Remove Police Forces’ Ability to Use Tasers with Impunity

I couldn’t stop shaking my head as I read the latest in Canadian cops and their use of tasers.  So not only are we the country that tasers non-English speaking tourists to death in airports, apparently we also tase 17 year old boys to death, and use repetitive taser shots to subdue an 82 year old man who is in hospital.  

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/08/bc-kamloops-man-taser.html

It is unclear exactly what happened in the case of the 17 year old, except we are told he was a suspected thief who refused to surrender a knife. 

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/466428

I have a great deal of respect for the concept of law enforcement in this country.  I don’t have the guts to put on a uniform and go fight the bad guys every day at the same time being a walking target, so I admire their gumption.  However, I have less respect for how law enforcement actually gets put into practice.  In the case of the 82 year old – described by reporters as frail – he recently had heart surgery and was in hospital for pneumonia.  He was not getting enough oxygen and became delirious and apparently was waving a knife at staff.  OK guys, perhaps you could start thinking outside the box a bit, and find alternative solutions to situations rather than shooting people with 50,000 volt tases.  Perhaps, and I may be crazy here, our police could have THROWN A BLANKET on top of the elderly man, grabbed his arms, and removed the knife.  No harm, no foul.  Perhaps you could have put some extra oxygen in the room and he may have come to his senses.  But no, no, these fellows in Western Canada decided to tase the poor guy THREE times apparently because they wanted to resolve the situation as quickly as possible to move onto more pressing police matters. 

The fellow, Mr. Lasser, is an ex-prison guard, and was understandably unimpressed.  One would think that the RCMP would be taught how to disable a feeble knife-wielding-pneumonia-stricken-man-confined-to-a-hospital-bed, without the use of lethal force?  Seriously.    Pretty shabby, guys.  I’ve always had this noble image of Mounties in particular, riding up on their very cool horses, rescuing people in distress.  Not so much anymore.

I have a certain philosphy about dealing with police, if I do get pulled over while driving.  Be nice.  Be contrite.  Whatever you do, don’t lose your cool.  I was once pulled over for speeding (and weaving around four slow moving vehicles, one of which happened to be a police car).   I pulled off into a side street since I didn’t want to block the majority artery I was driving up.  It was dark.  The policeman got out of his car, took out his bully stick, and came up to my window.  He filled the entire window of my sport ute with his huge torso (he wasn’t fat, but he was about 6′ 6″).  Then he banged on my window quite contemptously with his stick.  He was so mad his nostrils were flaring. 

I rolled down the window and he literally shouted at me, “Lady, did you GET your LICENSE out of a CEREAL box?”  He then stared at me.  The question obviously required a response.  I had two choices.   #1 – lip off, and risk this gentleman beating me about the head with his stick, which was still out, and us down this fairly deserted road in the dark and all, or #2 – answer politely and try to diffuse the situation.  So I looked him right in the eye and with a completely straight face (a “court face”) I said, “No sir, I got it the regular old way.”   He stared at me, and responded, still shouting, “SO what IS the SPEED limit where it is not marked”.  I responded, “50, sir”.   I was starting to feel like I was in the army or something.   ”So WHY exactly were you driving like that?”.  I explained, very politely, very calmly, that I had been working late, was finally getting home in good time after several nights of working until 1 a.m., but was late again versus what I’d promised my husband.  And I also explained that I didn’t think it was an excuse for driving like a jerk, but that he had asked and I was trying to be honest. 

This finally got him to settle down a bit.  He stared at me for another minute while he digested my response, possibly coming to the conclusion that he had seriously lost his temper.  Then he asked in a much quieter tone, “WHERE do you work?”  I responded with the name of my then employer (a large, downtown, ahem….law firm).   

So, go figure, I didn’t get a ticket after all this.  I did get one heck of a lecture.   That’s fine, I deserved one.  He knew it, and I knew it.   I do think the officer realized that he had gone off his noodle, and I was going to make him look ridiculous to the judge if he did give me one, and that I was potentially tallying up names of judges to mention this whole incident to (he was correct on all counts).  It still didn’t stop it from being a very frightening experience, in the dark, with one of our city’s armed finest.   My fancy education won’t do much good if I get bonked on the head with one of their sticks, or shot with one of their tasers and have a heart attack (since I do have a mild heart condition). 

I think that the use of tasers need to be much more strictly regulated and treated explicitly like the use of a lethal weapon.  So, if you discharge your taser, you get to file a real big special report, that gets reviewed by a special commission made up of police representatives and the general public.   Perhaps our boys in black  will start using their brains and imagination a bit more like the good old days, once the ability to zap people whilly-nilly is removed.  Blankets, boys, break out the blankets the next time an 80 year old man poses a threat…..

The Notherngardener

(Copyright 2008 by the Northerngardener.  Go ahead and link to me, just don’t copy me. )