By guest blogger Alison@Creekside
Staples?
That’s your defence — staples?
That there was the possibility of staples?
You RCMP lawyers have fucking lost it.
Millions watched four RCMP zap Robert Dziekanski within seconds of meeting him, kneel on his upper body till he was dead, and then stand around making no attempt to revive him.
We heard the immediate RCMP spin in the aftermath that only three officers were there, that the room was crowded, that they tried to reason with him, that when we saw the whole tape we would understand.
We also understand you need to prove that the officers felt themselves to be in danger.
But having a former Vancouver airport security guard testify that Dziekanski “made an attempt to squeeze the staples out” of the desk stapler he was holding for “five to 10 seconds,” scratch that you say, maybe only “one to four seconds,” is not helping your case here.
What we need to hear from the RCMP brass after 11 TASER™ deaths, is that something has gone terribly wrong with the RCMP recruitment process but you will fix it, or something has gone terribly wrong with the officer training program but you will fix it or something has gone terribly wrong with instructions given to officers as to when to use the TASER™ but you will fix it.
That there was the possibility of staples isn’t cutting it and you RCMP lawyers should be ashamed of yourselves for thus embarrassing all the decent hardworking RCMP officers who had to listen to that crap.
Update: The Star: RCMP tightens rules on tasers
“Weapons potentially lethal, force says, and should be used only to protect officers, public”
. . . when “necessary” says RCMP Commissioner William Elliott
Okay, but this isn’t just about the TASERs™, is it?
