Society
Mounties concern
Published 29 November 2007
The clean-cut stereotype of a Mountie in a tomato-red uniform may linger internationally, but the RCMP's domestic reputation has been shaken
As far as welcomes go it was unspeakably bad. As far as citizen journalism goes, however, it showed what can be achieved.
Robert Dziekanski, a 40-year-old Polish immigrant to Canada, died at Vancouver International Airport on 14 October. Confused and disorientated after a 14-hour flight and a 10-hour wait for his mother, who sponsored him, he threw a tantrum that attracted the wrong sort of attention.
No one thought to tell him he was waiting for her in the wrong place. His mother, Zofia Cisowski, had been a short distance away, unseen, on the other side of security barriers. Dziekanski had never travelled by plane before, had never left Poland, and was taking a huge leap to a new way of life to join Cisowski, who had remarried and emigrated several years earlier.
When Cisowski asked for word of her son, whether there was a problem with his papers or some other difficulty, she was told he was not there and advised to go home, a six-hour drive from the airport, and wait. She left, deeply worried since Dziekanski spoke no English. Observing Dziekanski's behaviour, another traveller, Paul Pritchard, switched on his video recorder because he thought he was capturing a comedic, YouTube-worthy meltdown.
The ten-minute-long video captures the flushed and anxious Pole, a large man who was once a miner, throwing a computer on the floor and chucking paper about. At one point he brandishes a stapler. A female traveller manages to calm Dziekanski, but moments later four Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrive on the scene.
What unfolded next did indeed make YouTube and has been seen by millions. Dziekanski had raised his hands in surrender when the Mounties arrived. Within 30 seconds he was tasered for the first time. He screamed and collapsed, and the Mounties piled on him. He was tasered again and, by now immobile, went into convulsions and quickly lost consciousness.
A minute and a half later his heart had apparently already stopped, but by the time action was taken it was too late.
Eye-witness testimony of Dziekanski's death proved shocking enough in a country still debating the use of the weapons seven years after they were introduced. According to Amnesty International, since 2000 there have been 16 such Taser deaths of people in Canadian police custody.
Pritchard's footage was not part of the early debate. The RCMP had removed it, initially with the 25-year-old teacher's agreement, after telling him it would be returned within 48 hours. After two weeks, Pritchard hired a lawyer and went public over the existence of his videotape. He got it back almost a month after Dziekanski died.
When the footage was released to the public on 14 November all hell broke loose. The clean-cut stereotype of a Mountie in a tomato-red uniform may linger internationally, but the RCMP's domestic reputation has been shaken. The officers captured on film have been removed from active duty; others replacing them at the Vancouver airport have been verbally abused and had rubbish thrown at them.
On the Saturday after the video's release, nearly 300 people arrived at the airport for a memorial service for Dziekanski.
Every day brings new embarrassments. Pressure has come from Polish diplomats, from human rights groups and from the families of others who have died following Taser use by police. No fewer than seven investigations have been announced, the latest instigated by the government's public safety minister, who had been lukewarm on the issue before the video came out.
The officers have their defenders and Taser International's founder felt compelled by the bad publicity to weigh in with his opinion that his 50,000-volt stun-guns are safe.
But one response so far not seen is the suspension of the use of Tasers in Canada. And that may have been bad luck for Robert Knipstrom of British Columbia and Howard Hyde of Nova Scotia, both of whom died after being tasered by Canadian police in the week following the release of Pritchard's video. Tasers have not been identified as the reason the men died, but public uneasiness at the continued use of the weapons is unlikely to evaporate quickly.
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