The latest taser incident to be captured on film again highlights
how fast our society is sleepwalking into a brutal police state
where it is the norm for cops to react with extreme physical force
and even torture towards anyone who acts out of the ordinary in
any way whatsoever.
The video, released Wednesday, shows the brutal
tasering and consequent death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski
last month at Vancouver airport.
Captured by a member of public, the footage shows
the moments before police arrived and murdered Dziekanski by tasering
him three or four times.
The film quite clearly reveals that Mr Dziekanski
is suffering some sort of anxiety attack in the airport as he
is breathing very heavily, sweating profusely and appears to be
attempting to barricade himself in an empty area separated by
a glass cordon. Clearly the barricade he fashions is not going
to stop anyone getting through and appears to be more a cry for
help.
Dziekanski at first seems to respond to passers
by who attempt to calm him down but he clearly cannot understand
what they are saying and becomes more distressed. After throwing
a wooden table at the glass cordon and knocking a computer to
the floor, the police arrive and within seconds taser Dziekanski
sending him flailing to the ground screaming in agony.
The police then surround him and as the officers
yell at Dziekanski to stop moving, which is impossible when 50,000
volts of electricity are moving through your body, a voice can
be heard yelling "hit him again, hit him again." The
four large officers then jump on top of him, restraining his arms
and sitting on his head. One officer appears to strike Dziekanski
in the head with a baton.
Eventually Dziekanski stops moving and dies.
Is this in any way justifiable whatsoever?
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The video also contradicts the officers' report
which states that the man they encountered was out of control.
Police also said even after he was tasered once, he remained combative.
But the video shows that after the first shot, Dziekanski fell
to the ground and was writhing in agony.
An investigation is ongoing and the official cause
of death has not been made public.
The fact that police immediately reach for tasers
now in any delicate situation, even a non threatening one, speaks
volumes about the society we now live in.
In another disgusting case reported
today a man who slipped into a diabetic coma on the
top deck of a bus in Leeds, England has described how he was used
for electric stun gun "target practice" after he "failed
to respond to instructions" and police "mistook him
for a suicide bomber".
Tasers are supposed to be the last response before
lethal action, in the last year over 300 people have died in admitted
cases in the US alone from being tasered. Every week we post stories
of old women, children and disabled people being
shot with tasers. The weapons are even being
used in schools.
If you electrify any person, they stand a good chance
of being killed, even more so if they are a child or an old person,
and even more so if you do it three or four times before having
a 200 plus pound man sit on the head of the victim.
The heart of the issue is that this was another
act of wanton police brutality and torture by means of tasering.
The police are now trained that "pain compliance,"
a euphemism for torture, is acceptable in apprehending anyone
even if that person poses no physical danger.
In many cases, cops will taser someone even if they offer no
resistance whatsoever, simply for the sick enjoyment of the power
trip as the victim begs and pleads not to be tortured.
Consider the recent case of UCLA student Mostafa Tabatabainejad
(video below) , who was stunned over and over again for refusing
to show his ID at a campus library.
Tabatabainejad agreed to leave and was on his way out of the
building before cops tasered him and then proceeded to order him
to get back on his feet just so they could shock him over and
over again as he cried and moaned for them to stop.
Consider also the case of Andrew
Meyer, a University of Florida student who was grabbed
by cops and tazed after he asked John Kerry a question at a public
Q&A.
Police now use the taser as if it is a pair of handcuffs or pepper
spray. Consider also the case of a
man in Portland who was tasered by police for filming
them conducting a warrantless search when in pursuit of a felon
running through a neighbour's property. The police came onto the
property in search of someone else and ended up tasering the man
that lived there!
What is just as concerning as the volume of cases of taser incidents
being caught on camera is the reaction of a mindless selection
of society, brainwashed by the media, that enjoy
watching the videos online and like to see thuggish
police inflict unnecessary pain, suffering and death. The incidents
are so commonplace now that onlookers call
for tazings when they perceive someone to have "stepped
out of line".
The bottom line is that taser use is being abused by police all
over the country as cops are trained that torture is a perfectly
acceptable response to somebody who acts out of the ordinary,
asks the wrong question or refuses to show their papers.
The latest taser incident to be captured on film again highlights
how fast our society is sleepwalking into a brutal police state
where it is the norm for cops to react with extreme physical force
and even torture towards anyone who acts out of the ordinary in
any way whatsoever.
