Taser Crusader: a Belleville woman is on a crusade to halt the use of tasers by police

April 13, 2009
Chris Harvey, CKWS Television, Kingston


A BELLEVILLE WOMAN IS ON A CRUSADE TO HALT THE USE OF TASERS BY POLICE.
THE WOMAN'S BROTHER DIED 5 YEARS AGO IN VANCOUVER AFTER BEING TASERED.
AND SHE'S CALLING FOR A MORATORIUM ON THEIR USE -- UNTIL THE ISSUE OF THEIR SAFETY IS SETTLED ONCE AND FOR ALL.
THE STORY FROM NEWSWATCH'S CHRIS HARVEY.

PATTI GILLMAN HAS A LIST OF THE NAMES AND AGES OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIED AFTER BEING SHOCKED WITH A TASER.
HER BROTHER BOB BAGNELL IS ON THAT LIST.
HE DIED IN JUNE OF 2004 AFTER BEING TASERED BY POLICE IN VANCOUVER---THE 58TH PERSON IN NORTH AMERICA TO DIE AFTER BEING SHOCKED BY THE STUN GUN.
AND SHE WANTS A HALT TO THEIR USE.

PATTI GILLMAN:
"UNTIL THEY CAN DETERMINE WHAT IT IS THAT'S MAKING, THAT'S CAUSING THESE PEOPLE TO DIE.
WE HAVE 403 DEAD PEOPLE AND THE ONE COMMON DENOMINATOR IN ALL OF THOSE IS THE TASER."

DURING HER 5 YEAR CRUSADE TO HALT THE USE OF TASERS GILLMAN HAS EVEN SPOKEN TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND NATIONAL [SECURITY].

PATTI GILLMAN
"BECAUSE I KNOW I'M NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO FEELS THIS WAY.
I KNOW THAT THERE'S A LARGE CONTINGENT OF CANADIANS WHO FEEL THAT WE'VE GOT QUITE A MESS ON OUR HANDS AND IT'S GOT TO BE SORTED OUT."
GILLMAN SAYS SHE BELIEVES POLICE ARE USING TASERS AS A MATTER OF CONVENIENCE, NOT IN A LIFE AND DEATH SITUATION.

PATTI GILLMAN:
"IT'S BEING USED AS A COME-ALONG TOOL.
IT'S BEING USED IN SITUATIONS WHERE A GUN WOULD NEVER BE CONSIDERED."

BUT THIS DEPUTY CHIEF SAYS THAT IS NOT THE CASE IN BELLEVILLE.

DEPUTY CHIEF BRIAN HARDER:
"THE TASER IS SPECIFIC TO AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR.
AND ONCE SOMEONE IS NO LONGER AGGRESSIVE, THEN WE CERTAINLY DON'T DEPLOY IT."

HARDER SAYS BELLEVILLE POLICE HAVE SIX TASERS WHICH ARE CARRIED BY TACTICAL UNIT MEMBERS AND SUPERVISORS ONLY.

DEPUTY CHIEF BRIAN HARDER:
"AND I CAN TELL YOU FOR INSTANCE LAST YEAR WE ONLY USED IT 18 TIMES, OF WHICH ONLY 9 DID WE HAVE TO DISCHARGE IT.
SO JUST MERELY THE PRESENCE IN MANY CASES, HALTS A SITUATION."

GILLMAN SAYS SHE WON'T STOP PUSHING FOR A MORATORIUM ON TASER USE.
AND SHE SAYS POLITICIANS WILL HAVE TO ACT IF ENOUGH PEOPLE HELP HER GET THAT MESSAGE ACROSS.

CHRIS HARVEY, CKWS NEWSWATCH, BELLEVILLE.

Fight continues against Tasers - Victim's sister looks to expand campaign

April 12, 2009
Belleville Intelligencer

Belleville's Patti Gillman holds a long list of 403 people who died in North America between 1999 and April 10, 2009 after being shocked by Taser weapons. Gillman attended the Ontario Common Front Consulta, a gathering of anarchists Saturday at the Organic Underground coffee shop, in an attempt to find other anti-Taser activists and broader her campaign to stop Taser use – especially by police – until the deaths are explained fully. Her brother, Robert Bagnell, 44, died in 2004 after being Tasered by police in British Columbia.

"Among the participants was Belleville's Patti Gillman. She's lobbying against the use of Tasers, especially in law enforcement. Her brother, 44-year-old Robert Bagnell, died June 23, 2004 after being Tasered by police in British Columbia. She arrived at Saturday's meeting with a list of 403 people who since 1999 have died in North America after being shocked by the stun guns. I'd like to see a moratorium on Tasers until we can figure out why they're killing people," Gillman said, adding she wanted to meet like-minded activists. "I think we have cells of people across the country that are horrified by this, and I don't know how to gather them. This seems like a good place.""

Frantic mother of child killed in Terrytown rampage subdued with Taser

April 11, 2009
Allen Powell II, The Times-Picayune

The frantic mother of a 6-year-old boy killed in this morning's triple murder in Terrytown was subdued with a Taser gun by Jefferson Parish deputies at the murder scene, a sheriff's spokesman said. The mother of Four Overstreet grew irate with authorities when she arrived at the Monterey Court apartment where the rampage happened before 4 a.m., Saturday. When she got physical, deputies stunned her to bring the situation under control, Col. John Fortunato said ...

Police wince at media spotlight as they push for more surveillance cameras

April 11, 2009
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Police routinely call the media together for a show-and-tell display of video or pictures of the latest brazen criminal act, but lately, a similar spotlight has been shining on police and the picture isn't pretty.

A Vancouver news photographer summed it up as the "Robert Dziekanski syndrome" after police twisted his arm behind his back and seized his camera as he tried to take shots of a police-involved shooting.

Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant who was behaving erratically, died at Vancouver's airport after RCMP Tasered him several times in October 2007.

The death went mostly unnoticed until it exploded onto the national stage after a bystander's video of the incident showed officers using the weapon on the agitated man armed only with a stapler. A public inquiry which has been further embarrassing to the RCMP is currently underway.

Since Dziekanski's death, New Brunswick police have been chastised by a court for not only arresting a blog photographer, but deleting a picture from his camera.
In December 2007, just weeks after the Dziekanski video was released to the public, Vancouver television cameraman Ricky Tong arrived to the scene of a police-involved shooting minutes after the gunfire and started filming.

He was held after refusing to give up his video and only released after the station sent a live truck to the site so a copy of the video could be made on the spot.
After a fatal police shooting on the street last month, Adam Smolcic, told a Vancouver officer he had taped the incident on his cell phone.

He said he gave the officer his phone and when it was returned, the video had been erased. The phone is now with experts in the United States to see if the video can be extracted from the phone's memory.

Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu has apologized to both Payne and Tong.

"My personal feeling is this is the Robert Dziekanski syndrome," said Payne, a news photographer for more than a decade.

"If that person hadn't of videotaped what happened in Vancouver airport the inquiry probably wouldn't be going on."

Payne said he was threatened with arrest. "And I really thought they were going to do it."

The Vancouver incidents have prompted a formal complaint from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association to the Vancouver Police Board.

Chu has admitted police held on to the photographer's camera an hour longer than they should have.

"The officers were acting in good faith, they were acting in the heat of the moment," he said.

This comes at the same time as the City of Vancouver considers beefing up it's surveillance during the 2010 Winter Olympics with street cameras and the B.C. government invests $1.8 million to put video systems in police cars.

It's an irony not lost on David Eby, of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

"It's almost like the police only want the cameras turned in one direction. That is on the citizens and not on the police," said Eby.

"But the reality of cellphone cameras and surveillance cameras is that they capture everybody equally."

No one, including police, should have the expectation of privacy in a public place, said Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd.

He agreed it appears recent police actions indicate they're concerned about public perception.

"Whether this is true or not is a question - but the images do suggest that they're more interested in how police are portrayed than using this material in the course of a police investigation," said Boyd.

After his apology, Chu denied that was the goal of his officers.

"If you want to go on YouTube and search Vancouver Police there's tremendous amounts of video footage and we know that. We're not out there trying to stop people from doing that at all."

The department also sent out a bulletin warning officers they can't take cameras or video equipment from members of the public or the media. It says officers can only take equipment in the instances where there is an arrest, a warrant, or officers have a reasonable concern that the person might destroy the evidence.

Eby said police often use the potential destruction of evidence as an excuse to seize the tape.

"The issue is control of the videotape and who gets to see it and more importantly who doesn't get to see it."

He said he can't think of a member of the public who would videotape a police-involved death and then erase it.

"More likely they would sell it to a media outlet or they would put it up on YouTube. The concern that the police have is that the videotape would be distributed and there would be people criticizing their conduct," he said.

Eby said it was no coincidence that the conflicts between police and media concerned police-involved shootings.

"I think the Dziekanski video really drives home the sensitivity that police have around these things."

All four officers involved in the Taser incident told the inquiry into Dziekanski's death that the man was aggressive and waving a stapler when they arrived on the scene and that the officers had to wrestle him to the airport floor.

All the officers later admitted after watching the video during the inquiry that those statements were incorrect.

15-year-old dies after being Tasered by police

Robert Mitchell, 15, unarmed

By AMBER HUNT • DETROIT FREE PRESS
April 10, 2009

A 15-year-old male who ran from police died after an officer used an electronic stun gun on him during a confrontation, Warren police said today.

The teen, whose name isn't being released because he is a minor, died about an hour after officers tried to pull over the vehicle he was riding in because of an expired license plate, said Deputy Commissioner Jere Green.

"For some unknown reason, he ran. He bolted across 8 Mile" into Detroit's east side, Green said.
Officers chased the teen south on Pelkey into an abandoned home, Green said. The teen resisted and got into a physical altercation with the officers, he said.

"He was Tasered once by one of our officers," Green said. "After that, he became unresponsive."
Officers administered CPR and the teen was rushed to Henry Ford Macomb Hospital's Warren campus, where he died at 10:17 a.m.

"It just turned bad, fast," Green said. "It's a sad situation."

Green said of the four officers at the scene, two have been placed on administrative leave because they are emotionally shaken by the incident.

Family members told police that the teen had some medical issues. An autopsy is being conducted by the Macomb County Medical Examiner's Office this weekend to determine the exact cause of death.

Green said the teen had no outstanding warrants or other issues that explained why he ran when pulled over. Two other people -- a 19-year-old man and 37-year-old woman -- also were in the car. Both cooperated with officers; they, too, said they didn't know why the teen ran, Green said.

Detroit Police spokesman James Tate earlier today said his department would handle the death investigation. Green said that investigation instead will be handled by Macomb officials.

EDITORIAL: Damaged goods

April 9, 2009
Prince George Citizen

If you are like most right minded Canadians, you can’t help but be saddened as you witness yet another spasm in the death spiral of the reputation of the RCMP.

As the shameful spectacle of the Braidwood Inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski illustrates, this is a brand in serious decline and along with it, the ability of the Force to command the respect that is essential if its 24,000 members from Iqaluit to Corner Brook are to be able to do their jobs effectively.

To quote the philosopher Sophocles, “Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make (or enforce) the law.”

To gain some understanding of how the reputation of the RCMP has been reduced to this state, first go to YouTube and watch the video footage of Robert Dziekanski in his final moments, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPe_hf7aBXM, then consider the following:

1.”Members know or ought to know that whatever misadventure happens to them, the Force will stand by them so long as there is some justification for doing so.” “That policy has been in effect for over 30 years.” Ex-RCMP Commissioner William Higgitt, in an internal memo and comments presented to the Commission of Inquiry Concerning Certain Activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 1979.

2.”There has been a tendency to look at this as a black and white situation...I would ask Canadians to reflect for a moment before they jump to conclusions.” RCMP Commissioner Ward Elliott March 22, 2009 (commenting on the Dziekanski case.)

3. Be professional, be prepared and know the facts. Be patient. State who you are and why you are there. Ask for an interpreter, as required. Allow people an appropriate amount of space. Let person(s) vent their frustrations. www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca Conducted Energy Weapon-Verbal Intervention. Instructions to RCMP officers summarizing verbal and non-verbal communication, negotiation, mediation and conflict management skills.

4. Question? Why does the RCMP website have a link to The Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths 2007 Conference? This is an event whose main sponsor is LAAW International Inc., and whose president, Mr. Michael Brave, also happens to be lead counsel for TASER International, the controversial supplier of the weapon used on Robert Dziekanski. As the politicians say, check out the optics on this one.

Like a scene from the movie Groundhog Day, the RCMP keeps reliving the same mistakes that saw it ripped apart in the 1980s, when the RCMP Security Service was shut down and replaced by a civilian agency, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS)

Then, as now, the motto “Maintain the Right” was replaced by “Maintain the Force” (no matter the cost).

While replacing former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli was a step in the right direction in moving the Mounties away from this old-school thinking, it is clear that his replacement, Commissioner William Elliott, is incapable of leading the cultural change needed to bring the Force into the 21st century. He needs to go.

For the good of Canadians and people like Robert Dziekanski, for the sake of the RCMP and the members who put on the red serge for all the right reasons, and especially in the interest of preserving public trust in our national police force, and the criminal justice system.

If Mr. Dziekanski’s death leads to a major overhaul of the Force, it will not have been in vain.

From Truthnottasers: STAY WITH ME HERE.

Here is a link from the RCMP website to The [AMERICAN] Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths 2008 Conference (http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/?eng=http://www.ipicd.com/seminars/symposium.html)

Click on View this website now.

Tsk, tsk, tsk - the least the RCMP could do is link to the CANADIAN CENTRE for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths INC. (ccpicd.com)

The nice people over at The [AMERICAN] Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths (ipicd.com) link to the CANADIAN CENTRE for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths INC. http://www.ipicd.com/docs/2009_Canada_Conf_Bro.pdf

Now APPARENTLY, the "CANADIAN CENTRE" (whose president is Guelph, Ontario police office Gary Mulder) and the "AMERICAN INSTITUTE" are IN NO WAY connected to each other. A simple look at the friendlies, the links, the speaker lists and logos would strongly suggest otherwise.

How STOOPID do these people think we really are?????

EDITORIAL: Public outcry led to taser policy change

April 9, 2009
Chronicle Herald (Halifax)

RCMP complaints commissioner Paul Kennedy makes a telling point in his final report, issued Monday, reviewing Taser use on the national police force.

Deployment of the stun gun was way down in 2008, compared to a year earlier, according to Mr. Kennedy’s statistics. The number of incidents in which Mounties drew a Taser, whether the weapon was fired or not, dropped by 30 per cent, from 1,583 to 1,106. Likewise, the number of people who were Tasered also fell, from 1,135 to 563.

Those numbers represent a "systematic shift" in usage by officers in the field, said Mr. Kennedy. The reason, however, was likely not due to changes in RCMP policy or training, he concluded, but instead to more "self-restraint" by Mounties who, stung by public outrage over incidents like Robert Dziekanski’s death at Vancouver airport in 2007, cut back on their casual, inappropriate use of the stun gun.

The inference is clearly that previously, Tasers were being heavily overused, often in the wrong circumstances.

Mr. Kennedy applauds the RCMP for making commendable progress on 22 recommendations from his two interim reports. Still, the head of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP remains "concerned" about deficiencies in the force’s new Taser policy, statistical monitoring of usage and the need to curtail deployment in situations involving young or mentally ill people.

These are all legitimate issues the RCMP needs to confront. But the report also highlights perhaps the Mounties’ biggest challenge: regaining public trust lost in the continuing fallout over the disgraceful actions of the four officers involved in Mr. Dziekanski’s death – both at the time and subsequently, in attempts to mischaracterize what occurred.

For example, Mr. Kennedy said there was "reason to be suspicious" when more than half of RCMP officers who deployed Tasers claimed use of the weapon meant lethal force – i.e., a service revolver – became unnecessary. Unbelievably, some cases apparently involved people who were suicidal.

"It is hard to fathom circumstances under which suicidal subjects, bent on injuring themselves, would be killed," Mr. Kennedy noted drily.

Growing public mistrust has also not been helped by comments like those of RCMP Commissioner William Elliot, who, talking about the Dziekanski case, recently said that most Canadians don’t understand the pressures police are under. Perhaps not. That, however, doesn’t absolve the officers involved of misrepresenting what happened.

Here’s what would help: Put Taser cams on all police stun weapons.

Police freebies spark resignation - Ethics adviser to chiefs' association quits over free Dion tickets, Taser sponsorship of conference

April 9, 2009
Noor Javed, Toronto Star

John Jones has spent his professional life lecturing on the ethical conduct of police. The retired professor never thought he would one day become part of the lesson plan.

Last week, Jones resigned as technical adviser for the ethics committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police over corporate sponsorship practices at the association's annual conference.

For three years, Taser International acted as a platinum sponsor for the police chiefs' conference, contributing a total of $75,000 to the increasingly "lavish" event.

At the 2008 conference in Montreal, Jones said he was further dismayed to learn delegates were being given free Céline Dion concert tickets, with half the aggregate cost of the tickets covered by a joint Bell Mobility-CGI-Group Techna donation of $115,000.

"The rank and file in a police organization are warned about accepting any freebies, that in fact (it) could be subject to discipline," said Jones.

He was therefore "shocked" that chiefs of police "who invoke that expectation ... would then avail themselves of $215 Céline Dion tickets," Jones said. "There's an embedded hypocrisy there."

The ethics committee relayed its "serious concerns" to the association's board of directors during the conference, and again at a November meeting.

The response by executive director Peter Cuthbert was read out last week at the ethics committee's first 2009 meeting.

"Essentially the memo said, `We are going to continue business as usual, and we don't see any conflicts of interest,'" Jones said.

"When I heard the memo being read, I really felt I was personally being compromised." He resigned immediately.

Cuthbert says he sees nothing wrong with the police chiefs accepting sponsorship money, which is needed to fund a conference that costs $800,000 to stage yearly.

Other sponsors include Canadian Bankers Association, Loto-Quebec, Microsoft and the RCMP, which sponsors the professional development part of the conference.

"The board deals with this debate every year," Cuthbert said.

Since the directors do not recommend or endorse Tasers, "at the end of the day, (they) believed it was ethical to continue our relationship," said Cuthbert.

However the police chiefs' group recently joined the Canadian Police Association in releasing a "position document" backing the use of conducted energy weapons (the technical name for Tasers).

Cuthbert says there is no link between the Taser sponsorship and the position paper.

But that's where the ethical line gets blurry, said Jones. "Once you're into sponsorship, you're into tricky territory.

"Generally, commercial enterprises do not operate altruistically. When they donate money, they expect there is something in return."

Indiana lawsuit stimulates debate on Taser training

April 9, 2009
Robert Annis, Indystar

Should a sheriff be able to reassign an officer to a different, less desirable position if the officer refuses to undergo a training exercise?

What if that training exercise required the officer to receive a shock from a Taser?

And what if that officer had a note from his doctor advising against it?

Those are among the provocative questions at the center of the lawsuit filed this week by Ray F. Robert against the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department.

And how those questions are answered depends greatly on whom is being asked.

Robert, who spoke with The Indianapolis Star on Wednesday, said he can't fathom being fired for basically taking his doctor's advice.

"I'd been in law enforcement for more than 31 years, and (when I was terminated), it felt like it was all for nothing," Robert, 54, said. "Just because I can't be Tased doesn't mean I can't do my job."

Robert said two doctors -- including a physician chosen by the Sheriff's Department -- advised him against being Tased. He feared the electrical jolt and ensuing muscle spasms could further injure a damaged vertebra and a metal plate in his back.

"What happens if I become paralyzed? How long is the county going to pay me?" he asked. "What would I be able to do with my life if that happens?"

But Hamilton County Sheriff Doug Carter said other officers, including a 73-year-old employee and another officer with severe back problems, each received a two-second Taser jolt with no ill effects.

"Every single person who underwent the training found value in the exposure," Carter said. "I would never put one of my officers in danger. The vast majority of Taser injuries come from falls, which is why we have the training on a mat with people holding the person (getting Tased)."

Both sides agree that after Robert refused to be shocked in December, the department offered to create a position for him at the Hamilton County Jail.

But Robert's attorney, Daniel Lapointe Kent, called the gesture inadequate.

"They offered another position with a substantial reduction in the overall compensation package, with not as many benefits," he said. "He would have to work weekends and holidays and no longer have use of a squad car."

After Robert refused the position in the jail, Carter said he had no alternative but to fire him.

The issue drew divided reaction Wednesday.

Dalia Hashad, a policy director with human rights watchdog Amnesty International, praised Robert for his refusal and chastised the sheriff's decision.

"It seems they (the Sheriff's Department) lack a strong understanding how dangerous a Taser really is," Hashad said. "Given his medical history and the two doctor's notes, it's obvious he wasn't an appropriate person to be Tased. With that attitude, I'm curious how they're using the weapon on the street. Is there anyone they think shouldn't be Tased?"

Amnesty International is a longtime critic of Taser use. The organization attributes 335 deaths from July 2001 to August 2008 to the device.

But Noblesville Police Lt. Bruce Barnes said that if an officer can't be Tased, it may raise other questions.

"You have to question if someone is fit for duty if they say they can't train for a situation that might occur in real life," said Barnes, whose department is among several in Central Indiana, including Indianapolis police, that require such training. "What happens if you're wrestling with a suspect, and he grabs your Taser (and shoots you)? If you can't perform your duties, you're putting everyone else at risk."

Lapointe Kent said Robert didn't need a Taser because he had other weapons at his disposal, such as a nightstick and his firearm. Carter, however, said Tasers have become integral tools in police officers' nonlethal arsenals.

"The presence of Tasers has quickly de-escalated many violent situations," Carter said. "In five seconds, the situation is brought under control with no injury to the person or the officer. (If you were a suspect,) would you rather be hit in the head with a nightstick or stunned with a Taser with no injuries afterward?"

Tasers temporarily incapacitate suspects by delivering five seconds of 50,000 volts of low-amperage electricity through two barbs shot into the body from up to 21 feet away.

Most training programs give officers the choice of being shot with the barbs or receiving a shorter jolt through a pair of alligator clips attached to a pant leg.

Many agencies believe it is imperative for officers to understand what a Taser shock feels like, in part so they will show restraint before using the device.

In a written statement, Taser company spokesman Steve Tuttle said fewer than 100 injuries have occurred during more than 625,000 training exposures.

Greenwood Police Chief Joe Pitcher said he has had a couple of officers with heart issues who were cleared by their doctors to be Tased.

"Their doctors told them there was no evidence that it would be harmful, so to go ahead and do it," Pitcher said. The training "gives us a good lesson that if we do have to resort to these instruments, we know how painful they are to the people we have to use them on."

"Tasers are very painful but not lethal," he said. "They are subject to abuse if you are not familiar with how painful they are."

Robert's suit, filed in federal court, alleges his constitutional rights were violated and seeks reinstatement, back wages and punitive damages.

Multiple-jolt Taser use by Sask. RCMP spiked in 2007, analysis shows

April 8, 2009
CBC News

RCMP in Saskatchewan delivered multiple jolts from their Taser devices in 23 separate cases in 2007, the highest annual tally of such deployments in the province within the period of 2004 to 2008, a joint CBC News and Canadian Press analysis shows.

In other years, the number of incidents in which multiple discharges (three jolts or more) were used was as low as six in 2008 and between 14 and 17 for the years 2004 to 2006, inclusive.

The figures come from a database of RCMP Taser reports created by CBC News and the Canadian Press. According to the database, 2007 also saw two remarkable Taser incidents in which a stun gun was discharged 15 times on unco-operative subjects.

One of the Taser incidents recorded that year involved Jake Sopkow, a Saskatchewan man from Kamsack. Sopkow, now 21, had a run-in with RCMP following a rodeo dance one Saturday night in late September 2007. Sopkow estimated he had drunk nine or 10 beers on that occasion. He admits that it was not wise of him to struggle with police when they tried to arrest him for allegedly causing a disturbance but feels the officers had the upper hand.

"I'm only 150 pounds," Sopkow said. "I had four officers on me, which were damn near 200 pounds each. So, they're taking the wind right out of me, [and] I was struggling to get out of their grip so I can get some breath back into my lungs."

Sopkow said that it was during that struggle that one of the officers applied the Taser. "Then ... out of nowhere I got a Taser," Sopkow said. "And … they kept on Tasering me." Sopkow said he was surprised that officers reached for the device so quickly. "I thought Tasers … [were used] to deal with people with weapons or someone fighting back or something." Sopkow said. "All I did, basically, was pull my arm away from [an officer's] grip because he was being pretty physical."

Sopkow said he was placed in a jail cell and then shocked again. When he was released the next day, he did not feel right, he said.

"Two hours after release, my heart felt like it was racing like no tomorrow," Sopkow said. "So, I took myself to the hospital, and … they kept me in overnight. They had me on monitors. My heart [rate] was probably double the rate it should have been."

Medical reports indicated that his pulse rate was 134 beats per minute at around 3:30 p.m. CT. The doctor who saw Sopkow also noted 10 burn marks, concentrated on his back near the shoulder and on his left thigh.

Ultimately, RCMP charged Sopkow with two counts of assault and with causing a disturbance. He was convicted of one count of assault.

While many details of the incidents recorded in the RCMP Taser reports were masked, the documents do include a reference to a Kamsack subject who was, according to the report "causing a disturbance" and "became combative and assaulted a police officer" in 2007.

The report says a Taser was deployed three times as an alternative to the use of lethal force to avoid a threat of injury. It also notes that four officers were present.

RCMP shocked 16 people five times or more last year

April 8, 2009
Dave McKie, CBC News

Despite a dramatic drop in the RCMP's use of stun guns in 2008, the force is still zapping some suspects five times or more with the controversial weapon.

Mounties shocked at least 16 suspects with a Taser five or more times, according to analysis done by CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Press of RCMP reports released through access to information requests. Ten of the cases topped five stuns.

The most extreme example is an incident in southern B.C., where three officers from the Ridge Meadows RCMP detachment fired a Taser nine times on an unarmed person.

Another report indicated a suspect, who had been drinking heavily and acted aggressively, was jolted eight times. Two other cases involved seven deployments of a stun gun.

"It's obvious that officers in using [stun guns] don't seem to have any serious restraints on multiple use," said NDP MP Jack Harris, the party's public safety critic. "And it has been clearly shown that multiple use leads to a greater danger."

Multiple Taser use has come under increased public scrutiny since the high-profile 2007 death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in the Vancouver International Airport, which is the subject of a public inquiry. He died after officers deployed a Taser five times in less than a minute.

"As we saw in the case of Mr. Dziekanski, [being stunned five times] was a major contributing factor potentially to his death," said federal Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland.

Holland echoed the concerns of his NDP counterpart, calling such extreme use of stun guns "egregiously wrong."

Independent research conducted by Montreal biomedical engineer Pierre Savard has shown that increased exposure to stun guns is likely to raise the chance of death, a finding that runs contrary to claims made by manufacturer Taser International and many police forces.

Concern in isolated communities

Among the incidents recorded is one in Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation, a Cree community of about 300 people in central Manitoba.

The RCMP report says three officers stunned a suspect six times in the community last year after the individual, who had been drinking, became "actively combative."

Though the RCMP report doesn't reveal names of suspects or exact dates of incidents, there are indications the suspect may have been Pierre Brass.

His friend Daren Mckay said Brass still has the barbs from when he was repeatedly stunned when Mounties arrested him on the reserve in September.

"He wasn't resisting; the cops grabbed him and wrestled him down," Mckay recalled. "They didn't give him no chance or anything."

Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs says there's growing concern about how Tasers are used, especially in isolated native communities often policed by the RCMP.

"When you Taser people, at some point in time, you're crossing beyond the line of cruelty," he said of repeated shocks.

Evans said aboriginal communities are vulnerable because there's a sense "nobody will speak out on their behalf or no one will ever know if you Taser somebody in the remote communities."

MPs call for RCMP to clarify policy

A CBC News investigation recently revealed that the RCMP softened parts of its stun-gun policy by deleting a key sentence ordering officers not to cycle the stun gun repeatedly or for more than 15 to 20 seconds at a time, unless the officer faced special circumstances.

That policy change, made this February, happened despite assurances from RCMP Commissioner William Elliott before a parliamentary committee that the force had adjusted its policy last June to curb multiple use of the stun gun.

The policy did add a warning that stun guns could cause death, particularly for agitated people. The policy also informs officers that multiple or continuous shocks may be hazardous.

RCMP Taser use overall dropped 30 per cent in 2008 compared to the previous year, marking the first decline in years.

But Harris and Holland, who are members of the parliamentary public safety committee studying Taser use, are calling for Elliott to return before the committee to explain the force's policy on multiple stun gun use.

Sgt. Sylvie Tremblay, an RCMP spokeswoman, told CBC News and the Canadian Press in an email that Elliott has informed the committee that he's "happy to reappear to clarify any confusion resulting from his previous statements to the committee." A date has not yet been set.

"What's particularly concerning is that Commissioner Elliott appeared before our committee [and] led us to believe that there were tighter restrictions on … [using] Tasers multiple times against an individual," said Holland.

On Feb. 12, Elliott told the committee that the force had "taken steps to restrict" use of Tasers. The policy deletions were made nine days prior.

Elliott stressed in a letter to CBC News that the policy does include a warning to officers that multiple deployment or continuous cycling of a Taser "may be hazardous to a subject."


RCMP use of Tasers dropped in 2008, after years of increases. (CBC)

Moratorium mulled

The RCMP has not commented on the latest multiple-use findings from the 2008 data.

It's unclear whether the only Taser-related death reported in 2008 involving the RCMP — Frank Frachette, 49, of Langley, B.C., who died on Oct. 30 — was among those jolted multiple times with a stun gun. The force has refused to comment on how many times he was stunned due to a potential inquest.

Holland says he plans to press Elliott for more details about the 16 cases when the RCMP commissioner next appears before the public safety committee.

"Certainly we're going to want to ask him again on this question for the outstanding cases, if he could provide — at the very minimum — the public complaints commissioner with all the details of these cases," said Holland.

And if the committee fails to get action on RCMP multiple Taser use, Harris said the committee may revive its call for a moratorium on use of Tasers until "we can get it under control."

Hilary Homes of Amnesty International Canada says more independent research is needed, since most analysis has been linked to the largest stun gun manufacturer, Taser International Inc., or police forces.

"To hear that we're continuing to see multiple stuns, including as many as five, is certainly of concern," said Homes.

She said many studies, including a 2005 one in B.C., have recommended minimizing the use of multiple stuns due to the increased risk of harming the person.

When it comes to people in vulnerable states, she notes, the effects of a stun gun are still not well understood.

The data was acquired by CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Press as part of an access to information request for RCMP records from 2002 to 2008, which has been compiled into a searchable database.

Locations where RCMP jolted a suspect five times or more:

Nanaimo, B.C.
North Vancouver, B.C.
Ridge Meadows, B.C.
Banff, Alta.
Gift Lake, Alta.
Okotoks, Alta.
Perryvale, Alta.
Slave Lake, Alta.
Strathmore, Alta.
Shamattawa, Man.
Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation, Man.
Hazlet, Sask.
La Ronge, Sask.
Maidstone, Sask.
Milestone, Sask.
Charlottetown, P.E.I.

For more on RCMP Taser incidents, check our database of reports from 2002 to 2008.

Police Chief Charged with Zapping Wife

April 8, 2009
DFW News

A central Texas police chief is accused of shocking his wife with a Taser gun. Oly Ivy, the now former Oakwood police chief, was jailed in Leon County Wednesday after being charged with aggravated assault for allegedly using the weapon on his wife. Ivy's bond was set at $100,000. Ivy, 30, was arrested near Palestine on Monday and was fired by the Oakwood City Council before sunrise Tuesday. Ivy was the lone, full-time peace officer to the town of 500 residents -- though he did have two reserve officers. He had been on the job since February. Ivy's attorney, Charley Johnson, said that his client "is taking these allegations very seriously." Johnson said he intends for Ivy to "be treated the same as anybody in this situation." Oakwood is located about 100 miles southeast of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Police ethics adviser quits over sponsors

April 8, 2009
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD, Globe and Mail

The technical adviser to the ethics committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has resigned over corporate sponsorship - including that of Taser International - of the group's annual conference.

John Jones, an expert on police ethics who has advised the committee for three years, quit Thursday after the committee's efforts to stop the practice was rebuffed by the board of directors.

"I said in that case, I can't remain a member," a saddened Dr. Jones, the author of Reputable Conduct: Ethical Issues in Policing and Corrections, told The Globe and Mail in a phone interview yesterday from his Ottawa home. "[Such sponsorship] doesn't pass the smell test."

The CACP is composed of police chiefs and senior police executives from across Canada and represents most of the country's 220-plus forces.

Dr. Jones and the members of the ethics committee were in Montreal in August for two days of meetings around the CACP's annual conference when they learned about Taser's sponsorship and that of others, including a joint Bell Mobility-CGI-Group Techna donation of $115,000, which went toward the purchase of 1,000 tickets at $215 each to a Celine Dion concert on Aug. 25.

Each registered CACP delegate received one ticket as part of his $595 registration package; if his spouse was also registered for the spouses' program, she or he received another. Virtually all meals were also sponsored.

The ethics members raised the sponsorship issue with the CACP executive committee in mid-conference - "expressed our surprise and dismay" is how the genteel Dr. Jones put it - but later followed up with a formal request for the committee co-chairs to speak to the full board of directors.

That meeting happened in November, and by December the CACP's executive director, Peter Cuthbert, replied by memo on behalf of the board, basically thanking the committee members for their concerns, but repeating that the board was satisfied the association was abiding by its sponsorship guidelines.

It was at the committee's first meeting of the new year last week in Ottawa that Mr. Cuthbert's memo was read aloud, prompting Dr. Jones to walk away from his voluntary position.

While he said he was told by senior members of the committee that Taser gave $200,000 to the 2008 conference, Mr. Cuthbert is adamant the manufacturers of the controversial "conducted energy weapons," as the CACP prefers to call them, contributed only $25,000.

But he also said that over the past three years, Taser has kicked in a total of $75,000 for conference sponsorship.

Mr. Cuthbert was insistent there is nothing wrong with the sponsorship practice, and said that part of the association's job is to bring to the attention of the chiefs "the products and tools that are available to a police service." He then suggested that Taser was only one maker of "conducted energy weapons," but, when pressed, admitted he knew of no other and said, "I guess Taser is the only name out there."

According to Mr. Cuthbert, the total corporate sponsorship of last year's conference - by, among others, Power Corporation, the Canadian Bankers Association, Loto-Québec, Microsoft, Motorola and the RCMP, ironic given that it means the Mounties shared the platform with the very product whose use has brought the force into such disrepute in the Robert Dziekanski incident - topped $500,000.

The RCMP sponsors only the professional development part of the conference program.

One of Mr. Cuthbert's defences for the association accepting sponsorships is the CACP does "no buying, no endorsement, no promotion" of any products, including sponsors', and makes no "binding recommendations."

But in fact, just six weeks ago the CACP held a press conference in Ottawa with the Canadian Police Association to announce what they called "the police position on Conducted Energy Weapons (CEWs)" and issued both a position document and a press release.

The groups said they were acting out of concern that "inaccurate and incomplete" media reporting about the weapons may have led to public misunderstanding and in effect gave CEWs their blessing.

In January, Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino, a CACP member, spoke at an association workshop on CEWs and gave the weapon an even more ringing endorsement, and denounced the "irresponsible journalism" surrounding the issue.

Mr. Fantino was at least more direct: he called a spade a spade and used both terms, CEWs and tasers, to describe the weapon.

When Mr. Cuthbert was asked if it wouldn't have been better for the CACP to have publicly praised tasers with clean hands, he disagreed, and said, "Other than that, I tell you, with the board, it was not an issue ... the board was very, very comfortable with this."

But Dr. Jones told The Globe that most of the ethics committee members had concerns about the sponsorships, not just Taser's, which is why it sent committee co-chairs, RCMP Assistant Commissioner Sandra Conlin, her force's ethics adviser, and Edmonton Deputy Chief Norm Lipinski, to the board meeting. That, he said, was a measure of the committee's concern.

Mr. Conlin referred The Globe to Mr. Lipinski, saying he was the ethics committee spokesman. He was out of town and didn't return The Globe's call.

Dr. Jones, who at 66 has spent several decades of his career lecturing and consulting about ethical conduct, particularly in policing, also recently resigned as an adviser to the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

He rued how the CACP conferences have become increasingly "gaudy" affairs, with each host city trying to outdo the other, with members expecting bigger and better freebies. Indeed, Mr. Cuthbert's own figures - he said it now costs between $800,000 and $1-million to hold such conferences - back up Dr. Jones' perception.

Asked why the chiefs and senior police executives don't just finance their own conferences, Dr. Jones replied, "That's what we'd like."

He said there was "a shocking disconnect" between the lavish conferences for senior police and their increasing demands upon their rank-and-file that they refuse even a free coffee from the local doughnut store. "People now want their leaders to walk the talk," he said.

- 30 -

See also the 2009 Sponsor and Exhibitor Prospectus, which promises sponsors "prominent recognition during the conference and unmatched opportunity to reach out to conference delegates from the outset of the conference and inform them of your commitment to CACP."

Taser International has been a Platinum Level Sponsor for at least the past two years. Here's what they get:

PLATINUMLEVEL - $25,000+

Conference Banner and Signage
• Your company name and logo on a banner and signs prominently displayed at the conference.
Promotional Opportunities
• Providing one promotional item to be included in the delegates’ registration kit.
Marketing Profile
• Your company name and logo will appear prominently in the Conference Program and the Exhibitor Show Guide;
• Your company logo and level of sponsorship will be included on the conference website’s front page and sponsor page (www.cacpconference.ca);
• Sponsor recognition on name badges;
• Opening and Closing Plenary acknowledgement with logo;
• A complimentary 1/4 page black and white advertisement (premium location) in the Program (must be received by July 17, 2009);
• Daily on-site newsletter recognition.

Other Benefits
• Three (3) complimentary conference registrations for selected members of your staff;
• Reserved seating at the Gala Evening;
• Invitation to the VIP Reception, Sunday August 9, 2009;
• Two (2) complimentary booth personnel with the purchase of a booth;NEW!
• One-time access to the early bird Delegate List in advance of the conference.

See also: August 15, 2008 Globe and Mail Editorial - More than a perception

See also: August 12, 2008 - Taser International a major sponsor of the 2008 Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Conference

See also: November 2, 2007 - Taser International a major sponsor of the 2007 Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police conference

Former Deputy Files Suit Over Taser Training

April 8, 2009
6News - Indiana

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. -- A former Hamilton County sheriff's deputy has filed suit against the department, claiming its Taser training policy is unconstitutional.

Last year, the county made it a requirement for all deputies and correction officers to carry Taser guns and, as part of the training, made it mandatory that everyone had to experience the shock of a Taser, 6News' Jennifer Carmack reported.

Ray Robert, who worked as a special deputy serving court papers for the sheriff's department, declined the training, providing a doctor's note that instructed he avoid the Taser shock.

"They just said with the plate being in my back, the bones, they didn't want to take the chance of anything happening," he said.

Roberts said that when he went to Sheriff Doug Carter with the information, he was fired.

"He said, 'Well, you have to be tased or that's the end of your job,'" Robert said.

But Carter said Robert wasn't simply fired, but in fact was offered another position for the same pay within the department, which he refused.

Carter said he stands by his decision to require the training.

"Everyone is trained the same way. He is no exception, nor will he be," Carter said. "The reality-based training is so, so important, not just for the officer, but as or more importantly for the people we're sworn to protect."

Robert filed a suit in federal court seeking back pay, to be restored to his former job and to have the training policy overturned.

Many police departments, including the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, have a similar Taser training policy.

Police Department to adopt all police forum standards on Tasers

April 7, 2009
BY Jonathan Randles, Missourian

COLUMBIA — The Columbia Police Department will adopt all 52 of the Police Executive Research Forum's Taser policy guidelines, Police Chief Kenneth Burton announced in a news release Monday evening.

The forum is a research group for police chiefs and administrators funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. The 52 standards, which the department released in 2005, are an attempt to standardize police department Taser policy nationally.

The Coalition to Control Tasers has been asking the Columbia Police Department to adopt all 52 policy guidelines since the beginning of March.

"The guidelines are comprehensive, but they in no way hinder our ability to utilize Tasers as a justifiable force option at the Columbia Police Department," Burton said in the release. He could not be reached for comment Monday night.

According to the release, formal policy changes and officer training will begin no later than May 1.

The announcement is one of Burton's first official mandates since he was sworn into office on March 30. At that ceremony, Burton said he would emphasize community policing and good customer service during his tenure as chief.

The police forum's standards would not only provide stricter guidelines for Taser use but would also improve internal oversight, training and medical care for people shot with a Taser. The new standards cover issues not adequately addressed in the former department policy, said Ed Berg, a member of the Committee to Control Tasers.

"By implementing the PERF standards, the citizens of Columbia will be safer and the police will be better served knowing when and where not to use the Taser," Berg said.

At a March 2 City Council meeting, then-Interim Police Chief Tom Dresner presented a report that admitted the department had used a Taser inappropriately within the last six months — the first time the department had ever admitted improper use of the weapon.

At the same meeting, the coalition presented council members with a 32-page report that compared the Police Department's Taser policy with the forum's standards. The coalition's analysis determined that the department was using about 18 of the 52 standards at the time, Berg said.

One of the major concerns the coalition had was the lack of a clear policy on providing medical treatment from medical professionals to people shot with Tasers. Under the forum's guidelines, the department would now have to contact emergency responders whenever the police respond to a call where they believe a Taser might be used. A medical professional would also be required to provide a physical evaluation and to continue monitoring the health of anyone who has been shot by a Taser.

By providing medical attention, the city and Police Department might see greater protection from civil lawsuits, Berg said.

According to previous Missourian reports, on July 25, Columbia police shot Phillip Lee McDuffy, 45, who was threatening to kill himself, with a Taser after 90 minutes of negotiating, causing him to fall off the Providence Road overpass above Interstate 70.

On Dec. 16, McDuffy's lawyer sent a $500,000 settlement offer to the city.

The coalition is attempting to raise awareness of Taser safety and make it a statewide issue. On Monday, members of the coalition went to Jefferson City to lobby Missouri's General Assembly to pass two pieces of legislation that, among other things, would create a statewide task force to investigate Taser safety, coalition member Mary Hussmann said.

The family of Stanley Harlan — the 23-year-old man who was killed after Moberly police repeatedly used a Taser on him during a traffic stop in August — were lobbying in the state capitol as well.

The coalition hopes to continue discussing the safety of Tasers until the state establishes a task force to investigate Taser use by police agencies. The coalition's trip to the capital Monday was a positive step in that direction, Hussmann said.

There's been "a lot of the chatter at the grass-roots level, but now its actually getting to the legislature," Hussmann said.

California man dies

April 6, 2009
KSEE News

Fresno police have identified the man who died while being taken into police custody early Monday morning. Ricardo Varela, 41, died after police made several non-lethal attempts to subdue him after he resisted arrest. Varela was being pursued by officers after running a red light in Southeast Fresno. Two blocks from that intersection he stopped at a gas station. Police used bean bag guns and a Taser when Varela confronted them, and eventually officers wrestled him to the ground.
The 5'8", 350 pound man started having trouble breathing and was transported to the hospital before he died. Police Chief Jerry Dyer said he had a conversation with Varela's mother today, who told him Varela had a drug problem, which Dyer said may have contributed to Varela's actions this morning.

RCMP still uses Taser too often: watchdog

April 6, 2009
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The RCMP complaints commissioner says the Mounties should be more careful about using stun guns on young people and the mentally ill.

In a final report on RCMP Taser use last year, Paul Kennedy also says the force's tracking and analysis of incidents still needs improvement.

The findings come 10 months after Kennedy, chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, called on the police force to rein in Taser use and better monitor how officers use the potent device.

In his report Monday, the RCMP watchdog said there has been commendable progress on his 22 recommendations to the force, "however, more needs to be done in order to alleviate many of the concerns repeatedly expressed by the commission."

To that end, the commission is working with the RCMP on member training, reporting and policy development "with the view to providing a more in-depth analysis of the RCMP's progress on all of the recommendations."

Some of the commission's figures, released in a preliminary report last week, show the Mounties were far less likely to fire their Tasers last year. Use dropped 30 per cent from a peak of 1,583 incidents in 2007.

The statistics suggest police officers were more cautious about firing the stun guns following a public furor.

A B.C. inquiry is probing the case of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died in October 2007 after he was stunned five times with an RCMP Taser at the Vancouver airport.

The RCMP says it has limited Taser use to situations involving a threat to officer or public safety.

The new Mountie policy warns officers that Taser use carries a risk of death, particularly for agitated people.

But Kennedy says it's too early to tell whether the changes will address the issues he's outlined. "While the revised policy is a positive step forward, the commission remains concerned."

The report flags two specific groups - young people and the mentally ill.

"It is not that (Tasers) should never be used with these groups, but rather, that there should be a higher threshold for usage where these subjects are concerned. This higher threshold is not always observed."

It says the RCMP still appears to define "at-risk populations" as acutely agitated and delirious people and, before using the Taser, the force needs to consider those experiencing mental health crises or people who've taken large quantities of drugs or alcohol.

"This is problematic as there is a higher statistical likelihood that these persons will die in police custody and therefore any effort made to mitigate this outcome should be adopted by the RCMP."

The report also notes that while members reported that use of the Taser avoided the use of lethal force - that is, a conventional gun - in over half of the reports, "there is reason to be suspicious of this figure."

In many cases, the summaries of these Taser incidents "did not support the members' statement" that lethal force would have been used if not for the Taser.

Finally, Kennedy said the RCMP has not fully addressed how it will tackle the issue of under-reporting by members who use stun guns - a problem identified in his previous report. And while the force has begun to share Taser usage reports with more people inside the force, it is not clear how the information is being incorporated into training.

The RCMP had no immediate comment on the report.

Hilary Homes, a human rights campaigner with Amnesty International Canada, says there is a lack of clarity about RCMP policy on Taser use.

"Until there is clear policy, and a demonstration that that clear policy is followed, there simply won't be the confidence that the police would like to see in their own work."

Slowly but Surely, the Alternative Fees Movement is Making Inroads

April 6, 2009
by Zach Lowe, The AMLaw Daily

The National Law Journal, an Am Law Daily sibling publication, got some general counsel to open up a bit about how they are saving money on outside legal counsel during the recession, and it appears that, yes, alternative fee arrangements and discounts are popping up more and more.

Some highlights from the story:

... • Taser International Inc., makers of the stun gun popular with police, has taken a hard line on the firms it turns to for litigation related to the use of Tasers. Starting last year, it instituted a maximum fee for various phases of litigation, and it has developed its own standard legal documents so firms don't have to produce them. Some firms have resisted the shift away from hourly billing, according to Taser's GC, Doug Klint. Taser's response to those firms: "We micromanage them."

Crowd vents anger over Taser inquiry

April 4, 2009
Petti Fong, Toronto Star
WESTERN CANADA BUREAU CHIEF

VANCOUVER – An angry crowd waited outside the hearing room for the lawyer representing one of the RCMP officers this week at the inquiry into Robert Dziekanski's death.

"Shame, shame!" shouted members of the Polish-Canadian community, who have looked on from the public gallery during the probe into the death of the Polish immigrant after he was Tasered by police at Vancouver International Airport in October 2007.

"Have you no shame?" they demanded of lawyer Ravi Hira, who represents Const. Kwesi Millington, the RCMP officer who fired the Taser.

Hira has been asking questions this week along with other lawyers representing the RCMP about the personal life and habits of Dziekanski.

How much did he drink? How much did he smoke? Did he ever throw furniture around? Did Dziekanski have a heart condition? That kind of questioning is disgraceful, said Zygmunt Riddle, a former Polish resident now living in the North Shore who attended the hearing this week. "No relevance."

But Hira defended his actions, telling the irate crowd calmly that "I'm doing my duty regardless of what you think about it."

Friends of Dziekanski, testifying this week from Poland via video or telephone, answered those queries from lawyers for the RCMP with consistency. No one ever saw him angry. Dziekanski had quit smoking just days before coming to Canada and his drinking was negligible.

"You're trying to make a bad person out of him, which means you can kill a bad person but you cannot kill a good person," said Dziekanski's neighbour, Iwona Kosowska, under questioning by Hira.

Robert Dylski, a friend, said he saw Dziekanski drink four times in the eight years he knew the man.

Slightly exasperated, Dylski said he suspected Dziekanski smoked only when he could afford it, which wasn't very often. "In Poland, there is no tradition that you walk around with a glass of whisky in your hand so I cannot tell you how much he drank in a day," he said.

As the inquiry, now heading into its fourth month, winds down, attention has shifted from the RCMP officers to the victim himself.

Dziekanski, 40, was described by friends as a gardener, a chess player and an avid student of geography. He asked a store in his hometown of Gliwice to save any magazines or books about Canada for him.

His life in Poland had its troubles, but nothing out of the ordinary. He had gotten in scraps with authorities when he was 17. He had a life he was easing out of with a former girlfriend and a young boy who looked up to him as a father figure. If Dziekanski was running away from Poland, it was not without hesitation or regrets.

"He was grasping the radiator," Dylski said through a translator, about arriving to drive Dziekanski to the airport. Dylski said he found his friend almost hysterical because Dziekanski was afraid of flying. On the speaker phone, Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, was pleading with her son to get on the plane. He had cancelled an earlier trip, said Dylski.

Maria Kozaryn, who left Poland 20 years ago, has been driving 100 kilometres every day to attend the inquiry as a spectator.

"It's not fair to make the victim the victim twice. I had to come here to support Zofia, to show we care," said Kozaryn.

Cisowski said hearing the questions posed about her son broke her heart again and again.

"The RCMP had only one thing in mind," said Cisowski. "They want to blame my son for his death."

An RCMP investigation into the actions of the four officers present when Dziekanski was Tasered was delivered last year to the province's criminal justice department, which concluded there was not enough evidence to lay charges against the officers.

Cisowski's supporters have started an online petition that has gathered more than 10,000 signatures demanding the investigation be reopened.

The hearing will resume on April 14.

Fraudulent taser reports from RCMP

TGIF! Yep, it's been a crazy week. So, treat yourself to something special. You deserve it. Pull up a chair, grab a beer, a glass of wine, a cup of coffee or whatever it is that floats your boat. Then sit yourself down, put your weary TGIF feet up and and READ excited-delirium's site from TOP to BOTTOM. Go ahead - make a weekend of it! This could be the most enlightening 48 hours of your life. This is forehead slapping "Doh" stuff. You'll still be talking about it around the water cooler on Monday morning. Trust me.

Tasers used by B.C. police are faulty: Tests

By Mike Barber, Canwest News Service
April 2, 2009

Eight X26 Tasers 'failed to meet manufacturer's specifications and must therefore be destroyed, or repaired and retested, before going back into service,' a statement released by B.C. Ministry of Public Safety said Thursday.

The provincial Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General announced the results Thursday as part of an independent review of the controversial weapons.

The eight X26 Tasers "failed to meet manufacturer's specifications and must therefore be destroyed, or repaired and retested, before going back into service," a statement released by the ministry said.

B.C. Solicitor General John van Dongen requested the review in December 2008. He asked municipal police chiefs to pull the conductive energy weapons for testing because other independent research found some Tasers had been dispensing a higher charge than manufacturers had listed.

"We are going to be establishing a routine provincial policy for testing," said van Dongen.

The eight faulty Tasers came from Vancouver, New Westminster, Port Moody and Saanich police departments and from B.C. Corrections.

Seven of the X26s "failed to produce a pulse rate high enough to meet manufacturer's specifications," while the eighth was withdrawn for a number of unspecified reasons.

The conducted electricity weapons are supposed to discharge 50,000 volts of electricity when fired.

Van Dongen said the seven Tasers that had pulse rates below the manufacturer's standard could have posed a threat to the officers using them because they could have been left exposed to possible attacks from suspects.

Eighty-two X26s made before 2006 had been tested. The eight faulty Tasers represent a 10 per cent failure rate, which the release said was in line with tests in other jurisdictions.

Last week, Quebec Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis announced five Tasers would be destroyed after they malfunctioned during testing.

The five were among a group of 52 stun guns that were made before 2005. He said the remaining 115 guns available to 14,000 police officers in the province also will be tested.

Alberta's solicitor general, Fred Lindsay, directed the province's police forces to turn in 400 X26s for testing in January. The results of those tests are still pending.

The ministry is still waiting for test results for the province's 126 M26 Tasers, which also had been included in the recall.

MPB Communications, based in the Ottawa area, conducted the tests for B.C. and Alberta.

Tasering of elderly man 'reasonable and justified': Report

April 2, 2009
By Staff Reporter, The Province

RCMP Tasering of an elderly knife-wielding man was "reasonable and justified" according to a report from the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.

Frank Lasser, 82, was a patient at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops on May 3, 2008, when early that morning he brandished a knife at a nurse.

Hospital staff believed, according to the report, that Lasser planned to use the knife against them.

Police and hospital security tried to disarm Lasser, but an officer fearing for the safety of a fellow officer fired his Taser to make Lasser drop the knife. He was then subdued by police.

"Throughout this incident, Mr. Lasser's behaviour could reasonably be described as posing a threat of grievous bodily harm or death," said Paul Kennedy, chair of the commission. " It was only after repeated failed attempt to control Mr. Lasser through other means that RCMP members elevated their use of force to deploying the CEW. Accordingly, I find that the use of the weapon was reasonable and justified under the circumstances."

In the minutes following the incident, Lasser was described as much calmer and co-operative.

Kennedy initiated the complaint on May 9, 2008 to investigate the appropriateness of the incident, as well as specific concerns raised with respect to RCMP policy, procedures and guidelines on the use of the conducted-energey weapon.

A second aspect of the complaint investigation was to assess the adequacy of the existing RCMP Taser policies, procedures and guidelines.

Reported RCMP CEW use declined 30 per cent in 2008, compared to 2007. When unholstered, the weapon was used 72 per cent of the time in 2007 — compared to 51 per cent in 2008.

"Overall, I am encouraged by the decrease of CEW usage and increased restraint show by RCMP members in the field," said Kennedy.

The full report and further background information regarding RCMP Taser use can be found at http://www.cpc-cpp.gc.ca.

"Tasers drawn" as police target G20 protest leaders

April 2, 2009
The London Daily News

Police have turned their attention to the masterminds of yesterday’s violent G20 protests. At 12.20 today 100 officers and the riot squad raided two squats in east London that they say where headquarters for several groups involved in organising.

Several of the 20 to 30 squatters have been arrested, many have injuries related to yesterday’s protests where 90 people were arrested and all are being photographed and questioned in an operation likely to last several hours.

A man at the centre that was raided told Sky News that officers punched him in the face and had taser guns drawn when they smashed their way into the building.

"Shame on Jacqui Smith, shame on Sir Paul Stephenson, the man said.

The Metropolitan Police said those involved in violence should expect a "knock on the door".

Officers are pouring over CCTV footage and shots by Met photographers as well as monitoring internet chatter to identify known troublemakers that were at yesterdays demonstrations.

Those arrested this afternoon are also suspected of targeting today's official G20 meetings in the Docklands.

EDITORIAL: How low can the RCMP go?

April 2, 2009
The Gazette (Montreal)

Everyone knows that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have had their problems in recent years. But what's happening in Vancouver, at the inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski, makes us wonder just how low our national police force can sink.

The Mounties' hopes of defending their reputation in this case vanished with the publication on that cellphone video showing the airport confrontation. But the RCMP's tactics at the inquiry are making things worse.

It is conceivable that Dziekanski's drinking habits had some medical bearing on his death by Taser. But what on Earth was the point of the RCMP lawyer's rooting around in his criminal record back in Poland? Dziekanski's mother's lawyer called that an attempt to demonize the victim, and we can only agree.

Within days of Dziekanski's death the Mounties had sent investigators to Poland with, apparently, roughly the same motive: to find anything that might partly justify the treatment he received. But what evidence could do that? Even if he had been Osama bin Laden and Bernie Madofff combined, he didn't deserve death by Taser.

Dziekanski died in October 2007, three months after the government named a new RCMP commissioner, William Elliott, mandated to fix the force. Why is he allowing this kind of defence? How long until we can again begin to be proud of our national police force?

EDITORIAL: Concerns rise on taser use

April 2, 2009
Globe and Mail

The RCMP can't seem to pass up an opportunity to drag its own name through the mud. As if it were not bad enough to kill an unarmed and distressed man by tasering him five times and kneeling on the back of his neck, a lawyer representing the Mountie who wielded the taser involved is now trying to probe the dead man's past. The allegedly disturbing revelations about Robert Dziekanski that they uncovered at taxpayers' expense in Poland are worse than irrelevant. They're ridiculous.

He had an unspecified run-in with the law at 17! He may have had a toxic relationship with a woman! He drank (though not on the fateful day)! Honest, judge, he brought it on himself!

This is on a par with "the stapler made us do it," the supposed reason for tasering Mr. Dziekanski, a 40-year-old Polish immigrant waiting 10 hours for his mother at the Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007. One wonders who is overseeing the Mounties' strategy at the Braidwood inquiry. As in the tasering itself, the RCMP seems unable to stand back and see itself as others see it - as if attack were the only mode it knows.

RCMP reach for Tasers most in Saskatchewan's north

April 2, 2009
CBC News

RCMP in La Loche, Sask., have used Tasers on 37 occasions over six years to shock subjects into submission, information obtained by CBC News shows.

La Loche is a Saskatchewan community of 2,400 people, located about 650 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

The frequency of Taser use by members of the La Loche detachment was described as the highest rate in all of Saskatchewan, according to documents received by CBC News under federal Access to Information laws. The data covered the years 2002 to 2008.

The figures, contained in RCMP reports, show that La Loche officers used a Taser to deal with violent, often intoxicated individuals in the remote village.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Herb Perpelitz, who has spent 20 of his 24 years of police work patrolling northern Saskatchewan, told CBC News that officers in northern areas face unique circumstances.

"Our people are dealing with violence, for the most part," Perpelitz said. "Most of them do stem from the alcohol and drug abuse that has really been inherent in the north because of social conditions."

As for the frequency of Taser use in La Loche, Perpelitz said each situation is different. However, he believes the device can be an effective policing tool.

"The Taser still is an acceptable police practice," Perpelitz noted, adding two provisos: "that the situation would warrant it, and members have to be fully trained in the use of it."

The Taser reports from La Loche had officers facing intoxicated individuals armed with knives, screwdrivers and clubs. In some cases, suspects were high on amphetamines and heroin.

A vice-chief for the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, in reviewing the Taser figures, observed that getting an electric shock from police would be preferable to being shot.

Morley Watson, a vice-chief with responsibilities for justice issues, told CBC News that, nevertheless, the frequency of Taser use is a concern to the FSIN.

Watson said he is concerned any time force is used by police.

However, he added that he has spoken to families of people shot by RCMP, and believes Tasers can play a role in policing.

"When you talk to the families there, they sometimes say, 'Geez, there should have been another option to gunfire,'" Watson said.

He said the FSIN's special investigative unit looks at complaints brought forward from individuals who feel they've been mistreated by police.

Watson said his organization is aware of five incidents this year where RCMP used Tasers on First Nations individuals.

Appeals court finds judge errors - Ruling says wrong to remove parts of inmate's autopsy report

April 2, 2009
By Ed Meyer
Beacon Journal staff writer

A retired Summit County judge erred in ordering the medical examiner to remove four specific factors from its findings that asphyxiation caused the 2006 death of jail inmate Mark D. McCullaugh Jr., an appellate court has ruled.

In a lengthy written decision released Wednesday, a three-judge panel of Akron's 9th District Court of Appeals found that visiting Common Pleas Judge Ted Schneiderman overstepped his bounds by ordering the medical examiner to remove specific language from McCullaugh's autopsy and death certificate ''that pertained to chemical and mechanical restraint, beating and anal penetration.''

The medical examiner, Lisa J. Kohler, ruled in October 2006 that McCullaugh's death was a homicide caused by asphyxia from multiple blunt-force blows and the ''combined effects of chemical, mechanical and electrical restraint,'' including an unspecified anal injury.

Kohler said she read the 34-page appellate decision but declined to comment about what impact it might have. She said she intended to discuss the findings with legal counsel before making any additional comments.

McCullaugh's family members could not be reached for comment.

Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman, who handled the 9th District appeal on behalf of the Summit County Prosecutor's Office, said he was unsure of the impact it might have on future litigation.

McCullaugh's mother and father — the administrators of his estate — filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court in Akron on Aug. 1, 2007. It named numerous sheriff's deputies and many other personnel allegedly involved in the care and treatment of McCullaugh at the county jail, court records show.

Meanwhile, the 9th District decision was a victory for Taser International Inc., because the court ruled that Schneiderman was not wrong in ordering Kohler to remove specific Taser references from McCullaugh's autopsy and death certificate.

McCullaugh, 28, died Aug. 20, 2006, after what Summit County sheriff's records described as a ''violent struggle'' with deputies in his cell in the jail's mental-health unit.

Deputies used a Taser stun gun, shackles and a full can of pepper spray during the struggle, and a jail nurse injected McCullaugh with drugs in a further effort to calm him, according to sheriff's records.

But after a four-day civil trial last spring, Schneiderman ordered Kohler to change the autopsy and death certificate, saying there was ''simply no medical, scientific, or electrical evidence to support the conclusion that the Taser . . . had anything to do with the death'' of McCullaugh or with two other unrelated deaths involving confrontations with area police.

Kohler's findings had been challenged in a lawsuit brought by lawyers from Taser International and the city of Akron. Schneiderman, who was appointed to handle the case after retiring from the Common Pleas bench, heard the evidence without a jury.

Later, in a criminal trial last year, another visiting judge found a sheriff's deputy not guilty of murder in connection with McCullaugh's death.

Special prosecutors from Cuyahoga County then moved for dismissal of charges against four other deputies indicted for the death, and the motion was granted by visiting Judge Herman F. Inderlied Jr.

Inderlied, a retired judge from Geauga County, heard the criminal case without a jury.

The appellate decision was written by former 9th District presiding Judge Lynn C. Slaby, who has retired. Judge Beth Whitmore concurred with Slaby's opinion. Judge Donna Carr dissented.

In finding that Schneiderman did not err in his decision regarding the Taser, Slaby wrote that he considered ''the voluminous record'' in the civil trial as well as testimony from a variety of expert witnesses who said the stun gun ''did not contribute in any way'' to the deaths of McCullaugh and the others.

Kohler, Slaby stressed, was unable to testify, with ''a reasonable degree of scientific certainty,'' about how the Taser contributed to the three deaths.

RCMP Tasering Justified: Watchdog

April 2, 2009
Josh Pringle, 580 CFRA News

The RCMP watchdog says the RCMP was justified in using a Taser on an elderly British Columbia patient. Chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP Paul Kennedy says the Taser was a reasonable response to the threat the man posed to hospital staff and officers. In a report, Kennedy says the behaviour of Frank Lasser posed a threat to cause grievous harm or death.

The RCMP said staff at the Royal Inland Hospital called the RCMP in May 2008 after it was discovered the man had a knife and also made several troubling comments. Officers said Lasser refused several times to surrender his pocket knife, and a decision was made to Taser the man.

Man dies after being Tasered by Broward deputy

John J. Meier Jr., 48, Tamarac, Florida

April 1, 2009
BY DAVID SMILEY, Miami Herald

A man who was Tasered in a fight with Broward Sheriff's Office deputies after he was found running in and out of traffic in front of Sawgrass Infiniti has died in the hospital, according to authorities.

Deputies first encountered the man, who was wearing only his shorts, about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday after he began undressing and running through traffic on West Commercial Boulevard, according to BSO spokesman Jim Leljedal.

According to Leljedal, the first deputy to arrive tried to lead the man away from the road. But the man began fighting the deputy and continued to struggle when two backup deputies arrived.

One of the deputies drew his Taser and pressed it directly to the man's body, taking him to the ground, where he was handcuffed.

Paramedics took the man to University Hospital, where he was treated for several hours before being pronounced dead at 1 a.m.

Leljedal said an autopsy by the Broward Medical Examiner's Office showed no trauma or injuries other than minor scratches and Taser marks on his right side. The man's death appears to have been caused by cocaine toxicity or excited delirium, though a toxicology test has not been finalized, Leljedal said.

Authorities do not know the man's identity, as he had no identification on him at the time of the incident, Leljedal said.

The man's death is under investigation by BSO homicide, crime scene and internal affairs detectives -- a standard policy, according to Leljedal.

Florida man stunned, hospitalized
April 1, 2009
Sun Sentinel

A man running in and out of evening traffic on the Sawgrass Expressway was hospitalized in critical condition after Broward sheriff's deputies used a stun gun to subdue him, authorities said. The man, whose name and age were not released, was taken to University Hospital & Medical Center. Officials think the man may have been intoxicated.

Deputies received calls that the man was zipping through traffic by the highway's Commercial Boulevard entrance ramp about 7:30 p.m. A deputy used a stun gun to bring him down when he resisted arrest, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Trial date set in Goodyear death

By Tim Hrenchir, cjonline.com
April 1, 2009

A federal judge on Tuesday set an Aug. 2, 2010, trial date in a wrongful death lawsuit filed last year against Shawnee County and other defendants by the family of Walter E. Haake Jr., a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. worker who died last year in the custody of sheriff's deputies.

Court records show U.S. Magistrate Judge David A. Waxse issued a scheduling order giving Haake’s wife and three children an April 16 deadline for proposing a settlement in the case and the defendants until April 30 to make a settlement counter-proposal.

The order set various other deadlines for pre-trial court actions over the next 16 months. It said that should the case go to a jury trial, it is expected to last about 10 days and take place at the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Kan.

Waxse issued the order after conducting a telephone conference Monday with attorneys representing plaintiffs Patricia J. Haake, Michelle Haake, Matthew Haake and Marshall Haake, and representing defendants Shawnee County, Shawnee County Sheriff Richard Barta, Shawnee County Deputies Jason B. Mills and Shayna Johnson and Taser International, Inc., of Wilmington, Del.

Court documents indicate Patricia J. Haake is Walter Haake’s widow while the other plaintiffs are his children. The Topeka Capital-Journal learned Wednesday about a seven-count suit they filed last October alleging Mills and Johnson while on duty used unreasonable, excessive and deadly force to cause Walter Haake’s death.

The suit alleges the deputies acted in accordance with Shawnee County’s and Barta's policies and procedures relating to the use of force, including deadly force.

"Specifically, Defendants Shawnee County and Sheriff Barta provide their officers with too much broad discretion in determining whether to use excessive or deadly force without considering less drastic alternatives," it said.

The suit also alleges that a defect in design of a Taser manufacutured by Taser International that was used on Haake "allowed for an excessive amount of electricity to be delivered into" him, causing his death.

Haake, 59, died after deputies responded late March 29, 2008, to his place of employment at Topeka's Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. plant.

Erik Mitchell, county coroner, concluded that Haake -- after being handcuffed -- died accidentally as a result of compression of the torso combined with cardiac disease. He added that depressive effects of prescription drugs detected in Haake's system also probably contributed to his death.

Local officials last year had not revealed the names of the deputies involved, but Mills and Johnson are identified in court documents linked to the lawsuit.

For more information, read Thursday's Capital-Journal.

Saskatchewan man suing RCMP over 2008 Taser incident

April 1, 2009
CBC News

A lawsuit alleging that RCMP in Saskatchewan used a Taser on a man more than a dozen times has generated vastly conflicting versions of what happened.

The matter has not proceeded to trial, but court documents reveal how the two sides — the man and the police — view the episode, which dates back a year.

In his statement of claim, Bruce Janvier, 43, from the northern Saskatchewan community of La Loche, says he continues to suffer from the aftereffects of being hit with a Taser stun gun in April 2008.

Janvier told CBC News that he was plucked off a La Loche street by two RCMP officers for no reason and taken to the local detachment.

Upon arrival, his claim alleges that the RCMP constables "in an attempt to cause further embarrassment to the plaintiff, pulled the plaintiff's pants down and made him enter the detachment building in that manner."

"They just put me in the drunk tank," Janvier told CBC in an interview. "That's when they Tasered me, in there, with those two guys [the RCMP officers] still holding my arms."

Janvier said he was shocked 14 times and suffered burns to his back, thighs and buttocks.

"It's horrible," Janvier said, describing what he felt. "The pain I've never felt in my life."

In his statement of claim, Janvier said he lost consciousness for a time.

According to Janvier's court documents, although the RCMP laid two charges — one of resisting arrest and a second of committing an indecent act — the case was not pursued by prosecutors.

'He told the officers he was Elvis Presley'
— RCMP statement of defenceThe RCMP have a markedly different recollection of the encounter.

In their statement of defence, the police say Janvier was stunned with a Taser three times in their cells and that he was struggling violently and posed a threat to officers and himself.

RCMP say plaintiff mooned them
They also said they had good reason to arrest the man, after noticing him on the town's main street.

They said he had pulled down his pants and was mooning officers.

The RCMP approached the man and determined he was drunk.

"The plaintiff smelled strongly of beverage alcohol, slurred his words and did not make any sense while speaking," the RCMP's court filing said. "He told the officers he was 'Elvis Presley' and asked the constables not to kill him."

According to police, Janvier was arrested at 9:25 p.m.

Their statement of defence also dealt with the allegations about what happened in the cells.

The RCMP version holds that Janvier was kicking and screaming and not following directions.

"The plaintiff was given numerous Taser warnings," the RCMP said. They admit that the officers delivered three Taser jolts and that the device sent a shock to Janvier's back and arms.

The RCMP said the man did not lose consciousness and did not have any difficulty breathing after being shocked.

They say Janvier was released the following afternoon.

The statements from Janvier and the RCMP are part of the beginning stages of a civil lawsuit, and neither is considered factual until determined so by a court.

People in La Loche told CBC News that the use of Tasers by police had become an issue in the community.

Georgina Jolibois, the mayor of La Loche, said other incidents prompted people to raise concerns.

"Individuals did come forward and express their concerns, and some of them have been actual victims of Taser usage," Jolibois said.

She added that the local village council met with senior RCMP to discuss the matter, and that they now have a good relationship.

La Loche is a community of about 2,400 situated roughly 650 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

PETITION: Justice for Mother of late Robert Dziekanski

Petition: Justice for Mother of late Robert Dziekanski

Target:Provincial Government of British Columbia
Sponsored by: Friends of Zofia Cisowski
To: The Honourable Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia;
The Honourable Wally Oppal,Attorney General for British Columbia

We the undersigned do hereby call upon, the Honourable Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia, and the Honourable Wally Oppal, Attorney General for British Columbia, to re-open the investigation into the death of Robert Dziekanski, involving the 4 RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport.

We demand that an Independent Special Prosecutor be appointed to determine the matter in accordance with the Criminal Code of Canada.

We strongly believe that the previous RCMP investigation and Criminal Justice Branch Report was deficient and focused on finding evidence, which would blame the victim, Mr. Dziekanski.

It is time to stop blaming the victim and take an unbiased and independent look at all evidence.

We believe public confidence in the administration and repute of justice has been seriously undermined.

Justice must not only be done, but be seen to be done, on behalf of Zofia Cisowski and all Canadians.

Jurek Baltakis (Kamloops) Family Friend to Zofia Cisowski;
mailto:jerzybaltakis@hotmail.com cell (250) 377-1489
Bill Sundhu (Kamloops) bwsundhu@shaw.ca cell (250) 574-2124

Human Rights Lawyer and Friend to Zofia Cisowski;
Zygmunt Riddle Przetakiewicz (Vancouver)
zriddle@shaw.ca cell (604)868-7070
Canadian Civil Rights Movement on Facebook
Kamloops/Vancouver March 29, 2009

London battens down hatches in fear of violent G20 protests

March 31, 2009
JULIA BELLUZ, Special to The Globe and Mail


LONDON -- Turkish visitor Ozlem Bas reserved at The Ritz this week, expecting to luxuriate in one of London's poshest hotels.

Instead, she found the landmark in the British capital's tony Mayfair district turned into a bunker. Nearly all of the hotel's street-level windows and doors have been covered in protective blue panels for fear that the many protests planned for this week's summit of the Group of 20 could turn violent.

"It's not very nice at all," said Ms. Bas, an arts and culture producer in London for five days of business and pleasure. Every time she enters the hotel, staff members ask whether she is a guest, which has left her feeling "like a prostitute."

"No one," she said, "wants to feel like the youngest girl in the house."

Like every other visitor to London this week, Ms. Bas is having to deal with the threat of violence arising from the protests planned for the G20 meeting, and which seem likely to overshadow the summit itself.

Even before a group called Bank Bosses Are Criminals smashed several windows at the mansion of Sir Fred Goodwin, former chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and vandalized his Mercedes last week, authorities were warning of an ugly mood at the G20 protests, and financial institutions and businesses around London have been stepping up security.

Brace Yourselves, advised a headline in The Economist. Anarchy Back in the UK, declared the Daily Mirror.

Sir Paul Stephenson, head of London's Metropolitan Police Service, described preparations for the G20 as "probably as big a single operation as the Met has done." Sir Paul has ordered all police leave cancelled for the summit and deployed more than 10,000 officers - many armed with 50,000-volt taser stun guns - in the capital at an estimated cost of $13-million.

The demonstrations intended to bring London to a standstill this week will not overlook such tried-and-true issues as war, globalization and climate change. But with the global economy in recession and many people outraged at executive compensation that is perceived as being overly generous for the times, the main event will target the City, London's financial district, and the business leaders who work there. Anti-capitalist groups, which have mushroomed on the Internet, have proclaimed April 1 "Financial Fools' Day."

"We're a bit concerned that the banks are taking over the government, rather than the governments taking over the banks," said Mark Barrett, 39, an organizer of one such group, G20 Meltdown. The group has planned four parades, each led by one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, set to converge on the imposing porticoed headquarters of the Bank of England tomorrow. On Thursday, the day of the G20 meeting, "a giant Monopoly game" will occupy the space in front of the London Stock Exchange.

"We've got people who've lost their jobs, their homes," Mr. Barrett said. "People who have been fed up with the economic system for decades, people who have been involved in the environmental movement."

Of the concern over the possibility of violence, Mr. Barrett said, "It's a big joke. We're going to be hanging mannequins, not actual bankers."

The Metropolitan Police do not see the humour and have advised London's banks to increase security around their offices tomorrow and Thursday. Banks, including UBS, Citigroup and the Royal Bank of Scotland, told employees in London this week to cancel unnecessary meetings, work from home if possible, and, if they must come to work, to wear something less conspicuous than a pin-striped suit.

Spokespeople for the banks refused to comment on security preparations, and bankers have been instructed not to talk about how they will respond. But a finance worker outside the Bank of England was willing to share his game plan, even if he did decline to be named. "We're not going to wear our Rolexes next week," he said. "And we'll put on our 'Down with capitalism' T-shirts to fit in."

The protests are expected to cause losses worth millions of pounds as protesters block roadways and commuters find themselves unable to reach their offices because of train and Tube cancellations.

So far, though, demonstrations have been more creative than catastrophic.

On Saturday, 35,000 people took to the streets of London for the Put People First march, hailed as a peaceful revolution. Its theme was "jobs, justice and climate" and its vague message to world leaders: "Make the economy work for people and the planet."

More than 100 charities, environmental groups and trade unions - including ActionAid, Oxfam, Greenpeace and the Salvation Army - came together for the colourful, music-filled march though London. Only one arrest was reported.

Family of dead man sues city, police over Taser shots

#327. February 7, 2008: Richard Earl Abston, 53, Merced, California

March 31, 2009
Merced Sun Star

"... The lawsuit doesn't name Taser International, but (attorney) Nisenbaum believes the device played a role in Abston's death, even though the autopsy doesn't list it as a contributing factor ... The MEDICAL REPORT WASN'T FINISHED UNTIL THE CORONER MET WITH A DOCTOR WHO SERVES ON THE COMPANY'S [Taser International's] SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD, he noted."

See also "Judge rules for taser in cause of death decisions."