I've always thought of you as a reasonable and fair man JLM. This post shocks me. The police arrived at the airport to a man out of control. Yes - he was holding a stapler and throwing stuff around. Would you not think you had arrived to find a rather crazed person with someone doing this. Now, the one member who tasered this man (first time he had used the taser), tasered him under orders from a more senior officer. He was ordered to taser him once more. I'm having to assume that since the policeman used his taser 3 more times his adrenaline was really pumping. Particularly since he himself does not remember the 5th shot even though his taser shows it was fired. There is no excuse for what happened and it was not a power trip. I watched the member on TV. He is young. I don't know how many years or maybe months of service he has. What he did was wrong but he did not commit murder. Murder is a planned event. Second degree murder is still murder but without intent to kill. They did not even arrive there planning to hurt this man. How can you cry MURDER in big loud letters? :-( Send these letters to the Commissioner you say. Do you think for one minute that he is not on top of this? These days, the Commissioner of the RCMP is a civilian. He is a person who has never gone through the ranks. Because of the last Commissioners poor job of leading the Force, a decision was made to move to this style of leading the force. So for the first time in history, no one can make their way up through the ranks and become the head of the RCMP. This occurred because of the mess of the pension plan.
It has already been announced and I have said it on here more than once, that the RCMP have limited the use of the taser. That means a lesson has been learned. It is already understood that it is not to be used with the exception of a dangerous situation. True life and death situation.
My husband and I are guessing that the members in question are being coached by their lawyers and it's bad. They should have just gone on the stand and told the story as it un-folded and it would be far more credible even though the end result would be the same. Meaning the victim would still be dead. You have mentioned that emotions are a good thing and that it gets people moving. That doesn't mean it gets them moving in the right direction. I think you have a lot more thinking to do.
Please step back for a minute, I.P. I know both you and I have a favourable impression the R.C.M.P. and my observations here have nothing to do with the R.C.M.P. per se. I'm looking at the facts of the case (possibly NOT ALL the facts but enough to make a reasonable assessment I think)
#1. The man was not cognizant of English and couldn't communicate in English.
#2. He was in an agitated state, but doing nothing to risk any lives or anyone within his reach.
#3. Deliberate bursts of 50,000 Volts, five times in succession!!!!!!!!!!!! How could the man not expect he could die?
#4. He was tasered less than 30 seconds after the police arrived on the scene.
#5. Photographic footage provided by a patron of the airport.
You're not doing the police any favours by defending these guys I.P. MOst barrels of apples have a few rotten ones and this is no different, better to identify them and eliminate them.
Most important this man did not deserve to die and between VYR and the police they let him down.
