Man dies after Taser shock by police at Vancouver airport
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Ummmmmm What does that have to do with death rate while in custody? Sure the RCMP may stick them in remand but chances are damn good that these deaths were more than likely while on the watch of undertrained and low paid private security associates.
No charges for RCMP in airport Tasering: Report
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Air port failed Dziekanski
Air port failed Dziekanski
Neal Hall and Fiona Anderson, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The president of the Canada Border Services Agency apologized Monday for not finding troubled Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski sooner after he arrived at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 13.
Dziekanski wandered around a secure area of the airport for hours, appearing tired and disoriented and eventually behaving erratically. Then he was noticed, confronted by police, shocked with a Taser and restrained by RCMP officers. He died minutes later.
CBSA president Alain Jolicoeur said the system failed Dziekanski because he was allowed to wander for six hours in a secure baggage area controlled by the CBSA before he made his way to a secondary customs area.
Ian Smith/Vancouver Sun
"I'm very, very sorry and I really wish we would have found out about Mr. Dziekanski before, but it's a difficult thing to do," Jolicoeur told a packed news conference.
"It unfortunately did not occur and we're changing our system," he said, promising the CBSA will implement five changes to the way it handles travellers as a result of the incident, which has attracted international attention.
The CBSA provided a timetable that tracks Dziekanski through a number of encounters with CBSA officials, starting soon after his arrival, none of which resulted in him finding his way out of the secure area to meet his waiting mother.
The report says Dziekanski had the cellphone number of his mother, who was waiting for him in a public area. A CBSA official said there are pay phones in the area where Dziekanski was wandering, but no free phones for use by people without Canadian coins.
The CBSA said it will immediately:
- Jointly with the airport, review services for international travellers and those waiting to meet them.
- Review interpreter services to make sure they are provided as quickly as possible.
- Install more cameras in the customs area; some camera views were blocked by airport construction, the CBSA said.
- Review procedures to ensure all persons referred for further examinations report to the secondary-examination area within a reasonable amount of time.
- Explore ways to have more patrols and security checks in the international-arrivals secure area past the passport-control area, so the same thing doesn't reoccur.
Jolicoeur began by offering "our sincere and deepest sympathies to the family of Mr. Dziekanski" on behalf of the CBSA and its employees.
Asked why it took almost six weeks for the agency to offer its sympathy, Jolicoeur pointed out that Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day had done so earlier.
He said Day asked the CBSA to review the incident, which took until last weekend.
Asked why it took so long to interview seven CBSA employees who had contact with Dziekanski and review video footage, Jolicoeur said the CBSA "wanted to be 100-per-cent sure of the facts."
He added: "Although we've done our best to gather all the facts, we do not have all the answers."
Other investigations are being conducted by police and the coroner, Jolicoeur noted, adding that the CBSA has handed over its video footage to the coroner.
Air port failed Dziekanski
Neal Hall and Fiona Anderson, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The president of the Canada Border Services Agency apologized Monday for not finding troubled Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski sooner after he arrived at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 13.
Dziekanski wandered around a secure area of the airport for hours, appearing tired and disoriented and eventually behaving erratically. Then he was noticed, confronted by police, shocked with a Taser and restrained by RCMP officers. He died minutes later.
CBSA president Alain Jolicoeur said the system failed Dziekanski because he was allowed to wander for six hours in a secure baggage area controlled by the CBSA before he made his way to a secondary customs area.
Ian Smith/Vancouver Sun
"I'm very, very sorry and I really wish we would have found out about Mr. Dziekanski before, but it's a difficult thing to do," Jolicoeur told a packed news conference.
"It unfortunately did not occur and we're changing our system," he said, promising the CBSA will implement five changes to the way it handles travellers as a result of the incident, which has attracted international attention.
The CBSA provided a timetable that tracks Dziekanski through a number of encounters with CBSA officials, starting soon after his arrival, none of which resulted in him finding his way out of the secure area to meet his waiting mother.
The report says Dziekanski had the cellphone number of his mother, who was waiting for him in a public area. A CBSA official said there are pay phones in the area where Dziekanski was wandering, but no free phones for use by people without Canadian coins.
The CBSA said it will immediately:
- Jointly with the airport, review services for international travellers and those waiting to meet them.
- Review interpreter services to make sure they are provided as quickly as possible.
- Install more cameras in the customs area; some camera views were blocked by airport construction, the CBSA said.
- Review procedures to ensure all persons referred for further examinations report to the secondary-examination area within a reasonable amount of time.
- Explore ways to have more patrols and security checks in the international-arrivals secure area past the passport-control area, so the same thing doesn't reoccur.
Jolicoeur began by offering "our sincere and deepest sympathies to the family of Mr. Dziekanski" on behalf of the CBSA and its employees.
Asked why it took almost six weeks for the agency to offer its sympathy, Jolicoeur pointed out that Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day had done so earlier.
He said Day asked the CBSA to review the incident, which took until last weekend.
Asked why it took so long to interview seven CBSA employees who had contact with Dziekanski and review video footage, Jolicoeur said the CBSA "wanted to be 100-per-cent sure of the facts."
He added: "Although we've done our best to gather all the facts, we do not have all the answers."
Other investigations are being conducted by police and the coroner, Jolicoeur noted, adding that the CBSA has handed over its video footage to the coroner.
Robert D, poor guy. Having spent some time in Asia, I really felt unimportant living in the foreign country I lived in. When you don't speak the language and you look like a foreigner it can be extremely stressful. Your options are limited in this environment. The foreigners I worked with did not like to be seen with me alone. There had to be a group or forget it.
To appear hostile is not a good strategy as the locals see an enemy too easily and very quickly. I'm afraid Canadians are not as generously multicultural as the media likes to fawn about. Culture can be harsh on those who don't understand as Canadians closed ranks against this alien hostility.
If Robert D had just slumped onto the floor and passively waited for help like he was some junkie, I bet Canadian bureaucrats would have been very helpful. The nanny state would have kicked into gear. But no, he was a combative Pole not taking BS and the culture killed him. The police had no reason to be so stupidly aggressive, yet they tasered him as if he were a wolf with rabies. The other is an animal, an inhuman beast at times.
Poland, a country that has fought Communism, with Russia and Germany wiping it off the map over the centuries, are not a passive people. In Canada, passivity can be more useful. Raw aggression is for the hockey rink or business.
To appear hostile is not a good strategy as the locals see an enemy too easily and very quickly. I'm afraid Canadians are not as generously multicultural as the media likes to fawn about. Culture can be harsh on those who don't understand as Canadians closed ranks against this alien hostility.
If Robert D had just slumped onto the floor and passively waited for help like he was some junkie, I bet Canadian bureaucrats would have been very helpful. The nanny state would have kicked into gear. But no, he was a combative Pole not taking BS and the culture killed him. The police had no reason to be so stupidly aggressive, yet they tasered him as if he were a wolf with rabies. The other is an animal, an inhuman beast at times.
Poland, a country that has fought Communism, with Russia and Germany wiping it off the map over the centuries, are not a passive people. In Canada, passivity can be more useful. Raw aggression is for the hockey rink or business.
Supervising officer says he gave order to shock Dziekanski with Taser
By: James Keller, THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER, B.C. - The supervising RCMP officer on duty the night Robert Dziekanski died at Vancouver's airport told a public inquiry Monday that he gave the order to shock the man with a Taser, and repeated the command as many as two more times.
The exhausted and confused Polish immigrant, who didn't speak English, died on the airport floor after he was stunned several times in the early morning of Oct. 14, 2007
Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson, the fourth officer to appear at a public inquiry, said he told Const. Kwesi Millington to use the Taser when Dziekanski picked up a stapler and moved toward the officers.
"When he took the step forward, that's when I gave Const. Millington the command to deploy the Taser," said Robinson. "And at that point, the Taser was deployed."
Millington testified earlier this month that he made the decision to fire the Taser on his own, but Robinson insisted he gave the command.
Robinson said when Dziekanski didn't immediately fall down, he asked for a second shock, although he wasn't sure whether Millington heard him.
A bystander's video shown numerous times at the inquiry shows Dziekanski was on the floor for the second stun, and Robinson acknowledged Dziekanski had either already collapsed or was on his way down by the end of the first shock.
"So, logic would suggest that when you tell Millington the second time ... Mr. Dziekanski was on the ground?" asked inquiry lawyer Art Vertlieb.
"No," replied Robinson.
On the bystander's video, one of the officers can be heard shouting, "Hit him again! Hit him again!" after the second stun, long after Dziekanski had fallen. The other officers have said that voice belongs to Robinson.
Robinson said he didn't remember giving a third command, but didn't dispute it was him.
"I don't rule that out it was me a third possible time," he said. "This is a potential third command."
Robinson, who had been on the force for 11 years, had been trained in Taser use in 2003, but that training expired in 2006. He wasn't recertified until a month after Dziekanski's death.
It meant he wouldn't be able to use a Taser himself, but the corporal said it wouldn't affect his ability to order his officers to do so.
Robinson said his command to use the Taser was the first instruction he gave any of his constables that night.
The officers were on a dinner break at the RCMP's airport detachment when they received a call about a man throwing furniture, and Robinson said they all walked to their cruisers and headed to the airport without so much as a word from him.
Robinson was the last one to arrive at the airport, and he said there was no discussion before the four of them walked into the international terminal and walked up to Dziekanski.
"Did you have any plan in your mind about what you would do with this call and the three constables attending with you as you entered the airport?" asked Vertlieb.
"No," replied Robinson.
As with the other officers, there are inconsistencies with what Robinson initially told police investigators.
He told investigators that Dziekanski was holding the stapler high and swinging the stapler at the officers, but that can't be seen on the video .
He told the inquiry he meant Dziekanski was holding the stapler at his chest, and he took a step toward the officers.
"I agree, it's not articulated well," said Robinson.
He also told investigators that officers had to wrestle Dziekanski to the floor, even though he fell down on his own - an error made by all four of the officers.
That consistent error prompted the lawyer for the Polish government to accuse Millington earlier this month of lying to justify his actions - an accusation Millington immediately denied.
Crown prosecutors announced in December that the officers wouldn't be charged, saying they acted with reasonable force in the circumstances.
However, the officers' actions are under scrutiny by inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, who can make findings of misconduct against the officers or anyone else.
After Dziekanski's death, all four officers remained on duty at the airport for several weeks before they were all reassigned, some outside the province.
Robinson was moved to the RCMP's Olympic Integrated Security Unit, which is preparing security for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, but was suspended with pay shortly after he was arrested last October in connection with a fatal collision.
A 21-year-old motorcyclist was killed when he was struck by a Jeep in suburban Delta, south of Vancouver.
In a news release dated Oct. 28, 2008, Delta police said they were recommending Robinson be charged with impaired driving causing death and driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit, but the Crown has not announced any decision on charges.
By: James Keller, THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER, B.C. - The supervising RCMP officer on duty the night Robert Dziekanski died at Vancouver's airport told a public inquiry Monday that he gave the order to shock the man with a Taser, and repeated the command as many as two more times.
The exhausted and confused Polish immigrant, who didn't speak English, died on the airport floor after he was stunned several times in the early morning of Oct. 14, 2007
Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson, the fourth officer to appear at a public inquiry, said he told Const. Kwesi Millington to use the Taser when Dziekanski picked up a stapler and moved toward the officers.
"When he took the step forward, that's when I gave Const. Millington the command to deploy the Taser," said Robinson. "And at that point, the Taser was deployed."
Millington testified earlier this month that he made the decision to fire the Taser on his own, but Robinson insisted he gave the command.
Robinson said when Dziekanski didn't immediately fall down, he asked for a second shock, although he wasn't sure whether Millington heard him.
A bystander's video shown numerous times at the inquiry shows Dziekanski was on the floor for the second stun, and Robinson acknowledged Dziekanski had either already collapsed or was on his way down by the end of the first shock.
"So, logic would suggest that when you tell Millington the second time ... Mr. Dziekanski was on the ground?" asked inquiry lawyer Art Vertlieb.
"No," replied Robinson.
On the bystander's video, one of the officers can be heard shouting, "Hit him again! Hit him again!" after the second stun, long after Dziekanski had fallen. The other officers have said that voice belongs to Robinson.
Robinson said he didn't remember giving a third command, but didn't dispute it was him.
"I don't rule that out it was me a third possible time," he said. "This is a potential third command."
Robinson, who had been on the force for 11 years, had been trained in Taser use in 2003, but that training expired in 2006. He wasn't recertified until a month after Dziekanski's death.
It meant he wouldn't be able to use a Taser himself, but the corporal said it wouldn't affect his ability to order his officers to do so.
Robinson said his command to use the Taser was the first instruction he gave any of his constables that night.
The officers were on a dinner break at the RCMP's airport detachment when they received a call about a man throwing furniture, and Robinson said they all walked to their cruisers and headed to the airport without so much as a word from him.
Robinson was the last one to arrive at the airport, and he said there was no discussion before the four of them walked into the international terminal and walked up to Dziekanski.
"Did you have any plan in your mind about what you would do with this call and the three constables attending with you as you entered the airport?" asked Vertlieb.
"No," replied Robinson.
As with the other officers, there are inconsistencies with what Robinson initially told police investigators.
He told investigators that Dziekanski was holding the stapler high and swinging the stapler at the officers, but that can't be seen on the video .
He told the inquiry he meant Dziekanski was holding the stapler at his chest, and he took a step toward the officers.
"I agree, it's not articulated well," said Robinson.
He also told investigators that officers had to wrestle Dziekanski to the floor, even though he fell down on his own - an error made by all four of the officers.
That consistent error prompted the lawyer for the Polish government to accuse Millington earlier this month of lying to justify his actions - an accusation Millington immediately denied.
Crown prosecutors announced in December that the officers wouldn't be charged, saying they acted with reasonable force in the circumstances.
However, the officers' actions are under scrutiny by inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, who can make findings of misconduct against the officers or anyone else.
After Dziekanski's death, all four officers remained on duty at the airport for several weeks before they were all reassigned, some outside the province.
Robinson was moved to the RCMP's Olympic Integrated Security Unit, which is preparing security for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, but was suspended with pay shortly after he was arrested last October in connection with a fatal collision.
A 21-year-old motorcyclist was killed when he was struck by a Jeep in suburban Delta, south of Vancouver.
In a news release dated Oct. 28, 2008, Delta police said they were recommending Robinson be charged with impaired driving causing death and driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit, but the Crown has not announced any decision on charges.
I heard on the radio that Robert Dziekanski was a hero of the Polish solidarity movement and had a large following on the internet.
He might have been able to successfully fight communism but met his match against the western ideological conditioning.
R.I.P. Robert Dziekanski
Canada is no place for heroes.
He might have been able to successfully fight communism but met his match against the western ideological conditioning.
R.I.P. Robert Dziekanski
Canada is no place for heroes.
The airport failed him, the RCMP failed him and he did some very foolish things... Is this really new? I thought it was already well known. Hopefully they will make the changes needed.
Maybe Airports should have their own specialized Policing force. Security that is trained in sleep deprived stressed non english speaking people and how to effectively deal with them so they don't die.
With the world coming to visit in 2010 and the global financial crisis we're having it might be prudent to at least seem like we have a clue about what to do at our own International airports...Tourism is a huge money maker for BC. Hate to see it all ****ed up because of this.
With the world coming to visit in 2010 and the global financial crisis we're having it might be prudent to at least seem like we have a clue about what to do at our own International airports...Tourism is a huge money maker for BC. Hate to see it all ****ed up because of this.
If he was a hero of the solidarity movement, maybe he displayed a bit too much weight-throwing tactic to suit another set of control freaks....
I think that's a good idea. There are firefighters specialising in airport duty, why not police? There are police specialising in bordercrossing.
My last comment prompted some coward to red me.
Now I find this extremely funny because by redding me, which is the closest thing we have to an act of violence on this forum, someone was attempting to reinforce Canada's ideological conditioning. The very thing I said was what kept people from speaking up! LMAO.
so..
Though giving a red is in no wise the same as a tazer it is the closest thing we have here on this forum. So obviously this red giving chimpanzee would probably tazar someone too that didn't reinforce his/her self glorified opinion of themselves and their nation.
So, to whomever redded me: you're funny and thanks for proving my point. It's hard to imagine how it could have been proved better.
Now I find this extremely funny because by redding me, which is the closest thing we have to an act of violence on this forum, someone was attempting to reinforce Canada's ideological conditioning. The very thing I said was what kept people from speaking up! LMAO.
so..
Though giving a red is in no wise the same as a tazer it is the closest thing we have here on this forum. So obviously this red giving chimpanzee would probably tazar someone too that didn't reinforce his/her self glorified opinion of themselves and their nation.
So, to whomever redded me: you're funny and thanks for proving my point. It's hard to imagine how it could have been proved better.
I think the airport and the cops are equally to blame but I think the cops should have an extra 10 years tacked on to any sentence for lying.
Should tasers be banned entirely?
Overview of Tasers
Since June 2001, more than 351 individuals in the United States have died after being shocked by police Tasers. Safety research to date has not answered the question of what role Taser shocks may be playing in these deaths. Amnesty International is concerned that these potentially dangerous weapons are being used as tools of routine force -- rather than as an alternative to firearms.
Tasers too often interfere with a basic equation of policing: that force must be proportional to the threat. Because Tasers are often seen as completely safe and non-lethal, they are often used as a weapon of first rather than last resort. They have become less an alternative to deadly force than an alternative to less-intensive policing techniques. In the more than 351 cases Amnesty International has tracked where individuals died after being shocked, in only a small fraction --about 10 percent -- of the incidents was the individual carrying any kind of weapon.
In Canada tasers have killed 25 people since 2003.
Tasers
Should tasers be banned entirely until we can come up with a reasonable policy for their use?
Overview of Tasers
Since June 2001, more than 351 individuals in the United States have died after being shocked by police Tasers. Safety research to date has not answered the question of what role Taser shocks may be playing in these deaths. Amnesty International is concerned that these potentially dangerous weapons are being used as tools of routine force -- rather than as an alternative to firearms.
Tasers too often interfere with a basic equation of policing: that force must be proportional to the threat. Because Tasers are often seen as completely safe and non-lethal, they are often used as a weapon of first rather than last resort. They have become less an alternative to deadly force than an alternative to less-intensive policing techniques. In the more than 351 cases Amnesty International has tracked where individuals died after being shocked, in only a small fraction --about 10 percent -- of the incidents was the individual carrying any kind of weapon.
In Canada tasers have killed 25 people since 2003.
Tasers
Should tasers be banned entirely until we can come up with a reasonable policy for their use?
No, they should not be banned entirely.
They should simply be reclassified as lethal force, which means they could only legally be used if "you or another person is in immediate danger of death or greivous bodily harm" Exactly the same as the firearm.......leaving the officer a choice of weapons.
In BC last week two officers shot to death a man who ran at them with a utility knife.....a completely justified, if unfortunate, shooting. Neither officer had a Taser........this would have been the perfect time for one.
A friend in Halifax, a police officer, confronted a nutcase in a mall with a sword......he did not attack, but neither did he surrender....he threatened them with it. He was Tasered........all to the good.
The problem is officers using the Taser as a compliance tool instead of a self-defence tool.
They should simply be reclassified as lethal force, which means they could only legally be used if "you or another person is in immediate danger of death or greivous bodily harm" Exactly the same as the firearm.......leaving the officer a choice of weapons.
In BC last week two officers shot to death a man who ran at them with a utility knife.....a completely justified, if unfortunate, shooting. Neither officer had a Taser........this would have been the perfect time for one.
A friend in Halifax, a police officer, confronted a nutcase in a mall with a sword......he did not attack, but neither did he surrender....he threatened them with it. He was Tasered........all to the good.
The problem is officers using the Taser as a compliance tool instead of a self-defence tool.