. According to Constable Millington's statement
given at the local detachment a few hours later, and another statement given the
following day, Mr. Dziekanski “raised [the stapler] in the air” and assumed a
“combative stance” before stepping toward the officers in a “threatening
manner.”
But that wasn't true at all. First, it's clear from the video that Mr. Dziekanski never
raised the stapler above the level of his belt, or just slightly above, and if he
stepped in the direction of the officers, it was a barely perceptible baby step. But
this was enough to compel Constable Millington to take out his taser and pump Mr.
Dziekanski with 50,000 volts.
I have seen the video of the tasering maybe a hundred times now and it never
ceases to shock me. It did again yesterday. The worst part is right after Mr.
Dziekanski is tasered for the first time, sending him reeling backward, holding his
stomach, like someone who has just been shot. As he staggered backward, he fell
on his backside and his legs shot up in the air.
The sight of him on the ground, screaming and writhing in pain, his arms holding
his chest, is a terrible thing to watch. It is at this point, unbelievably, that
Constable Millington gave the man a second blast from his taser.
So why, with Mr. Dziekanski on the ground, clearly in pain, did the officer taser
him again? Just one second after the first hit?
In his original statement, Constable Millington said it was because Mr. Dziekanski
hadn't gone down after the first discharge. But he clearly had.
“I was wrong about that,” Constable Millington said on the stand.
He also said in his statement that his fellow officers had to wrestle Mr. Dziekanski
to the ground because he wouldn't fall.
“I was wrong,” the officer had to admit again.
Still, Constable Millington defended the second shot because he felt Mr. Dziekanski
wasn't completely immobilized and was still “moving and struggling.” Yes,
struggling for his life as it would turn out.
It got worse.
After Mr. Dziekanski was on the ground, with three officers on top of him, one
with a knee in his back, Constable Millington fired the taser a third time. This
time, because the “male was still resisting the officers.” That's right, three RCMP
officers, all close to six feet and collectively weighing nearly 600 pounds, couldn't
subdue someone the Mounties estimated to be 5'9” and weigh 180.
But Constable Millington wasn't finished.
He said he thought his taser wasn't working properly because it was making a
“clacking sound” so he took out the cartridge and put the weapon in push-stun
mode, which is when the taser is applied directly to a person's body, causing severe
pain.
This, Constable Millington did two times even though he told the RCMP officer who
took his statement that he had applied the taser in push-stun mode only once.
Another fact refuted by the video evidence. By lunch break, I counted at least six
statements that Constable Millington made immediately after the incident that
ended up being contradicted by the video.
But Constable Millington did do one thing right.
When Mr. Dziekanski started turning blue, he suggested his fellow officers turn him
over on his back, into what police call “recovery position.”
By then it was too late.
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