Taser better than gun, mental health group says

April 4, 2008
The Canadian Press

People have died from being jolted by a police Taser but the shock device is better than lethal force, says a mental health advocacy group. John Gray, a board member with the B.C. Schizophrenia Society, told a Commons committee Friday that a decade ago his group urged police to find another way to subdue mentally ill people after two B.C. residents were killed by police. "If there is an elevated risk, we would like to choose the Taser over a gun,'' Gray said. "I have seen people volunteer to be Tasered, without apparent ill effects. I have never seen anyone volunteer to be shot by a gun.''

Gray's opinion was in sharp contrast to two others who appeared before the Commons committee on public safety during a fact-finding trip to the Vancouver International Airport, where Robert Dziekanski died last October after being hit with an RCMP Taser. The committee is studying the growing use of the weapons by police across the country.

Both the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and lawyer Cameron Ward, who has represented the families of those who have died after being shocked by police, urged MPs to call for a moratorium on Taser use until further study can be done.

The association's Murray Mollard said politicians need to ensure that the shock device doesn't pose a risk of harm to Canadians.

"Rather than a second-last option in the use-of-force spectrum, it has become a much earlier and, in some cases, a first option in the use of force,'' Mollard told the committee. "We think the public has been misled by police authorities.''

A time line presented to the committee by the Canada Border Services Agency showed RCMP at Vancouver's airport interacted with Dziekanski for just over a minute before he was jolted twice by a Taser and pinned to the ground. The dramatic video of the interaction between the Polish immigrant and Mounties before his death was captured by a passerby and circulated worldwide on the Internet and TV.

"Robert Dziekanski's tragic case was unique in only one respect,'' Ward told the committee. "It was unique in that the circumstances of his death were captured on videotape." Ward said 336 people have died in North America since September 1999 after being given a 50,000-volt shock died and many of them have died in the same way. "Most of the cases involved people who were not armed, people who were acting erratically and who were Tasered more than once," he said. "Many of them involve people who were Tasered in what is called by the manufacturer the dry-stun mode."

Dry stun is when the weapon is fired while placed against a person's body.

It's the same way RCMP outside Victoria twice shocked a handcuffed 15-year-old boy last month, including once in the chest, while he was in the back of a police cruiser.

"Before the Star Trek-type Taser, 50,000-volt weapon came on the scene police officers were able to subdue people who needed medical attention without having 336 of them drop dead inexplicably,'' Ward concluded. "We have to be wary of sophisticated, new technological solutions.''

When Tom Smith, chairman of Taser International Inc, testified before the committee in January he said he and his brother invented the Taser after two friends had been killed and they wondered why there wasn't a better way to stop someone without using lethal force. "We grew up watching Star Wars and Star Trek and asked why we couldn't make a non-lethal phaser,'' he said. "That's what led us to start the company."

The committee is one of more than a dozen investigations into Taser use prompted by Dziekanski's death, including an ongoing criminal investigation, an upcoming public inquiry and a coroner's inquest.

Steve Tuttle, Taser International's vice-president of communications, said in a terse news release Friday that Taser would take part in the investigations. "Taser International wishes to provide information to all inquests and inquiries in Canada and looks forward to the opportunity to assist in these matters."

- 30 -

Next thing you know, Taser International will be offering company shares and other incentives to the members of the committee, along with Canadian coroners and other officials in this country. A few years ago, my response to Mr. Tuttle would have been, "sorry, Mr. Arizona, that's not the way we do things here in Canada - pity, eh?" However, we now know that Taser International has padded the pockets of Canadian police officers, sponsored conferences at the Platinum level for Canadian police chiefs and paid travel and other expenses for a famously pro-taser Canadian coroner. It's insane - and far and away beyond unethical. If Taser International is ever allowed to "provide information to all inquests and inquiries in Canada," then so too should the following people, among others, be invited to "provide information":

Cameron Ward;

Amnesty International;

Civil Liberties Associations;

Allan Nakatsu, who tested the tasers used on my brother and found them to be extraordinarily more powerful than Taser International's specifications;

Dr. Ian Dawe, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto;

Researchers who have found that tasers cause ventricular fibrillation and worse;

the police officers who have been permanently injured;

Some journalists I know;

The owner of excited-delirium.com and me.

To the BC Schizophrenia Society's John Gray I say: your argument (we would like to choose the Taser over a gun) might have some merit if tasers were being used where lethal force (guns) would be the only option. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all. Tasers are being used where a gun would never, ever be considered justified in this country.

Mental health group says police use of a taser is far better than a gun

April 4, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER - Mixed messages are being received by a Commons committee looking into use of Tasers by Canadian police. While some groups are urging a moratorium on Taser use, the Schizophrenia Society says the shock weapons are far preferred to a gun. The society's John Gray says has seen people volunteer to be jolted with a Taser, but hasn't heard of anyone volunteering to be shot by a gun.

But the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and lawyer Cameron Ward both called for a moratorium until more study can be done. Ward handed the committee a list of 336 people in North America who have died after being hit with Tasers - deaths that mostly involved people who weren't armed with a weapon, who had been acting erratically and who were shocked more than once.

The committee's investigation is one of more than a dozen launched after the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's airport last October.

Vancouver man's death renews Taser debate

July 24, 2004
ROBERT MATAS, Globe & Mail

Police defend their use as second person in two months dies after being shocked

VANCOUVER -- Robert Bagnell was an artist involved in what he described as the dark arts. He did tattoos with threatening dragons, sketches and oil paintings.

The 54-year old man, known on the street as Riff Raff, was also a drug addict. He told people he was dying from AIDS. He had red sores on his body, and would say he needed hard drugs to cope with the pain.

Mark Clermont saw Mr. Bagnell about an hour before a confrontation with police who tried to subdue him with a Taser high-voltage gun. The weapon fires 50,000 volts of electric current through two barbs for about five seconds. Mr. Bagnell died shortly after.

It was Mr. Bagnell's birthday.

"He seemed all right," Mr. Clermont said yesterday. "He had done a lot of drugs, but he was easygoing."

He died on June 23, police revealed yesterday, after the confrontation at the Continental Hotel, a city-owned residential hotel on the edge of downtown Vancouver where he lived. The residents are all over 40 years old and most of them are on government support or pensions. Some are mentally ill. The rent is $325 a month.

Mr. Bagnell had locked himself in the washroom across the hall from his fifth-floor room. Mr. Clermont said he heard that police found lots of blood smeared around the bathroom when they went in.

Details were sketchy yesterday about exactly what happened in the bathroom. Vancouver police spokeswoman Constable Sarah Bloor said patrol officers and emergency response team members had been called to the hotel to deal with a violent man. Mr. Bagnell was screaming and destroying bathroom fixtures.

An officer used the Taser gun to calm him down, she said. While being handcuffed and arrested, Mr. Bagnell stopped breathing. Emergency services were called in but could not revive him.

The cause of death has not yet been determined. Police waited a month before announcing the death so they could obtain the toxicology report, Constable Bloor said.

The report indicated that Mr. Bagnell's blood contained lethal levels of cocaine and other drugs, she said. Neither the coroner's service nor the police would make the toxicology report public yesterday.

Mr. Bagnell was the second person in Vancouver to die in the past two months after being subdued by the high-voltage gun. As well, 29-year-old boxer Jerry Knight died last week in a Mississauga, Ont., motel after police used a Taser during a violent confrontation.

The announcement of Mr. Bagnell's death reignited the debate over police use of the gun.

Vancouver police vigorously defend the use of the Taser as an effective, measured response to combative individuals. No coroner in North America has ever identified a shot from a Taser as a cause of death, Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham said at a news conference.

"We know that the Taser saves lives and reduces injuries. We also know it is safe and it works," he said, adding that the Taser gun is one of the most effective non-lethal tools ever used by police.

"When an officer is faced with deadly force or grievous bodily harm to himself or others, they really have only one option, the use of their gun," Chief Graham said. However, Tasers prevent incidents from escalating to the point where a gun may be required.

"By preventing that escalation, lives of suspects, police officers and innocent people are saved and the number of injuries are reduced," he said. Having a Taser means that police do not have to resort to deadly force when dealing with people who cannot think straight because of alcohol, drugs or mental illness.

The use of the Taser was endorsed yesterday as an alternative to fatal force by Fred Dawe, president of the British Columbia Schizophrenia Society and past president of the Canadian Schizophrenia Society, and Richard Dolman, a widely published advocate of proper treatment of the mentally ill.

"Taser gives police a non-lethal alternative to firearms when attempting to subdue a person," Mr. Dawe said.

The B.C. Schizophrenia Society has been urging police to use Tasers since 1999, Mr. Dolman said. "We could see the tremendous advantage it would have in avoiding death through the use of firearms in extreme circumstances."

This week, civil-rights lawyer Julian Falconer called for federal monitoring of the use of Tasers. Critics say the stun guns are overused and their safety questionable.

The police have few personal details about Mr. Bagnell. Chief Graham said he had not met with Mr. Bagnell's family, although some officers from the Vancouver Police Department had.

Residents of the Continental Hotel said they thought Mr. Bagnell was from Cape Breton or Newfoundland, but they were not sure. They said he supplemented his government cheque with "bottling" and dumpster diving. They did not know when he came to Vancouver or where his family lived.

Mr. Clermont questioned whether the police were trying to divert attention from the Taser by citing the results of the toxicology report. He said police told hotel residents that Mr. Bagnell died of an overdose, "but maybe it was a combination of things."

The Taser alone may not have caused his death, he said, but neither did the cocaine.