Tasers are lethal force

September 8, 2008
The Sudbury Star

Letter to the Editor (published in today's Sudbury Star)

Re: Restrict Tasers, don't ban them, editorial -- Sept. 4.

You say: "Tasers offer police a last chance to avoid unholstering lethal force, possibly saving lives, if they're used properly. Rather than ban Tasers, police forces should provide proper training, closely oversee their use and help explain to the public why they are useful police tools."

The problem is there can be no such thing as "proper" use or training with a weapon that has the potential to kill like the Taser does. Unfortunately, every time police officers unholster a Taser, they are, in fact, unholstering potentially lethal force. It's Russian Roulette.

You say more than 90 people have been Tasered in Sudbury since 2003 without incident. Statistics would show that the Sudbury police force's streak of luck could end at any time -- the more the Taser is used, the more there is the potential for people to die. The successes aren't the problem -- the failures are.

Contrary to the out-of-date Amnesty International statistics you quoted, there have actually been at least 371 deaths proximal to the taser since 2001, more than 20 of them Canadian.

Patti Gillman
Sister of Robert Bagnell, who died on June 23, 2004 in Vancouver after he was tasered


September 5, 2008
The Sudbury Star

Restrict tasers, don't ban them — Editorial

Two years after former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli was forced to resign he continues to stun Canadians with his comments -- this time, advocating an end to Taser use by the force.

Zaccardelli resigned in 2006 after giving two opposite testimonies to a House Commons committee on how he discovered the RCMP had passed incorrect information about Maher Arar, who was falsely accused as a Muslim extremist, to the U. S. The information is thought to have helped the U. S. deport Arar, a Canadian, to Syria, where he was reportedly tortured.

During his seven years as commissioner, Zaccardelli defended the Mounties' use of Tasers, but now that he's an officer with Interpol in France, he has changed his tune. In an interview with CBC television that was to be aired last night, he said he has now had time to think. Said the Zaccardelli: "After all that I've thought about it, I've come more and more to the conclusion that I'm not sure that having Tasers is worth the negative impact that it has on police forces in terms of public perception. I think we should stop using it."

You read correctly -- the former RCMP commissioner thinks that what he otherwise advocates is a useful police enforcement tool should be taken out of their hands because of bad PR.

The logic escapes us. If police officers cannot be trained and trusted to use Tasers properly, how can they be allowed to carry loaded guns?

There are about 6,500 Tasers in use across Canada by police and correctional officials. Greater Sudbury police train only patrol supervisors, K9 and tactical units to use Tasers. They have been used more than 90 times since their introduction in the force since 2003, with no reported serious injuries.

Tasers jolt victims with 50,000 volts, temporarily incapacitating them. But more than 20 people have died in Canada in recent years within hours or days of being Tasered. Amnesty International says more than 280 people have died in the U. S. since 2001 after being Tasered. The problem is so-called usage creep, in which law-enforcement officials rely more and more on Tasers in situations that are not life-threatening.

The Taser debate intensified after 40-year-old Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died at Vancouver Airport last October after being stunned twice by Mounties with Tasers, an incident that was caught on camera and viewed around the world. Dziekanski did not appear to combative.

Police generally follow a six-level protocol in the use of force. Tasers are most often classified as an intermediate weapon, placing them in the same category as pepper spray or batons. Earlier this summer, the House of Commons public safety and national security committee called for the RCMP to restrict use of the weapons, reclassifying them as an "impact weapon" that should only be used in situations involving high risk and in which the suspects are combative.

Paul Kennedy, head of the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP, recommended Taser victims be provided with immediate medical treatment.

Tasers offer police a last chance to avoid unholstering lethal force, possibly saving lives, if they're used properly. Rather than ban Tasers, police forces should provide proper training, closely oversee their use and help explain to the public why they are useful police tools.

Fix the process, fix the image, but let the police use all the legitimate tools at their disposal to do their jobs.

Editorial: Zaccardelli and tasers - Late Repentance

September 8, 2008
The Globe and Mail

Giuliano Zaccardelli was the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when tasers were introduced by the force in 2001. He was commissioner during the period of 2002-2005, when it has been shown that three in every four suspects shot with a taser by the RCMP were unarmed. He was commissioner during a subsequent period when cases in which Mounties drew or threatened to draw their tasers rose dramatically from 597 incidents in 2005 to 1,400 times in 2007. So it is perhaps surprising that Mr. Zaccardelli, who resigned under a cloud over his handling of the Maher Arar affair, has now opted to go public with his concerns over tasers.

It is even more surprising that his concern is not focused on the tasers' ballooning use, or the fact that stun guns are often shot by police at unarmed people, or that people have died after they have been tasered.

In an interview with CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge, Mr. Zaccardelli said he would end the use of tasers because publicity around them has harmed the image of the police force.

Said Mr. Zaccardelli: "After all that I've thought about it, I've come more and more to the conclusion that I'm not sure that having tasers is worth the negative impact that it has on police forces in terms of public perception. I think we should stop using it." In other words, Mr. Zaccardelli appears more concerned about image than the fact that people have died after being shot with the stun guns, or because of other abuses of the tasers by police.

He told the CBC that one case during his tenure as commissioner was so abusive that he considered taking the weapon away from officers, but says he was talked out of it by a deputy commissioner. It was not that abuse, then, that finally turned him, nor was it the death of the Polish taser victim Robert Dziekanski at the hands of the RCMP at Vancouver International Airport. While every voice calling for caution on this matter is welcome, it is difficult not to see Mr. Zaccardelli's comments on the taser as unpersuasive and self-serving.

TASER International dismissed from two product liability lawsuits

September 8, 2008

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- TASER International, Inc. (TASR 6.57, -0.08, -1.2%), the market leader in advanced electronic control devices, announced that the United States District Court for the District of Nevada issued an order in the product liability wrongful death lawsuit entitled Neal-Lomax, et al. v. TASER International, et al. The order granted TASER International's Daubert motions limiting the testimony of plaintiffs' causation experts and granted TASER International's motion for summary judgment.

In addition, the plaintiffs in the case of Robert Earl Williams, Jr., et al. v. TASER International, et al. filed a Plaintiff Notice of Nonsuit with the District Court of Mclennan County (TX), 74th Judicial District, which effectively dismissed this product liability wrongful death litigation against all defendants.

"In granting TASER's motion for summary judgment in the Neal-Lomax litigation, the United States District Court ruled as follows: 'Plaintiffs have failed to produce any admissible evidence stating to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the (TASER electronic control device) caused or contributed to Lomax's death. Plaintiffs therefore have not raised a genuine issue of material fact as to causation, and the Court will grant Defendant's (TASER International) motion for summary judgment'," said Doug Klint, Vice President and General Counsel of TASER International.

"The Court also ruled to exclude Plaintiff's principle causation experts, Brett H. Woodard, M.D. and Jared Strote, M.D. The Court excluded Woodard's opinions by finding that his opinions are not based on reliable medical or scientific methodology. The Court excluded Strote's opinion because it lacks any objective medical source linking the eyewitness testimony and his opinions as to what caused Lomax's death. Absent any medical or scientific basis to support his opinions, Strote's opinions are not based on reliable medical or scientific methodology. It should also be noted that the Court granted the Las Vegas (NV) Metropolitan Police Department's (LVMPD) motion for summary judgment and ruled that the LVMPD Officer used objectively reasonable force in his use of the TASER(r) X26(tm) on Mr. Lomax," said Klint.

"We are also pleased to announce that as a result of TASER International's successful litigation against the Summit County Ohio Medical Examiner, which corrected the autopsy report in the 2006 Mark McCullaugh, Jr. death, one Summit County deputy sheriff was recently acquitted of a murder charge and criminal charges were dismissed against two other deputies," concluded Klint.

Probe into tasering of teenaged girl reopened

September 6, 2008
JOE FRIESEN, Globe and Mail

The RCMP have reopened a criminal investigation into the case of an officer accused of tasering a teenage girl while his colleagues held her down inside a police jail cell.

The girl, 16 at the time, filed a complaint with Manitoba RCMP last year and was told in July that an internal investigation had concluded no criminal offence was committed. But a month after the girl went public with her case, the RCMP decided to reopen the investigation, which will now be conducted by a senior investigator from outside the force.

The girl's lawyer, Catherine Dunn, said the only thing that changed in the interim was the prominent coverage her client's case received in the media.

"It was only after making her complaint public that the RCMP took the view that an independent police service should reinvestigate this matter. One would have thought that would be a preliminary decision as opposed to a review decision," Ms. Dunn said.

The RCMP also confirmed to Ms. Dunn that as many as eight officers were in and around her client's cell at the time of the incident. "The number of people involved and the manner in which [the girl] was attacked is suggestive of a group sexual assault as opposed to a detention," Ms. Dunn said, referring to the fact that the tasering was inflicted within inches of her groin area.

The incident occurred in November, 2007, at the RCMP detachment in Selkirk, Man., 35 kilometres north of Winnipeg. The girl, who was arrested as a minor and can't be named, was picked up by police after her parents came home, found the family minivan missing and reported it stolen. The girl was detained (but never charged) and taken to the local detachment.

Police told her that since she was intoxicated she would have to be held overnight. The girl admits she resisted officers when they attempted to put her in a cell, holding onto her chair and fighting back as they dragged her away.

The officers removed items of her clothing, including her bra, and threw her into the cell, the girl said. She hit out at the last officer as he left the cell, striking him in the back, at which point he called the others back in, the girl said.

She believes four officers held her down, one on each limb, while a taser was used against her. The weapon struck her three times in the leg and groin area, and left her screaming in pain, she said. She still suffers irregular shooting pains in her legs and sees a psychologist to help her deal with the emotional trauma.

Her mother wants to know why the officers didn't simply walk away and leave her daughter in the locked cell. She said she believes her daughter's rough treatment was exacerbated because she is aboriginal.

The RCMP said in a letter to the girl's mother that the investigation will be conducted by a senior investigator with the Calgary police service, and is expected to take two to three weeks.

The girl has been allowed to receive third-party feedback during the investigation, which means she has appointed someone to act on her behalf from the Manitoba Métis Federation who will receive daily e-mails or updates from police on the progress of the investigation. But the third party will not be allowed to review videotaped interviews and the video surveillance footage of the girl's cell at the time of the incident.

"This decision in and of itself continues to show that the RCMP do have something to hide with respect to this incident and their investigation," Ms. Dunn said.

BC journalism award finalists named

September 6, 2008
CBC News


Some of British Columbia's best journalists have been named as finalists for the 2008 Jack Webster Awards. In a news release, the foundation, which honours the legacy of the late B.C. broadcaster, announced its selections. Winners will be announced at the 22nd annual Jack Webster Awards dinner on Nov. 6 at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver.

I was particularly pleased to see the following on the list of finalists:

Taser Controversy: Eric Rankin, Melanie Nagy, Miyoung Lee, Kirk Williams, CBC News Vancouver

Taser Death: Peter Grainger, Lisa Rossington, Jim Beatty, Shannon Paterson, CTV British Columbia

The Robert Dziekanski Story: Laura Palmer, Kelly Connors, Terry Donnelly, CBC Radio Vancouver

Youth (15) yells at police, gets tasered

September 6, 2008
By Joel Marino, Sun Sentinel

MIRAMAR - Police used a Taser to shock a 15-year-old boy Friday afternoon after he yelled at officers trying to arrest a friend, authorities said.

The teen, who was not identified, was charged with obstruction of justice and resisting arrest with violence, police spokesman Bill Robertson said.

The incident happened around 4:30 p.m. near Glades Middle School, just off Bass Creek Road. Two officers had just stopped a 14-year-old boy who was not a student at the school, and had prior arrests for trespassing on school property, Robertson said. He bolted when the officers told him to stop but they caught up to him a block away from the school, officials said.

As they were taking him into custody, the officers heard the 15-year-old start to yell at them, Robertson said. The 15-year-old was a Glades student.

"He was throwing insults at the officers, and it looked like he was coming to the aid of the other kid," Robertson said.

Robertson said the officers told the teen to stay away, but he removed his backpack and kept walking toward them. When he got too close, one of the officers shocked him with a Taser, Robertson said.

Both teens were taken into custody. The 14-year-old was charged with trespassing.

Robertson didn't know if the boys were taken to a juvenile detention center or if they were released to their parents.

Editorial: Heed stun gun warning

September 5, 2008
Miramichi Leader, New Brunswick

Canada's former top cop has said the RCMP should stop using tasers.

We have to agree.

Too many people have died after being zapped by the powerful weapons. Many times the death is blamed on a rare condition called excited delirium.

This is what RCMP speculated happened to Robert Dziekansi. Many of us watched in horror last year as the 40-year-old from Pieszyce, Poland, died at Vancouver International Airport after being hit with a Taser by police seconds after he was approached. These images were played over and over on the nightly news as the controversy raged on and on. The man, who couldn't speak English, wandered the airport for hours before apparently becoming upset and allegedly pounded on windows and threw chairs and computer equipment.

Closer to home, while there have been no deaths here, our newspaper has reported on a court trial where an RCMP member testified to tasering a man who laughed after being hit and invited the member to do it again.

Another reporter conveyed a story of a man who was labelled a dangerous offender after a court hearing. When the man was court ordered to provide a sample of a bodily fluid to be included in the National DNA Data Bank, an RCMP member was brought in as backup in case the taser had to be used. Although the man was labelled a dangerous offender, he had sat quietly throughout his hearing and never uttered a word. The reporter questioned why it was an automatic assumption that he would react when being asked for a sample and the only way to subdue him was to use a Taser.

The answer — it was the easiest and the quickest way.

According to Wikepedia there have been 21 taser-related deaths in Canada since 2003. Zaccardelli was in his position as commissioner during this time. We wonder why he didn't question their use then. Why did he wait until after he had left the top job?

For his part Zaccardelli, now employed with Interpol, says he supported the use of the stun guns because they were another tool to be used in policing.

But have they been used too much. Have the RCMP and other policing agencies become too dependant upon them? Do they make a decision to use them too quickly? In some case, probably not. But in others, there were likely other methods that could have been used to diffuse the situation.

With so many groups and governing bodies examining the use of the stun guns, we hope they heed Zaccardelli's suggestion, even though it has come years too late.

Editorial: Lethal Weapons

September 4, 2008
The Globe and Mail

Tasers can kill. This hypothesis - at once radical and glaringly obvious - has been uttered by Quebec coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier, after examining a disturbing taser death in Montreal. It should be posted at every police station in Canada.

The gospel according to police forces across this country is that tasers do not kill. Twenty-two people in Canada have died after being tasered over the past five years, yet police insist an underlying cause - a drug overdose, say, or "excited delirium" - is virtually always to blame. People have always died sudden deaths in police custody, they say. It is nothing new.

Dr. Rudel-Tessier says otherwise. A 39-year-old man, Quilem Registre, was tasered six times in just 53 seconds by Montreal police. Each taser cycle lasted five seconds. Out of 53 seconds, he was tasered for 30. The tasering occurred on Oct. 14, 2007, which may explain why it has not become as notorious as it probably should have been. Oct. 14 was the day that Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was fatally tasered. A bystander's video of that needless tasering went around the world, and led British Columbia to set up two separate inquiries.

Why was Mr. Registre tasered? He had been driving erratically, as if intoxicated (some cocaine and alcohol was found in his system). He acted aggressively. But the coroner said she could not determine why police felt the taser was the best option in the circumstances, and why they fired so many times. The two police officers involved spoke only through their written incidence reports. They did not speak directly to Dr. Rudel-Tessier. They did not answer her questions. Mr. Registre died four days after being tasered.

Here is what Dr. Rudel-Tessier said: "Even if the use of the taser by the police cannot be considered to be the medical cause of death, it is apparent that, considering he was in an agitated and intoxicated state, receiving several electrical discharges possibly contributed to his death."

And: "I think that until we have serious studies on intoxicated or sick persons that are conclusive, the taser should also be considered as a weapon that can lead to death."

The police might retort that she is not definitive. But she has it exactly right. There are limited data on the effects of taser use on people who are on drugs, mentally ill or hysterical. It is therefore difficult to point with any certainty directly to the taser. But the evidence in the growing number of fatalities linked to taser use points to fatal risks, either directly or as a link in a chain of events causing death. In the face of that plausible evidence, the onus is on police to limit their taser use to high-risk situations; that is, situations where the risk of bodily harm, whether to the police or anyone else, is commensurate with the possibly fatal risks of taser use.

On the assumption that tasers do not kill, the wildly growing use of the electric stun gun rests. Because they assume the weapon does not kill, police across Canada feel free to use it in situations in which there is no serious threat of bodily harm. The Montreal police had other options with Mr. Registre; the coroner suggested they could have called an ambulance and treated his case as a medical problem. There was no immediate, deadly threat.

The police assumption about taser safety is wrong. The working assumption should now be that tasers can kill.

Garden Grove, California man dies

September 3, 2008

Andy Tran, 32, Garden Grove, California

San Jose, California man dies after being tasered

September 3, 2008

Prince Swayzer, 38, San Jose, California

Quilem's final hours

September 3, 2008
By Dan Delmar, The Suburban

It began as an unremarkable Sunday evening for Haitian-Montrealer Quilem Registre. The troubled 38-year-old was living in a halfway house after being convicted on theft charges and was battling substance abuse problems. On Oct. 14, 2007, he borrowed his girlfriend’s car at around 5 p.m. and made his way to his parents’ house in east-end Montreal. He then drove his father and one of his four sisters to Mass. Four hours later, Registre would be pinned to the ground with 50,000 volts of electricity surging through his body. Four days later, Registre would take his last breath.

Registre was sober when he left his family at around 7 p.m. Two hours later, two Montreal police officers were on patrol along Jean-Rivard St. in St. Michel when they were passed by a car that failed to stop at the corner of 24th Ave.; Registre had relapsed and was driving erratically. The officers activated the cruiser’s emergency lights and both cars came to a stop a block away, on 23rd Ave.

The officer known only as “B.” left his vehicle and approached Registre, who, according to the police report, was “gripping onto the steering wheel with both hands and he was tense...he was so tense that he was lifting himself up from his seat.” He was screaming hysterically and B. couldn’t understand what he was saying, let alone what language he was saying it in. The officer tried to open the car door to get him out, but Registre turned the ignition on and took off. He sideswiped two parked cars before colliding with a third, which eventually brought him to a full stop.

“The man, still hysterical, was looking at me with wide eyes, as if he had seen something terrifying,” B. wrote in his report. “I spoke: “Calm down.” He didn’t listen to me and didn’t stop screaming.”

B. said Registre, still in the driver’s seat, was punching and kicking him. The officer managed to hold him down until his partner, “T.”, approached the car. “Taser!” T. yelled. “The X26 was holstered on my belt,” B. said. “I backed up at least one metre, taking out the weapon from its pouch, and pointed the laser on the chest of the man, who was now standing and resisting.”

Once the probes were stuck to the body of Registre, B. pulled the trigger, causing what’s known as “electro-muscular disruption” (EMD); the head-to-toe convulsions that result from electrocution. “The man fell onto his chest. I ordered him to “show your hands.”“ Registre continued to resist. He began to pick himself up and B. said it appeared he was about to lunge at the officer. That’s when B. pulled the trigger a second time.

T. then had Registre pinned to the ground. The two shocks failed to calm the man and he continued to struggle, hiding his hands under his chest to avoid being handcuffed. A third Taser jolt. “As soon as the (five-second) EMD effect had finished, the man once again started to resist arrest,” B. said. “I observed no sign of submission.” A fourth shock. And a fifth. B. approached Registre and tried to help T. restrain him, still with no luck. “His right hand was still underneath him, as if he was looking for something.” A sixth and final shock was sent before T. managed to handcuff Registre. The Taser was used on the man six times in only 53 seconds. Eight minutes after the final shock, the officers called for an ambulance.

Registre, in the end, was unarmed; a crack-pipe was found in the car. On his arrival at Sacré-Coeur hospital, doctors noted that his breathing was irregular, his body temperature and pulse were dropping drastically and it was confirmed that both crack-cocaine and alcohol were in his bloodstream. Into the early hours of Monday, Oct. 15, his health deteriorated. His small intestine and colon were failing and he suffered cardiac arrest the next day, requiring immediate CPR to keep him alive. By Wednesday, Oct. 17, Registre was in intensive care and in such a delicate state that he couldn’t even be moved to an operating room.

That night, doctors told the family that the situation was “catastrophic and irreversible.” As per their wishes, treatment continued into the early hours of Thursday, Oct. 18, but to no avail. At 3:35 a.m., Quilem Registre was no more.

RCMP should end use of tasers: Zaccardelli

September 3, 2008
CBC News

Canada's national police force should end its controversial use of stun guns, former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli says.

Zaccardelli said he supported the use of stun guns, commonly known as Tasers, during his seven-year reign as commissioner because they were simply another tool for policing.

But given the recent controversy surrounding police force's use of Tasers in Canada, the former commissioner has reconsidered his position, he said.

"And you know, after all that I've thought about it, I've come more and more to the conclusion that I'm not sure that having Tasers is worth the negative impact that it has on police forces in terms of public perception," he told the CBC's Peter Mansbridge.

"I think we should stop using it."

In interview that will air on The National Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET, Zaccardelli says the problem with the use of Tasers extends beyond public perception to a matter of safety and misuse.

"I'm very concerned between the perception and, in cases unfortunately where we've had misuse, that we have to seriously consider maybe taking away that," said Zaccardelli, who is now a senior officer at Interpol in France.

More than 2,800 Tasers are in use across the country by the 9,100-plus RCMP officers trained to use them.

The electric shock weapons — which unleash 50,000 volts of electricity and are designed to incapacitate a person — have come under intense international scrutiny since Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, died shortly after RCMP officers shocked him with a Taser and pinned him down at the Vancouver airport in October 2007. He was unarmed.

An analysis of 563 incidents by the Canadian Press last year found that three in four suspects shot with a Taser by the RCMP between 2002 and 2005 were unarmed.

In a report released in June, the House of Commons public safety and national security committee threatened to call for a moratorium on the use of stun guns if the RCMP doesn't begin restricting use of the weapons by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Paul Kennedy, the head of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, has called for Mounties with fewer than five years experience in the field to be banned from using Taser stun guns and for individuals who are zapped to get immediate medical treatment.

Emu dies after being tasered

September 3, 2008]
The Associated Press

NEW STANTON, Pa.—State police say they had to use a Taser on an emu, which died, because the flightless bird presented a danger on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Pittsburgh. Sgt. Anthony DeLuca says the bird created a backlog and nearly caused vehicles to crash into each other as it ran along the eastbound lanes Monday near the New Stanton exit, about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

DeLuca says officers tried for two hours to capture the 4-foot-tall bird—even attempting to lasso it—but weren't successful. They opted for a Taser rather than using a gun, but the emu fell to the ground after it was shocked and died.

DeLuca says the emu didn't belong to any nearby farmers. Police say it may have escaped from a truck.

Police report concerns citizens

September 2, 2008
KOMU, Columbia, Missouri

COLUMBIA - A small group of community activists complained Tuesday about police policy regarding tasers. Several members of the Grass Roots Organizing (GRO) complained how the Columbia police failed to address taser concerns in last months report. One complaint is about loose and subjective regulations. The group also says the report does not include public input for taser rules.

The members of GRO collected more than 500 signatures to present to the city council. The petition demands police create a task force to study taser use, and to delay the training or arming of police officers, until the task force completes its study and the city council votes on it.

"There should be imminent danger before this powerful weapon is used," GRO member Renee Kientz said.

Residents say the public needs more information and knowledge on tasers.

The police department did not return phone calls regarding the issue. The GRO members will be at the city council meeting Tuesday night.

Third police taser incident in three weeks prompts demands from human rights groups

What: Stop Police Taser Abuse Press Conference

When: Today/Tues. September 2, 2008 @ 5pm

Where: Outside of the Office of Allegheny County DA Stephen Zappala

303 County Courthouse
436 Grant St.,
Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Who: Various Human Rights Groups

A group of organizations that came together following the death of Andre Thomas to support his family and the residents of Swissvale in their quest for truth and justice are again joining forces in response to the questionable Tasering of Jason Schmidt on August 22nd and the announcement that same day that North Braddock Borough had settled for $100,000 the suit brought by Shawn Hicks, who last year was Tasered three times by police who came into his house unannounced while he was asleep on his couch. In his suit, Hicks said police, who claimed they thought he was a burglar, continued to Taser him even after he offered to show them his ID.

The groups plan a press conference and march beginning at noon Tuesday, September 2, outside the office of District Attorney Stephen Zappala at the County Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh.

"The concerns we expressed after Andre Thomas died have not been fully addressed," said Black and White Reunion spokesperson Celeste Taylor. "Now another young man has been Tasered under questionable circumstances. We applaud District Attorney Stephen Zappala and Medical Examiner Karl Williams for convening a committee to examine the physical effects of Tasers, but that is not enough. All police officers involved in both the Thomas and Schmidt tragedies should be removed from their duties pending the outcome of an independent investigation. One young man is dead and another is hospitalized in a coma. Their families and the residents of these communities deserve to know why, based on facts."

Added David Meieran, of Stop Taser Abuse Today (STAT!), "Nationwide, more than 360 people have died after being Tasered. The U.N. Committee Against Torture has declared that Tasers are in violation of the U.N. Convention Against Torture, and Amnesty International has called for a moratorium on their use. Rather than continue business as usual, we demand a moratorium on the use of Tasers until it can be demonstrated that their medical implications are sufficiently understood and that police have acceptable use-of-force policies in place. Taser International boasts that their product is 'safer than Tylenol.' Well, the same burden of proof should apply in the case of Tasers that does with Tylenol."

The Black and White Reunion and its partnering organizations reiterate the demands in their August 25th letter to law enforcement officials and are now adding additional concerns that should be taken up by the newly formed committee:

1. The newly formed Allegheny County committee of law enforcement and medical professionals must have access to the factual information about Taser and use-of-force policies in EACH police department in Allegheny County. We ask that the District Attorney compile this information and make it available to the public immediately.

2. In light of the Andre Thomas and Jason Schmidt cases, the committee should examine, in addition to the physical effects of Tasers, the existing police policies, procedures, and training in their use, and recommend changes to safeguard the public against their misuse. All members of the newly formed committee should review the reports about Taser/use-of-force policies from Amnesty International, which has called for a moratorium on Taser use.

3. In order to increase public support and expand its knowledge base, the committee should invite residents and activists, and representatives of the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University law schools to participate. At minimum, the committee should make a complete and public report of its findings.

4. Because in two recent cases there were indications that the victim might have been mentally ill and/or experiencing a reaction to prescribed or illegal drugs, the committee must include mental health and law enforcement professionals with expertise in appropriate responses to individuals in these types of distress. We believe that there are better, more humane ways to manage these situations than to risk killing or disabling the victim with Tasers, and we believe police policies, procedures, and training should reflect best practices.

5. There should be a countywide moratorium on the use of Tasers until the committee has completed its study and released its findings. If it is determined that it is possible to use Tasers safely, the moratorium should continue until appropriate public policies, procedures, and training are in place. If it is determined that it is NOT possible to assure safe use of Tasers regardless of policies, procedures, and training, their use should be discontinued entirely.

We join with the families in demanding forthright, honorable, and compassionate responses to the death of Mr. Thomas, the disability of Mr. Schmidt, and the countless injuries and deaths that have resulted from improper use of Tasers.

We ask again that the appropriate law enforcement and criminal justice authorities report publicly what actions they intend to take to address these issues.

The Black and White Reunion
and the
Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP)

Billy Jackson
NAACP Pittsburgh Branch

Paradise Gray, One HOOD

Stop Taser Abuse Today! (STAT!)

Contacts: Celeste Taylor: 412-670-0937
David Meieran: 412-216-9821

Paradise Gray
One Hood
Http://www.1hood.org
Http://www.myspace.com/paradisegray

Group protests use of tasers following death

September 2, 2008

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Upset over the death of a Swissvale man whom police used a taser on, one community group is taking its complaints to the streets today. The group "Black & White Reunion" is angry about the death of Andre Thomas.

Thomas, 37, died at UPMC Braddock Hospital last month -- not long after a Swissvale policeman used a taser gun on him, because he was allegedly acting erratically and screaming.

The community group plans to hold a news conference and march outside the Allegheny County Courthouse at noon today. Black & White Reunion officials are calling for further investigation into the physical effects of tasers and better training for police officers.

What if they threw a taser party and no one came?

Fort Myers gun shop hosts Taser party, but guests are no-show
Owner says his plan may need tweaking
BY GABRIELLA SOUZA • GSOUZA@NEWS-PRESS.COM • AUGUST 31, 2008

First it was Tupperware and Mary Kay cosmetics.

Now it's Tasers.

Fort Myers gun shop Guns R Us is the latest to sell its wares via a community gathering, or a party, of sorts. But unlike mascara and food storage containers, this product is a nonlethal weapon capable of giving an attacker a 50,000-volt jolt.
Guns R Us' owner Brian Waldron decided to hold the parties at his shop at 2075 Broadway because an influx of people came to his shop within the last six months inquiring about Tasers. Waldron estimates he's sold about 30 Tasers in the last two months. Tasers carry the jolt to the attacker by firing two darts.

"We've been running into more and more people who aren't gun friendly," he said.
On Saturday, Waldron planned to hold the first party. He'd scheduled a certified Taser instructor, passed out about 400 flyers and laid out refreshments.

But by noon, an hour after the party's scheduled start, no one had showed up. Waldron said he had been expecting about 50 people.

"You go and do it, and now where is everybody that wants to do it?" Waldron said.
But he wasn't dismayed. This was, after all, the first try, and Waldron admitted maybe his plan needed tweaking. Perhaps he should hold a party in a woman's home, channeling the success of those party products that have come before the Taser, he said.

The $300 Taser model Waldron was peddling is different from the one carried by law enforcement. On the law enforcement Taser, the darts the device fires can travel 30 feet and a civilian Taser travels 15 feet.

That's to ensure in a civilian-officer confrontation the officer would have advantage, said Charlie Mesloh, associate professor in the Division of Justice Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University and director of its weapons and equipment research institute.

Mesloh said Waldron's idea is not unique; he has heard about Taser parties occurring across the country. And Taser International, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company that makes the weapon, also holds seminars on Tasers.

"It's certainly a good marketing technique," he said.

Carrying a Taser for self defense does not require a permit in Florida, although you must be authorized to have one at a school. And if you buy one, Taser International will do a background check and if you have felony arrests, you may have to give back the Taser and receive a refund.

Lt. Dennis Eads of the Fort Myers Police Department has no problem with his neighbor Guns R Us holding the gathering, although he said if it was up to him he wouldn't call it a party.

"It's not different than if they were having a firearms display," he said.
Eads, who trains new officers in Taser protocol, has been Tasered at least half a dozen times. "It hurts," he said. "It's like losing all control of your entire body. You can't move; it completely immobilizes you."

Eads said he only knows of bounty hunters and bail bondsmen who own Tasers now, but could see more people in the future opting to buy Tasers.

Lorie Fridell, associate professor of criminology at the University of South Florida, said her worry about the availability of Tasers was the device could fall into the wrong hands. "It could be used by a spouse against a spouse, a parent against a child," said Fridell, who is doing research on Tasers.

Eads' concern with more people buying Tasers is owners won't know how to properly work it, since no training is required to have one. Hitting someone with the darts isn't as easy as it looks, Eads said. "It could be as dangerous as it is helpful," he said.

Family wants inquiry into taser death

August 29, 2008
Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL - Ask Marie-Jésula Registre whether she feels any anger over the fact a police taser that fires a 50,000-volt charge was used six times on her son Quilem and she replies softly, her eyes rimmed with tears. "I'm a Christian. I don't keep anger in my heart. But this has been devastating blow for myself and our family. He was our only son."

Maria-Jesula, her husband Augustin-François and their, daughters Francine and Chantal, met with reporters Friday after a Quebec coroner added more questions to those the Registre family have had since Quilem's death on Oct. 18, 2008, days after being tasered by Montreal police officers.

"The main question is: 'Why?'," said Evans Sanelus, Quilem's cousin, "No one deserved the fate (Quilem experienced), no matter what they've done in life. If a (police officer) is there to do their job, their first objective is to protect and to analyse a situation before intervening."

Quilem's father called for an independent, public inquiry into his son's death, an exercise he said would result in "justice" being done.

That call for a public inquiry, echoed by Dan Philip of the Black Coalition of Quebec, follows the publication of a coroner's report into Registre's death that concludes that while the cocaine and alcohol in Registre's system may have contributed to his demise, the fact police found it necessary to subdue him with six 50,000-volt electrical charges made it "difficult to believe (the taserings) played no role in his death."

Coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier was also critical of the lack of information personnel at Sacré Coeur Hospital received about Registre's condition once he was transported by Urgences Santé from the scene of his arrest on Rivard St. for running a stop sign. "Mr. Registre was first received at Sacré Coeur Hospital as a traffic accident victim who was intoxicated," she wrote. "The treating physicians deplored ... the fact they had been given so little details on the use of (a Taser) and Mr. Registre's condition beforehand."

Rudel-Tessier also noted she was unable to personally interview the two officers who arrested Registre, their version of events provided to her only in incident reports filed two days after his arrest on Oct. 16 and one day before his death.

"I therefore have no explanation why the use of other forms of force (rather than the Taser) were insufficient or inefficient," she wrote. "I had no access to the process of their decision making nor any details on their strategic thinking. We can ask if there was another way, other means of subduing Mr. Registre and calming him. Since he was visibly agitated, one would think back-up could have been called in, ambulance technicians in particular, since this was a medical emergency. Even if Mr. Registre did not pull a gun, was the fact he didn't respond to an order to raise his hands sufficient reason to immediate resort to (the Taser)?"

What the coroner did glean from the police reports was that only one of the two officers who arrested Registre - who they described as being "hysterical" after attempting to drive away from the traffic stop and slamming his car into another vehicle parked nearby - was trained to use a Taser.

Rudel-Tessier recommended that the Montreal police ensure all members of a team equipped with a Taser be trained to use it, and that training programs educate officers in how to restrain a suspect once they've been it with an electrical charge.

She also called on Quebec's Public Security Department to examine the possibility of ordering the province's police departments to equip their tasers with cameras to record the circumstances of their use.

A spokesperson for Claude Dauphin, chairperson of the city's executive committee and responsible for public security, said the police department has been asked to examine the coroner's findings and produce a report that would detail what changes, if necessary, would be made to existing procedures.

Montreal family wants public inquiry after coroner says taser use avoidable

August 29, 2008
The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — The family of a Montreal man who died after police zapped him several times with a Taser says a coroner's report still leaves questions unanswered about his death.

Quilem Registre died last year, four days after Montreal police subdued him using a Taser. A Quebec coroner's report into his death suggests that had the officers been better trained they could have brought the agitated Registre under control without using a Taser.

Registre's family gathered at the offices of a local community organization Friday to demand an independent public inquiry.

"All we feel is that if we have our questions answered and we have the policemen's version, we will feel a little bit better," Registre's cousin Evans Sanelus said during a news conference at the Black Coalition of Quebec. It still won't bring Quilem back. But if we have justice, then maybe we will feel a little bit better."

The family said they want to hear from the police officers.

"If they would have taken the time to use better judgment, maybe the situation would have been different." Sanelus said. "We're asking for a public inquiry to re-evaluate the entire situation."

Registre, 38, was stopped by Montreal police in October 2007 for driving erratically.

Police have said he was intoxicated and aggressive and they used the stun gun - which emits a 50,000-volt electrical charge - to subdue him.

In her report, coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier said the Taser cannot be blamed for Registre's death. However, she said the fact he was struck six times may have been a contributing factor.

Rudel-Tessier said electronic stun guns can be effective policing tools and should be used instead of firearms whenever possible.

Registre's loved ones, meanwhile, do not want his death to be in vain. "Life goes on, he's dead but we're still alive," Sanelus said. "We have to ask for justice. That's the only thing we can do right now and that's what Quilem would have wanted."

My Magic Gun

Kate Slater, a lady we have come to admire and are getting to know through this website, sent the following poem to me this week, saying "here's a poem for your mother."

I hope that Kate was inspired by the song my mom recently wrote called "Taser Me Baby."

Thank you, Kate - you are an inspiration to both of us too!

My Magic Gun
Kate Slater

I'll tase you till you're down and twitch
So my partner can handcuff you.
No, I'll tase you till you produce your hands
And a jolt so you'll stand up too.
I'll tase you till I figure out
Just what I want you to do.

Don't say you won't, my magic gun
Won't never ever ever harm you.
Don't say you can't, you'll take the ride
It's your fault if it hurts you.

Hey, I let them tase me right in the back.
I yelled and I fell over too.
I did what was expected, not scared and not mad,
So why don't you do that too?
I'll hold down the trigger till you do.

The docs say if you're delirious
the magic gun might not stop you.
The docs say if you're delirious
to fire quicker and a lot to save you.
The docs say if you're delirious,
it just might damage you.
Which of the docs is telling the truth?
And what's a policeman to do?

I'll trust my trainer, he says that it's fine
And he trusts his trainer and so on up high.
They all pass on the latest information
And no one has a reason to lie.
And no one had a reason to die.

If you think, if you think, that you're scared it will hurt
You'll say "Don't tase me bro!"
If you think, if you think, that you're scared it will kill
You'll raise you hands and go.
So thanks to all the folks who up and die,
As long as we can claim it ain't so.

If I think, if I think, it won't do any harm
I'll blow cartridges at thirty bucks a pop.
And if you suffer from "unanticipated death"
Well, it's your fault anyway, because --you--
weren't right in the head, didn't comply with orders, did all that coke,
had a bad heart, or were black or white or red or human,
or leaking scary sweat, or you wanted to die, or you had a stapler,
or you swore at me, --or you had a bad day--
or I did.

Cause I didn't intend to kill you.
It's a non-lethal weapon, they say. And non-lethal means
it's a weapon used by men who don't intend to kill.
If it did, it was your fault that you died in hell.
And if I had thought that it would kill you, --well-- . . .

New website: Prevent Dangerous Harm

Please see the new website, Prevent Dangerous Harm.

"This advocacy group was established subsequent to the death of our son and brother, Patrick D. Hagans. On May 13, 2007, in Franklin County, Ohio during an altercation with law enforcement officers, a Taser was used. Patrick became unconscious and was admitted to a local hospital. Having never regained any awareness, Patrick was removed from life support and passed away May 16, 2007. The task of our advocacy organization is to support agencies that are demanding further research and stricter regulations regarding the use of Tasers for both law enforcement officers and private citizens. If your belief is “SAFETY, NOT HARM” please join us in this crusade to make our world a much more protected place for all. Help support our efforts in furthering education and awareness of Taser usage in your community and others."

I encourage your support of this advocacy group and, to that end, you may wish to purchase one or more "Don't Taser Me" wristbands at this site.

New Zealand: taser decision unprincipled and dangerous

Friday, 29 August 2008
Press Release: Campaign Against the Taser

Campaign Against the Taser (CATT) has expressed deep concern about the Police Commissioner's decision to introduce Tasers, describing it as unprincipled and dangerous. "Our analysis of the preliminary information about the trial initially released by the police indicated that more than 40% of incidents between just September 2006 and March 2007 were in breach of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) drawn up to regulate Taser use during the trial period", spokesperson Marie Dyhrberg said today.

"The Police Commissioner's decision has been made despite repeated calls for delay until the public had had the opportunity to view and comment on all relevant information about the trial, not just the summaries released by Police, which the Chief Ombudsman called "sanitised". Despite the Chief Ombudsman's recommendation in May that wrongly withheld information be released to CATT, the police have still not provided information covering the full year of the trial."

In CATT's report, Stun guns in Aotearoa New Zealand? The shocking trial, serious concerns were raised about inappropriate and dangerous use of Tasers during the trial, such as use of the weapons in service stations, on individuals in mental health crisis, on people whose behaviour was not assaultive, and the disproportionate number of Maori and Pacific people targeted with Tasers. In addition, it highlighted the increasing controversy over the use of Tasers overseas as the death toll among those struck by police Tasers continues to rise, and the United Nations Committee Against Torture's description of the use of TaserX26 weapons as constituting a form of torture which could in certain cases cause death.

"There has been no public discussion of these concerns, and without the complete set of information about the New Zealand trial, it has not even been possible for the public to properly assess the trial. The trial has been run by Police, assessed by Police, and now the decision has been made by Police, with no transparency or openness in the process", Dyhrberg said. "Transparency is especially important in a trial, which is supposed to provide an opportunity for reflection and considered debate - this trial has had neither."

"The Police Commissioner said that the debate in the House on Wednesday did not raise any new issues. That is no wonder - how can the matter be properly debated when most of the relevant information is kept secret? A decision such as this, which will change the face of policing in New Zealand, should be subject to a rigorous democratic process and public scrutiny. The decision is both unprincipled and dangerous, and the lack of process and transparency around it is unacceptable in a modern democracy."

It is inevitable that at some point there will be serious injuries or deaths related to Taser use, and that the introduction of the Taser will needlessly increase the violence of policing in New Zealand. CATT remains concerned about the lack of thorough and independent investigations into Taser use and its effects. The Campaign is also concerned that Tasers will be used as a tool of routine force, not of last resort, and that vulnerable groups (such as those with mental health issues) will again be inappropriately subjected to electric shocks.

Put tasers away until study is released, professor tells cops

August 27, 2008
By MICHAEL STAPLES, The Daily Gleaner (New Brunswick)

Police forces should impose a moratorium on stun guns until ongoing studies into their safety are completed, says an associate professor of criminology at St. Thomas University. Michael Boudreau said police forces across the country should stop using tasers until a report by the Canadian Police Research Centre is released.

The much-anticipated report was expected to be unveiled this week at a meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in Montreal but will remain under wraps until next year. The report will be subjected to an independent peer review and will only be released in 2009, with a longer-term study due in 2010, Steve Palmer, the executive director of the Canadian Police Research Centre, said earlier this week.

"There have been far too many deaths related to the use of tasers," Boudreau said. "So, if the police feel that they need more time to study this issue, fine, but in the interim, rather than declare that tasers are an acceptable intermediate force option, police forces across the country should impose a moratorium on their use until the report is released. Otherwise, a cloud of doubt will continue to hang over the effectiveness of tasers."

Boudreau said it would appear that the police, including the RCMP, are finally listening to the mounting criticism of taser use and are taking the time to study this issue. In addition to the ongoing study, the provinces need to commission independent bodies, separate from the police services, to conduct detailed investigations of taser use, he said.

"While further study into taser use is certainly needed, a delay this long means that full police accountability of taser use will not be forthcoming," he said.

Missouri man dies after being tasered

Stanley James Harlan, 23, Moberly, Missouri

Taser ban not the answer, OPP chief argues

August 27, 2008
JASON MAGDER, The Montreal Gazette

Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino says Taser stun guns shouldn't be banned, but perhaps the training methods on the devices should be reviewed. "The debate has gone off the rails," said Fantino, who is in town to attend the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police at the Palais des congrès.

"We've got into this big debate about banning (Tasers). In my experience, conducted energy devices save lives. It's an intermediate tool that police officers should have available to them. What we need to debate is the proper use of the tools, and the accountability."

Since 2001, 280 people in the U.S. have died after being shot by a Taser stun gun, and Tasers were found to be a possible cause or contributory factor in 30 of those deaths, Amnesty International reports. In Canada, there were 15 deaths as of May, but none has been directly attributed to the use of a Taser.

Fantino would not comment on the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died after he was shot with a Taser stun gun at Vancouver airport in October. Autopsy results have not yet been made public.

On the heels of that incident, the association ordered a study into whether the weapon is safe, but that study will only be completed by 2009 at the earliest. Yesterday morning, Steve Palmer, who is heading the research as executive director of the Canadian Police Research Centre, met with reporters.

While interim results of his report were expected to be made public at this week's conference, Palmer said a decision was made last weekend at a meeting with the executive of the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs to cancel that briefing.

"We decided to pass it out to an independent body so that the work that comes back has all that scientific rigour and validity that goes into a peer-reviewed document."

He said the decision was not related to the fact that Taser International is a major sponsor of the annual meeting. Until the study is completed, Palmer said, police forces can use the recommendations on the use of the weapon made in 2005, which said the device is safe.

Yesterday, Stephen Tuttle, the vice-president of communications for Taser International, was displaying the device and the latest products the company is offering at the conference's hall of exhibitors. The company was also showing a tiny device known as an extended range electronic projectile. It's the size of a 12-gauge shotgun shell, and can be fired from a shotgun to incapacitate a person with an electric shock from a distance of about 20 metres.

Tuttle said people should wait for the reviews of cases like the Dziekanski incident to draw conclusions about the safety of the Taser. "We stand behind the safety of our technology," Tuttle said. "First and foremost, you have to look at what are the alternatives to use of force."

The conference wraps up today. Sûreté du Québec deputy chief Steven Chabot, the association's president, is to give a briefing to reporters this morning.

taser report expected in 2009

August 26, 2008
The Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL - The man studying the use of Tasers and other stun guns said he won't make any recommendations about the use of the weapons until 2009. Steve Palmer, the executive director of the Canadian Police Research Centre, said his report will be submitted for review by independent peers. That is why it will take so long, the force made public today.

Palmer was mandated by the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs to conduct the study, and he was expected to present an interim report at the association's annual meeting, being held in Montreal this week. Palmer met with media this morning, though only to answer questions about the scope and the methodology of his report.

Iowa man dies after being tasered

Ronald Adkisson, 59, Creston, Iowa

Report finds no wrongdoing in man's death
Associated Press - November 3, 2008 10:54 AM ET

CRESTON, Iowa (AP) - A report shows that Creston police officers did nothing wrong when they Tasered a man who died minutes after being released from jail. Police used force, including a Taser, to subdue 59-year-old Ronald Adkisson on Aug. 25 after a disturbance at a Fareway grocery store. Officials said Adkisson had a seizure at the store and became combative when officers tried to arrest him. He was found dead on the sidewalk outside the jail 15 minutes after he was released. An autopsy showed he died of a seizure disorder. A report by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the autopsy report were reviewed by Union County Attorney Timothy Kenyon. It found that officers followed department protocol and that their actions did not cause Adkisson's seizures.

Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police conference cancels taser report

August 25, 2008
Jason Magder, The Gazette

MONTREAL - A much-anticipated interim report on the use of Taser stun guns in law enforcement that was to be presented Monday afternoon was cancelled.

Steve Palmer, the Executive Director of the Canadian Police Research Centre, was commissioned by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to conduct a full-scale review of stun gun use. The review was ordered after Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died after being stunned by at Taser gun RCMP officers at the Vancouver International Airport.

Palmer was expected to present an interim briefing to the law enforcement officials at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in Montreal Monday afternoon.

However, over the weekend, officials decided to cancel the briefing. The Canadian Police Research Centre operates under the banner of Defence Research and Development Canada, a special operating agency of the Ministry of National Defence.

Taser International, the company that manufactures stun guns for many law enforcement agencies, is one of the main sponsors of the annual conference.

"It was decided it would be more valuable to have the study stand up to the rigours of peer review before being released," said a spokesperson for Defence Research and Development Canada.

The spokesperson didn't know if the interim report is expected to be made public. The final report has not yet been completed.

The main theme of the conference's theme is "better diversity management through partnership," and workshops will deal with issues of racial profiling, as well as reasonable accommodation.

The conference is being held at both the Palais de Congrés and the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel. It began last night and will run until Wednesday.

No charges to be laid in death of Italian immigrant in Quebec City

August 23, 2008

QUEBEC — No criminal charges will be laid after an Italian immigrant died in police custody two days after he was shocked four times with a stun gun.

Crown prosecutors say there is no evidence Quebec City police used more force than necessary in apprehending Claudio Castagnetta last September. The Crown decision came after it studied the autopsy report into Castagnetta's death as well as the findings of a Quebec provincial inquiry into the incident. And the Crown says there is nothing in the autopsy report to indicate Castagnetta's death was caused directly by the stun gun.

Castagnetta died Sept. 20 from self-inflicted head wounds while he was being detained by Quebec City police. His death came two days after he was shocked four times by police using a stun gun when they were called to a convenience store. At that time, Castagnetta appeared disoriented and refused to leave. Witnesses said he resisted when police attempted to handcuff him and he was struck several times with the stun gun.

The Italian government complained to the Quebec government about the speed with which the province addressed the matter.

Police chiefs to talk tasers

August 22, 2008
Canwest News Service

MONTREAL (CNS) -- Police chiefs will spend three days in Montreal next week talking about reasonable accommodation, racial profiling and Taser use, among other subjects.

The theme for the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which starts on Sunday and runs until Wednesday, is better diversity management through partnership. The theme was chosen a year ago, but it couldn't be more timely considering recent events.

A Montreal police officer shot and killed Fredy Villanueva, 18, in Montreal North last week, prompting a riot in the streets and criticism that members of ethnic minority groups who live in that area are often harassed by police.

Last fall, the RCMP's methods of dealing with immigrants was called into question when Robert Dziekanski died at Vancouver International Airport. He didn't speak any English and was trying to meet his mother who had come to the airport to pick him up. However, after many hours of waiting, he had become agitated. He died after RCMP officers tried to subdue him with a Taser stun gun.

The use of Taser guns is under review and police chiefs are expected to be given an update on the findings at the conference next week. However, it's unclear if media will get access to that report. Reporters were told Thursday they won't have access to the conference, but might be able to interview some of its participants.

"It's always been like that," said Patrice Cardinal of the Surete du Quebec, a spokesperson for the conference's organizing committee. "The conferences are really just for participants of the conference."

Reporters will be invited to meet some of the event's sponsors, and there will be a news conference on Wednesday so the association can present recommendations on police policy made by conference participants.

Not-guilty plea by cop in taser death

August 22, 2008
Chicago Tribune

A former Winnfield police officer pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of manslaughter and official malfeasance in the racially explosive case of a 21-year-old African-American man who died after being shocked with a Taser nine times while handcuffed and in police custody.

Scott Nugent, 21, will remain free on $45,000 bond. He faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.

Nugent, who is white, was fired from the police force four months after Baron Pikes' death.

Please help me keep track

This week, I am asking my readers for a little help. I'm on vacation and will not be able to monitor the taser news as closely as usual. PLEASE, if you learn of any taser-related deaths, post a comment to this thread and I will update the site as soon as possible. Thank you for your assistance.

Homeless man robbed and attacked with taser in Calgary

"This is fairly unusual in Calgary," said Constable Gord Denis.

That's only because this is just the beginning - we are going to see many more instances of citizens attacking each other with tasers. Wait for it.

August 18, 2008
NADIA MOHARIB, The Calgary Sun

Police are looking for two men who launched an unprovoked attack on a homeless man, hitting him across the head and repeatedly jolting him with a Taser before swiping his cellphone and bike.

Const. Gord Denison said although incidents seeing crooks armed with Tasers are rare, any case is disturbing. "This is fairly unusual in Calgary," he said yesterday.

"But they're a weapon and no different than a knife or any other weapon" when used with violent intent, he added.

Denison said the unsuspecting man in his 40s was ambushed as he walked near 5 St. and 23 Ave. S.W. just before 4 a.m. on Aug. 11.

"The victim was a harmless, homeless guy minding his own business, walking his bike," Denison said.

"This was for no apparent reason."

The man was reaching for his cellphone to offer to one of the strangers, who had asked to borrow it, when a second man jumped from the bushes and began hitting him with what might have been a metal pipe.

The first suspect then repeatedly jolted the victim with a stun gun.

Then the suspects took the man's cellphone and mountain bike, leaving him with contusions to his head and neck area as well as bruising and burn marks to his back.

Police said a Good Samaritan phoned for help upon hearing the commotion.

Police are now trying to find the victim again to see how he is faring while hoping to get leads on finding suspects behind the cowardly crime.

Anyone with information about the attack is asked to call Denison at 403-567-6100 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

The suspects are said to be two white men about 6-ft.-tall with heavy builds, one bald and the other dark-haired.

There may have been a possible third suspect who rode away on the stolen bike.

RCMP emails reveal chaotic time after airport taser death

August 17, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — While RCMP brass and its media relations division scrambled to keep from being "crucified" over Taser use and the death of a man at Vancouver's airport, they also had to deal with an increasing barrage of complaints accusing officers of being everything from clowns to killers.

Email documents, released to The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, showed great concern from Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's office down to the RCMP's British Columbia media relations office over the public's perception about the death of Robert Dziekanski.

"I am going to get some advice, but I think I might wade in here to set some of the record straight with the media," RCMP Chief Supt. Dale McGowan wrote in an email to the Cmdr. Peter German.

"We are being crucified on why the Taser usage and our members' actions at the preliminary stages."

German later replied that he had "just watched the Taser video on BBC TV in Australia!"

Weeks before, RCMP media spokesman Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre wrote to management that Cpl. Dale Carr - the media spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team - had concluded there was a possibility of an "international incident" because of Dziekanski's death.

In one email days after the death, Day's office issues an "urgent" request to RCMP to see the latest media lines Mounties have sent out on the Taser incident.

Lemaitre outlined suggestions for what the RCMP should tell the media, including that the death was being reviewed on several levels and that the investigation was continuing.

On October 14, 2007 Dziekanski spent hours in the international arrivals area at the Vancouver airport before he was confronted by four RMCP officers.

A bystander's video of the confrontation shows the officers attempting a brief conversation with the confused and sweating Polish man before Dziekanski was jolted twice with a Taser.

He died minutes after the officers pinned him to the ground.

Sgt. Tim Shields - who has just taken over the communications section at E Division in Vancouver - said in an interview last week that the entire issue has hurt the Mounties' public image.

"Yes, of course it has," he said. "And we hope that when more of the facts are made public ... it will present a clearer picture of truly what happened."

The eyewitness video was seized by officers at the scene for evidence, and the owner later threatened legal action to get it back, saying he wanted to release what he recorded to the media.

In the hours after the death, Lemaitre told the media that officers at the scene attempted to calm the man, but they felt threatened.

When the eyewitness video was finally released, it showed police using the Taser less than half-a-minute after first confronting the man.

After the tape was aired around the world, the RCMP were inundated with angry emails.

"Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre should be fired for purposely misrepresenting the facts and suppressing the video on a false premise," wrote one person who's name was removed from the documents. "It appears you have been caught in an outright lie," wrote another, whose name was also stripped from the email. The email had a subject line reading "state-sanctioned murder."

Lemaitre told one correspondent he had to work with the information that he was given by the investigation team, and he suggested that if he had it to do over again, he would have said nothing.

"In the world of communications, police have often been criticized for not giving details and/or information regarding an incident resulting in allegations that we are hiding something," Lemaitre wrote.

He told the complainant several investigations will reveal why officers did what they did. "As for myself, as a spokesperson, in the future, I will consider saying that we have no comment, there's an ongoing investigation, and weather the storm of media criticism that we are not forthcoming."

Despite Lemaitre's comment, Shields said police haven't changed the way they deal with the media. "We have to ensure that we have an open relationship with the media because we rely on the media to get the message out to the public," he said.

Another member of the public wrote asking police "So how are you going to lie your way out of this one?" and made reference to the Mahar Arar where RCMP handed over inaccurate information about the Canadian man to U.S. authorities. "You clowns are nothing but a sad, expensive joke," the writer ended.

Later correspondence grew increasing hostile and is riddled with foul language. Some are even threatening. "When will charges of manslaughter be brought against the officers?" asks a member of the public. "Seeing as there will be no proper action taken against the criminals, I should hope a similar fate befalls their families."

Carr and Lemaitre responded to several of the writers.

It is vitriol Shields said he's never seen before from the public.

"After the millions of good things that we have done, it was very disheartening to see that level of backlash and anger from the public."

Not all the emails were negative. Chris Newel of the Clearwater RCMP wrote to Lemaitre suggesting police put out a news release indicating how many times a Taser was used successfully. "I see on the news eight people have died in five years - that's about 1.5 a year. How many would have died if we didn't have the Taser?" Newel wondered. "Of those eight, how many had pre-existing conditions that likely contributed, if not were the cause, of death?" "Thanks for that," Lemaitre replied. "Stand by for the autopsy results! We might be in for a surprise, like Tasers didn't kill this guy, pre-existing medical conditions and or drugs in the system, wait and see."

No drugs or alcohol were found in Dziekanski's body, but the cause of death still hasn't been released.

A briefing document written in November 2007 for RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said it was the B.C.'s Coroner's Office that left police in an embarrassing position after RCMP refused to release the bystander's video before it was used at the coroner's inquest.

Elliott said the coroner, "in an unprecedented action and in contradiction to his request of the prior week," sent a letter to the Integrated Homicide Investigative Team saying the coroner's office instead had no problem with the videotape being released. "This left no legal basis for the videotape to be held," Elliott wrote.

The reverberations from Dziekanski's death and the release of the videotape are still being felt, with most of the investigations ongoing, including a public inquiry which will begin hearing witnesses testify in October about the night Dziekanski died.

The B.C. Crown is looking at a police report into whether charges should be laid against the officers involved.

Confidence in SIU has eroded

August 16, 2008
Robyn Doolittle/Joanna Smith, The Toronto Star

Rob Maltar had been waiting nearly a year for the thick envelope to land on his doorstep.

Expecting to find answers about how his brother died while in police custody, he ripped open the package. Out tumbled a stack of paper. Scanning it, his heart sank. Inside, sent from the Attorney General's office, was his own testimony, a collection of newspaper clippings, a series of memos between government officials. And not much else.

"They didn't give me anything I didn't already know," he said.

Maltar's frustration is not unique.

Twenty-two individuals have been fatally shot by police in Ontario over the past five years. Like Maltar, many of their families feel robbed of an explanation by the only agency that could give them answers: an agency that twice in the past decade has been told in government reviews that it needs to become more transparent.

The week his brother died – Sept. 18, 2005 – Maltar filed an access-to-information request for all the records involving his brother's death. James Maltar died in a Port Credit police detachment; the SIU cleared police after ruling that he shot himself with an officer's gun.

Maltar was denied the director's report, follow-up reports, the police witness list, witness statements, investigator's notes, police officer's notes, police communication, a compact disc of images, scene videos and any records from the Centre of Forensic Sciences.

"I got a bunch of letters from one person to another person about information they were sending back and forth, but I never got the information they were sending," the 44-year-old Maltar said.

The SIU is unique in Canada as the only fully civilian agency that investigates police. Police agencies are required to call the SIU whenever a civilian is seriously injured or killed in Ontario and police are involved.

Operated under the umbrella of the Ministry of the Attorney General, it has 41 civilian investigators:

Twelve are full-time, stationed at the SIU's Mississauga office.

Twenty-nine are strategically located throughout the province.

Of the full-time investigators, five are former police officers (who are barred from investigating their former forces). Seven have experience in various government agencies, labour, immigration, corrections, the legal profession or medicine..

Once an incident is investigated, findings are submitted to the SIU director, currently former Crown attorney James Cornish, who decides whether to clear or charge police officers. From there, the report is sent to the Attorney General. No one else gets access to it.

The unit's creation in 1990 was trumpeted as a landmark of police accountability in Canada. But today, there are signs that confidence in the SIU has eroded.

Governments and their agencies often cite the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act when withholding information, says lawyer Barry Swadron, a prominent Toronto social justice lawyer. For example, witness testimony is often withheld to protect the identity of the witness. But the content could be released if the names are blacked out, he said.

"They hide behind legislation too much." Maltar was told the records he requested are protected under the act, which states a ministry "may refuse to disclose a record that is a report prepared in the course of law enforcement, inspections or investigations."

Former Ontario judge George Adams first called for greater transparency in 1998. He had been asked by the provincial government to find ways to improve the SIU after years of tension with police.

He recommended the SIU director submit his reports not just to the attorney general after each investigation, but also to the public whenever no charges were laid.

The Attorney General's office declined to comment on this story.

In 2003, when Adams reviewed the SIU again, reports were still being withheld.

The SIU's summary of the 2003 report on its website states: "both the police and community groups see value in the director's report being available to the public."

Adams said at the time that releasing the reports would require an amendment to freedom of information and privacy legislation, and called it "central to providing the necessary accountability and community confidence."

And he acknowledged the agency had moved toward adopting the spirit of the recommendation by including more details in its media releases and debriefing families.

Today, the SIU is again under investigation by a government agency, this time the Ontario Ombudsman. Citing this probe, expected out next month, the SIU declined to participate in the Star's story.

"As the interview you seek directly relates to matters the Ombudsman's Office is investigating, out of deference to the Ombudsman's process, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on these matters," Cornish said in a letter couriered to the Star.

Nov. 3, 2006. Julian Falconer had been debating this moment for months. The prominent trial lawyer, who specializes in police accountability, was about to publicly lambaste the SIU – an agency he had spent a decade championing.

And he was going to do it on a legal panel at the Criminal Lawyers' Association's annual conference, while sitting directly alongside SIU director Cornish.

Falconer blasted the erosion of "accountability" and "leadership" within the agency, and questioned if the SIU was earning its tax dollars. He highlighted a case in which his client, Hafeez Mohamed, was beaten "within an inch of his life" after Durham police found him driving drunk. The SIU cleared police of all wrongdoing.

Sitting in his Yorkville office two weeks ago, Falconer thumbs through a stack of graphic photos taken after Mohamed's arrest. They show his face was beaten raw.

"You can't measure the quality of the organization or its institutional progress by the number of charges it's laying per se," he said recently. "That's not a fair way to measure. On the other hand, extremes do tell a story.

"For years to have gone by without a charge being laid under the directorship of Cornish, it's probably an indicator that we ought to be asking more questions."

Since 2003, the SIU has cleared police of wrongdoing in 29 of 31 fatal shooting cases. Two are ongoing.

The SIU hasn't charged an officer after a fatal shooting in nearly a decade: The last was March 31, 1999. York Region police Const. Randy Martin was charged with second-degree murder in the 1998 killing of Tony Romagnuolo. A jury cleared the officer the following December.

Prior to that, the SIU charged York police Det. Robert Wiche in the fatal shooting of Faraz Suleman on June 19, 1996. After being acquitted in court, Wiche launched a $30 million lawsuit against the SIU. It was thrown out in May 2001.

A search by the Star unearthed only one case since 1994 in which an SIU firearms charge against a police officer was upheld in court. Det. Const. Carl Sokolowski was convicted by a judge of careless use of a firearm, relating to the 1991 shooting of Jonathan Howell. Howell was left disabled.

Sokolowski was convicted, but granted an absolute discharge, meaning he did not have a criminal conviction registered against him.

At the end of 2006, Falconer took his concerns to the Ontario ombudsman, André Marin. A little over a year ago, Marin announced he would be launching a full-scale investigation into the agency.

Marin, who helmed the SIU for two tumultuous years ending in 1998, said his office has received 20 complaints since the beginning of 2006. His probe will focus on eight of the most "compelling" cases. Hafeez Mohamed is one of them. So is the death of James Maltar.

Even when some families manage to find some of the dots, they can't figure out how the SIU connected them. Simone Wellington's 15-year-old son, Duane Christian, was shot and killed by Toronto police shortly before dawn on June 20, 2006. The SIU cleared police two months later.

By the end of the year, Wellington, her brother Roy Wellington and her lawyer Peter Rosenthal were able to meet with Cornish and the case investigator for an explanation.

Based on that meeting, the family launched a $2 million lawsuit against the province, Cornish, and then-deputy director James Ramsay – who had made the final decision while Cornish was on leave – for "the negligence of the SIU investigation."

None of these allegations have been proved in court.

SIU spokesperson Frank Phillips confirmed the agency had been named in the suit, but said since it is before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment further. "The allegations contained in the statement of claim have not been proven and a statement of defence will be filed," he said.

The statement of claim alleges the SIU was negligent in closing its investigation before receiving the pathologist's report. The claim also alleges it did not compare Const. Rowena Edey's initial interview with the final autopsy results.

The statement of claim also alleges the SIU was negligent because its investigators did not interview Const. Steve Darnley, the officer who shot Christian, even though he volunteered his account; did not ask Edey "obvious" questions such as why she drew her firearm; allowed the officers to keep their firearms until about seven hours after Christian had been shot and did not compare Edey's account with forensic evidence.

During their Dec. 19, 2006 meeting, Cornish "claimed that the SIU's investigation was thorough," the statement alleges. According to the statement, Cornish said he "might have" chosen to interview Darnley, and did not know why Ramsay had decided against it. He dismissed proposals to reopen the probe, the statement alleges.

Simone Wellington said she had trouble understanding how Ramsay came up with his decision to say the officers were "legally justified" in shooting her son. "I know that there is no way – based on the information they gave me – there's no way that any sane, logical person would see that that makes sense," Wellington said. "I don't understand. I still don't understand."

A patchwork of police oversight models exist across the country. Some police leaders bring in another force to conduct a sensitive investigation – whether by choice or as a matter of policy. Other forces have ad hoc arrangements in which observers are brought in to keep an internal investigation in check.

The closest system to the SIU is in Alberta, where the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team was created on Jan. 1. It is headed by a Crown attorney, and has 10 current police officers acting as investigators, along with seven civilians.

In other parts of the country, there is a similar information lockdown to Ontario's, says Falconer.

In part, this is because all police are subject to legislation that prevents them from releasing information. Also, he says, "there is a tendency on police services when investigating police to be very sparse with information."

The creation of the SIU as a civilian agency was supposed to change that. "What was expected to be a major advance in transparency and accountability has fallen flat in regards to families getting information," Falconer said. "It has always been the expectation that the recommendations in the Adams Report would be fulfilled and one of the hallmark recommendations was the sharing of the SIU reports.

"There is simply no excuse for this to have not been done."

The RCMP generally does not release details of its internal investigations, either. Even so, the chairperson of its public complaints commission, Paul Kennedy, said transparency is the best way to instill public confidence when investigating police.

"There is an issue of public perception as to the partiality or impartiality in terms of these investigations and whether or not `the police officer' is being treated in a similar fashion as a member of the public would," he said in an interview.

"There is a need, I think as a matter of policy, for greater transparency saying what the decision was. If it's to prosecute, it's clear in court. If it's not to prosecute: why?

"I think that's just a reflection of the evolving public expectations ... The public cynicism about public institutions is ... higher now, it's more cynical now and for that I think we collectively have a responsibility to look at how we do business and make greater efforts to be transparent if we can."

Sitting at her dining room table in Hamilton, Karyn Graham scans through a diary she dutifully kept after her son Trevor was fatally shot by police in Nov. 2007. Trevor, a crystal meth addict, was robbing a drugstore at the time.

The latter pages of Graham's book are filled with questions she had for the SIU following its decision to clear the officer. She posed all 31 to the SIU investigators during her meeting with them.

Can I get a copy of the director's report? No. Could they prove to me this was just and definite? That's not our mandate.

Why not wait until he went outside to arrest him? Unclear. She felt her life was in danger. Does the evidence at the scene prove her life was in danger? They couldn't answer that.

"I've never had a clear explanation of what happened," she said. "They did tell me that within eight seconds of him going through to the checkout, to the time he went past the magazine stands and into the exit door, he was shot."

Graham has asked the privacy commissioner's office for all records, documents, video, audio and photographs relating to her son's death. Staff were quick to advise her some of it may not be accessible.

With files from Noor Javed

Reality check

If you don't do another thing today, be sure to stop by Excited-Delirium for a strong dose of reality. Make it part of your day - every day.

Police defend right to use 'less-lethal' weapons

August 16, 2008
MATTHEW TREVISAN, Globe and Mail

Rick Anthony remembers a time in policing when there weren't many options available to officers faced with a life or death situation. "Your gun was your distance weapon and your baton was your close-up weapon," said Mr. Anthony, a detective with the Victoria police. "Your mouth was both."

But now, many forces across the country use a variety of "less-lethal" weapons - that is, a weapon less lethal than a gun but still able to inflict fatal damage - in their arsenal.

One of those weapons, the taser, has generated controversy in high-profile instances such as the death of Robert Dziekanski, who died last fall after being tasered by RCMP at Vancouver International Airport. But another weapon, which has been in some police arsenals for more than a decade, has also had its fair share of publicity. And police have recently said that it is more reliable than the taser and can be used at a much greater distance.

Developed originally as a way for police to control crowds during unrest in Northern Ireland, the ARWEN, the acronym for Anti-riot Weapon ENfield, fires plastic bullets and is used by law enforcements agencies across the country, said Brian Kirkey, president of Police Ordnance, the company based in Markham, Ont., that manufactures and distributes the gun worldwide.

"It would be fair to say most medium to large agencies in Canada have an ARWEN system in their equipment inventory for both their tactical team and their public order unit," he said.

The current model, the ARWEN 37, fires plastic bullets at a rate of 74 metres a second and can be used as far as 100 metres away. Getting hit by one of the bullets feels the same as getting beamed by pitch hurled by a major league pitcher, Mr. Kirkey said.

Tactical officers who fire the guns aim for a suspect's stomach, or extremities such as the upper thigh and lower arm, as a way to disarm suspects or get them to comply with police. "It'll break bones if it hits," Mr. Kirkey said. "You don't want to hit them in the head. You don't want to hit them in the neck. That's where you have a potential fatality."

In August of 1984, Sean Downes died after he was hit in the chest by a plastic bullet fired by a Northern Ireland police officer, an incident that garnered attention because of a photo of Mr. Downes's body showing a huge bruise on his chest.

In Canada, the gun first garnered attention in Vancouver in 1994 when, during a Stanley Cup riot after the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game 7 to the New York Rangers, a man was shot in the head by one of the plastic bullets.

In 2001, the man's civil suit against the Vancouver police force and the city of Vancouver was dismissed, and a B.C. Supreme Court judge found that the officer who shot the man, Ryan Berntt, acted reasonably, according to news reports at the time.

Despite the potential for serious harm, Inspector Clark of the Calgary police tactical team, said the ARWEN is instrumental in providing an opportunity for police to disarm a suspect without inflicting a fatal wound.

The Calgary police department has been using the gun since 2007 and has discharged it five times.

Police forces across the country that employ the ARWEN include Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Halton and Victoria. ***

The ARWEN 37T Tactical

Claimed to be the first less lethal tactical weapon to combine lightness, high accuracy and the ability to fire up to five shots without reloading.

Rotary magazine

Light weight with minimal rotational torque. Semi- automatic function - can fire five rounds in four seconds

Payload

37 mm foam, wood or tear- gas ammunition

Telescoping butt stock

The ARWEN is 64 - 69 cm long

Rifling:Five lands / five grooves

Rate of twist: One in 540mm right hand twist

Weight unloaded: 2.98 kg

Weight loaded with five rounds:3.61 kg

NINIAN CARTER/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Florida man dies

Kenneth Oliver, 45, Miami, Florida - died on August 15, 2008

Taser-use study to be presented

August 16, 2008
Canwest News Service

MONTREAL -- Steve Palmer, executive director of the Canadian Police Research Centre, will give an update of his organization's study of Taser use in Canada, at a meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Aug. 24-27 in Montreal.

The research centre, an arm's-length organization that falls under the Department of National Defence, was asked to conduct the review by the association after a Polish man, Robert Dziekanski, died when he was shocked with a Taser by police at Vancouver airport last October.

Palmer's presentation will be an overview of the report, which is not yet complete. The final report is expected next year.

"It's looking at safety issues, the medical literature (and) usage statistics," he said.

Taser International, manufacturer of the weapons, is a "platinum" sponsor of the conference, meaning it will get an advance list of participants and be able to attend conference sessions, display banners and signs and provide promotional items to delegates.

Other platinum sponsors include Loto Quebec, Motorola and the RCMP.

Italy demands answers in death of man shot by taser

August 15, 2008
Marianne White, Canwest News Service

QUEBEC - The Italian ambassador to Canada criticized the Quebec government Friday for failing to provide explanations for the sudden death of an Italian immigrant almost a year ago.

Claudio Castagnetta, 32, died Sept. 20, 2007, while in custody of Quebec City police. He was reportedly shocked four times with a police Taser and jailed without receiving medical care.

"One year to find out what happened is not acceptable. You expect that possibly in some distressed, out-of -control African place - but not on this continent," Ambassador Gabriele Sardo said in an interview with Canwest News Service.

He said the handling of Castagnetta's death and other Taser-related incidents in the country conveys a negative image of Canada.

Twelve people have died in Canada since 2005 after police jolted them with electric stun guns.

"People will wake up to this reality, so before taking a trip to Canada you'd better be aware that you can be shot (with a Taser) under some conditions and these are not the ones one would reasonably expect across the ocean," Sardo said.

His comments come as the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is preparing to meet Aug 24 in Montreal where new research into stun gun safety will be presented.

The review was commissioned after a Polish man, Robert Dziekanski, died last October when he was shocked with a Taser by police at Vancouver airport.

The Italian government stepped up its pressure for answers about Castagnetta's death in the light of Dziekanski's death. Last December, the Italian Foreign Ministry took the unusual step of summoning the Canadian ambassador to Italy to complain about the pace of the investigation and request more information.

Castagnetta was arrested last Sept. 18 outside a convenience store in Quebec City for public disorder. He was walking barefoot in the store and refused to leave the premises. Eyewitnesses recounted he looked confused and disoriented.

The police said Castagnetta resisted arrest by stiffening his body and they had to use a stun gun.

He was taken into custody and the next day, during his transportation back to the jail from the courthouse, he was seen banging his head several times. He was not taken to the hospital and a day later died from what a preliminary coroner's report called self-inflicted wounds to the head.

Castagnetta's family and friends are upset he was not taken to the hospital even though he went into convulsions while in jail and showed signs of psychological disorder.

In a letter sent to Italian-Canadian MP Joe Volpe, Castagnetta's father asked him to put more pressure on Canadian authorities.

"It would appear that there is a desire to simply shelve the results of this inquiry and never share information with my family," Corrado Castagnetta wrote earlier this month. His letter was published by the Canadian Italian daily, Corriere Canadese.

The Italian ambassador lamented that despite numerous interventions from his country's authorities no information surrounding Castagnetta's death has been released.

"It's very, very disappointing, to say the least," Sardo said. "And it's something that inevitably would make you lose trust in the work of authorities."

The provincial police have completed their investigation and handed in the report to the public security ministry. A spokeswoman for Quebec's chief Crown prosecutor said a decision on whether charges could be laid against police or prison guards will be made "in the next few weeks."

The Italian ambassador expressed his frustration in a letter sent this week to Quebec Premier Jean Charest. Sardo also said Italian officials boycotted the events related to the 400th anniversary of Quebec City this summer to send a "strong message" to the government.

A spokesman for the premier said a reply to the ambassador's letter is expected.

Editorial: MORE THAN A PERCEPTION

August 15, 2008
Globe and Mail

If anyone still needs a reason why the police can't be trusted to be objective about the safety of tasers, consider that the manufacturer of the electric stun gun is a major financial backer of a Canadian police chiefs conference this month. Taser International is a platinum sponsor, which means it gave $25,000. Banners will praise its name. Delegate kits will sing of its wonders.

Imagine that Health Canada were to hold a conference sponsored by the manufacturer of a controversial drug currently under review. There would be outrage. How could the body that reviews drug safety accept money from drug manufacturers? It would not be done.

Yet that is similar to what the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is doing. It is currently reviewing taser safety. If that review concludes that tasers are more dangerous than previously thought, police forces across Canada would have no choice but to make drastic changes to their taser policies. At the moment, those policies generally allow police to use tasers even where no major threat of physical harm exists. The policies couldn't exist in their present form if the police accepted that tasers can kill people. In spite of the 22 deaths in the past five years in Canada that followed police taser use, police forces still teach their members that tasers don't kill. (That teaching, in the face of those deaths, is reason enough not to trust the police to be objective about tasers.)

The coziness between Taser International and the police stinks. One of the authors of a 2005 study on tasers by the Canadian Police Research Centre (the research arm of the police chiefs) was Sergeant Darren Laur of the Victoria Police, who had received several payments from Taser International since 1999, including stock options for a holstering system he helped design for the taser. And over at least the past five years, the company has been a sponsor of many police chiefs' conferences, and contributed an estimated $100,000, according to Peter Cuthbert, the association's executive director. This relationship fuels public cynicism about the police.

Mr. Cuthbert doesn't deny that the public believes police are in a conflict of interest. "Oh, there's a perception there," he says. But "nobody says you have to buy that product from them."

This conflict of interest is not only perceived; it's real and direct. While the police chiefs don't directly determine policy for individual chiefs or police forces, and have no power to impose their views on anyone, in practice their research provides the foundation for taser policies around Canada.

That foundation has been fatally eroded. The police chiefs' blatant coziness with the manufacturer of the electric stun guns makes clear that elected representatives and other civilian authorities, and not the police themselves, need to redraw taser-use policies around the country.