Edmonton police Taser complaint probe 'inadequate'

July 9, 2010
CBC News

Edmonton police have been ordered to conduct a new investigation into a lawyer's complaint that officers used a Taser stun gun on him during Stanley Cup celebrations on Whyte Avenue in 2006.

Brian Fish filed a complaint with the province's Law Enforcement Review Board after an internal police investigation found no wrongdoing by two officers. The hearing was held last fall.

In a ruling released Thursday, the review board called the original police probe "inadequate" and ordered Fish's complaint be sent back to Chief Mike Boyd for reinvestigation.

"Based on the fact that at least two officers referred to in the complaint were not even identified as relevant to the investigation, the board concludes that the investigation was deficient," acting chair Kathy Grieve writes in the decision.

Fish told CBC News he was pleased with the ruling and said he felt it was important for police to conduct a new investigation, even though the incident took place four years ago.

"I think the police chief and the police upper echelons and the police union just don't get it," he said. "And it is important for them to understand that they are servants of the public. They are not oppressors."

Officer incorrectly identified

The board examined 14 photographs taken by Fish on June 17, 2006. Fish's son Nigel had been on Whyte Avenue during celebrations after the Edmonton Oilers forced a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup finals when they beat the Carolina Hurricanes.

Nigel Fish called his father after police arrested his friend, expressing concerns police were "out of control." When Brian Fish arrived, he started taking pictures of another arrest, which caught the attention of an officer, who ordered him to stop.

When he refused, Fish alleges, he was knocked to the ground and an officer used a stun gun on him. Fish says he was handcuffed and detained.

He wasn't released until hours later, when he finally agreed to give police his name.

The board found one of the officers who is the focus of the complaint was misidentified in two of the photos. No attempt was made to identify or interview the correct officer during the internal investigation.

Edmonton police also never attempted to interview another officer, shown in three of the photos, who allegedly mistreated Fish's son.

"The lack of clarity concerning the identities of just who the respondent officers were, and which other officers could provide insight into the complaint, lead the board to conclude that the only reasonable outcome of this appeal is to direct the chief to reinvestigate the appellant's complaint," Grieve writes.

The board ordered police to find and interview those two officers — and document the attempt if they are not successful in identifying one of the officers — as well as identify and speak to other officers shown in the photos.

Edmonton appeal board hears from Tasered lawyer

September 28, 2009
By Ryan Cormier, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON — An Edmonton lawyer is attempting to force a disciplinary hearing for two police officers who Tasered and detained him during the 2006 Stanley Cup playoff celebrations on Whyte Avenue.

Brian Fish, 69, was taking pictures of a separate arrest on Whyte Avenue on the night of June 17, 2006, when he was approached by an officer who told him to stop.

When he refused, Fish told the Law Enforcement Review Board, Const. Denise Turkawski tried to get in the way of his photos. In response, Fish tried to take pictures over her head.

“She came toward me, I thought to grab the camera. I raised my arms and dropped the camera behind me. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground getting Tasered,” Fish testified Monday. He added that, at one point, he lost consciousness.

The officer who used the Taser has since been identified as Const. Tori Tagg.

Police at the scene believed Fish was inciting those around him. A zero-tolerance policy was in effect on Whyte Avenue at the time.

The lawyer was then held for roughly four hours, and refused to give his name to police, but was later released without charges. That same night, 386 people were arrested during the party on Whyte Avenue. Two were charged.

Fish had put in a complaint to police, but the investigation led to no charges. Police Chief Mike Boyd concluded there was no likelihood the charges could be proven. Fish is now appealing to the Law Enforcement Review Board to order the officers involved to face a hearing.

Fish testified that he was on Whyte Avenue after his son Nigel called and said his friend had been arrested and that “police were being crazy.” Fish told the board that no medical attention was provided to him after he was Tasered.

At one point, an officer told Fish “they were just doing their job.”

Nigel Fish, who was arrested at the same time as his father, also testified. He said he was taken into custody when he protested the physical handling of his father.

“I stepped forward,” he recalled. “What are you doing? That’s an old man. I was then put on the ground and arrested.”

Nigel Fish said that he was insulted many times by officers, including use of a homophobic slur.

The hearing continues Tuesday.

Officers seem to use Tasers as substitute for effective policing

November 21, 2007
JANET BAGNALL, The Montreal Gazette

Six months ago, Amnesty International issued a report on the use of Tasers by various police departments across Canada. In it, the human-rights organization described acts that, taken together, add up to a culture of thoughtless, even careless brutality. The cases demonstrate a deficiency of training and guidelines, a lack of judgment and, too often, an absence of remorse.

Had we paid more attention to this report, Robert Dziekanski might still be alive. But it seems to have taken - more than the 40-year-old Polish man's actual death - a horrifying video of it to force authorities to respond.

For days after Dziekanski died on the floor of Vancouver International Airport, airport officials and the RCMP tried to hold the dead man accountable in varying degrees for what happened to him: He was agitated and violent, he couldn't speak English, the police had no option, other people were in danger, and the Taser was used as a last resort.

Then the video, shot by a passenger at the airport, hit the airwaves, putting out a very different picture. In it, the whole world could see Dziekanski die in agony, after being shot at least twice and possibly four times with 50,000-volts of electricity within seconds of four RCMP police officers approaching him.

It's important to realize that the significance of the video was that it proved what happened and it also proved that airport and police officials were deliberately distorting the facts.The usual objections to official spin - witnesses and still photos - are not nearly as effective.

Dziekanski's death following the use of a Taser fit only too well into the pattern Amnesty International had found in its study, Canada: Inappropriate and Excessive Use of Tasers. Since tasers first were used in North America, beginning in 2001, Amnesty International says that more than 270 people in the U.S. and 17 people in Canada have died after being shocked with the weapon.

In addition to information on the deaths, Amnesty International has also collected information on cases where the victim survived to tell the tale:

An Edmonton police officer in 2003 searching a hotel with two other officers for a robber armed with a knife, used his Taser to rouse two sleeping hotel guests. (The officer was charged with assault with a weapon.)

In 2004, Halifax regional police used a taser three times on a woman who was handcuffed and held down in a police cell. (Both officers involved were cleared of assault.)

In 2005, a 42-year-old restaurant owner was shocked with a Taser as he lay unconscious. An RCMP officer ordered the shock in an attempt to revive him. (The officer pleaded guilty in court to assault with a weapon. He was given a conditional discharge and 50 hours' community service.)

A 66-year-old lawyer, Brian Fish, was taking photos of Edmonton police intervening at the 2006 Stanley Cup victory celebrations. When Fish refused a police demand to stop taking photos, an officer pushed Fish to the ground and tasered him twice in his back. A police investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of the officers. Fish has filed a complaint.

RCMP officers in New Brunswick in 2006 tasered a 17-year-old boy at least 13 times, hitting his lower back and his front, including his groin. A witness to the arrest disputed claims by the police that the boy was resisting arrest: "They kept telling him to get on his back but every time he tried to turn, they'd keep tasering him. It was just horrible."

Tasers are inherently open to abuse. It can be readily used as a "pain compliance tool," as Amnesty International describes it, when it should be reserved for serious threats that could escalate to deadly force.

Tasers are instead becoming the substitute of choice for officers who can't be bothered with effective policing, Tom Engel said. Of the more than 290 Taser-related deaths it reported on, Amnesty International said only 25 of those killed were said to have been armed, none with a firearm.

"The vast majority of people who have died after being struck by Tasers," Amnesty International wrote, "have been unarmed men who did not pose a threat of death or serious injury when they were electro-shocked. In many cases, they did not appear to have posed any significant threat at all."

We can be grateful to British Columbia Attorney-General Wally Oppal for understanding that public authorities have a duty to provide answers when things go horribly wrong. Alarmingly, no one else involved in Robert Dziekanski's case seems to have a clue about public responsibility.