I still don't get why this douche is not going to be charged

[sdifox]

This guy obviously lied yet he will not be charged? Fully armed (and protected with bulleproof vest) with 3 backup and he had to Taser a guy that is already down 4 times? Oh, he was holding a stapler, open, in a threatening stand? Fuckers like this give the cops a bad name.

WTF is the point of this inquiry?

Mr. Dziekanski got Tazed to death

March 2, 2009 at 8:10 PM EST

VANCOUVER ? It wasn't the first time the RCMP officer who tasered Robert Dziekanski had watched video of the incident. But this time, Constable Kwesi Millington had to watch it while reconciling the visual evidence with the statements he made immediately after the incident.

Constable Millington took the stand yesterday at the inquiry into Mr. Dziekanski's death at Vancouver International Airport in the early morning hours of Oct. 14, 2007. It was not pretty. Consistently, information he supplied to an RCMP investigating officer shortly after the incident was contradicted by the now-infamous video.

After nearly a week of testimony from three of the four Mounties involved in the confrontation that day, it is clear that if it were not for that video, the version of events supplied by the officers wouldn't have come close to what actually happened.

Draw your own conclusions why.

On the stand at the inquiry that former B.C. Supreme Court justice Thomas Braidwood is holding into Mr. Dziekanski's death, Constable Millington said the 40-year-old Polish immigrant was obviously agitated when the officers caught up with him. Yet the video of the encounter showed Mr. Dziekanski was anything but agitated and was standing there quite calmly but obviously confused. Why wouldn't he be, given he couldn't understand a word the officers were saying?

At one point, Mr. Dziekanski put his hands in the air and started walking away. He grabbed a stapler from a counter. According to Constable Millington's statement given at the local detachment a few hours later, and another statement given the following day, Mr. Dziekanski ?raised [the stapler] in the air? and assumed a ?combative stance? before stepping toward the officers in a ?threatening manner.?

But that wasn't true at all. First, it's clear from the video that Mr. Dziekanski never raised the stapler above the level of his belt, or just slightly above, and if he stepped in the direction of the officers, it was a barely perceptible baby step. But this was enough to compel Constable Millington to take out his taser and pump Mr. Dziekanski with 50,000 volts.

I have seen the video of the tasering maybe a hundred times now and it never ceases to shock me. It did again yesterday. The worst part is right after Mr. Dziekanski is tasered for the first time, sending him reeling backward, holding his stomach, like someone who has just been shot. As he staggered backward, he fell on his backside and his legs shot up in the air.

The sight of him on the ground, screaming and writhing in pain, his arms holding his chest, is a terrible thing to watch. It is at this point, unbelievably, that Constable Millington gave the man a second blast from his taser.

So why, with Mr. Dziekanski on the ground, clearly in pain, did the officer taser him again? Just one second after the first hit?

In his original statement, Constable Millington said it was because Mr. Dziekanski hadn't gone down after the first discharge. But he clearly had.

?I was wrong about that,? Constable Millington said on the stand.

He also said in his statement that his fellow officers had to wrestle Mr. Dziekanski to the ground because he wouldn't fall.

?I was wrong,? the officer had to admit again.

Still, Constable Millington defended the second shot because he felt Mr. Dziekanski wasn't completely immobilized and was still ?moving and struggling.? Yes, struggling for his life as it would turn out.

It got worse.

After Mr. Dziekanski was on the ground, with three officers on top of him, one with a knee in his back, Constable Millington fired the taser a third time. This time, because the ?male was still resisting the officers.? That's right, three RCMP officers, all close to six feet and collectively weighing nearly 600 pounds, couldn't subdue someone the Mounties estimated to be 5'9? and weigh 180.

But Constable Millington wasn't finished.

He said he thought his taser wasn't working properly because it was making a ?clacking sound? so he took out the cartridge and put the weapon in push-stun mode, which is when the taser is applied directly to a person's body, causing severe pain.

This, Constable Millington did two times even though he told the RCMP officer who took his statement that he had applied the taser in push-stun mode only once. Another fact refuted by the video evidence. By lunch break, I counted at least six statements that Constable Millington made immediately after the incident that ended up being contradicted by the video.

But Constable Millington did do one thing right.

When Mr. Dziekanski started turning blue, he suggested his fellow officers turn him over on his back, into what police call ?recovery position.?

By then it was too late.

 

[13Gigatons]

Taser's are fun. (video won't load)

 

[imported_Devine]

Obligatory Dont Tase Me Bro reply.

 

[TechBoyJK]

sucks

 

[yllus]

RCMP badge = Get out of jail free card

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: yllus
RCMP badge = Get out of jail free card

and they are looking for 1000 recruits...

Now that it is clear the statements from the original incident report cannot be trusted, the criminal case has to be reopened.

 

[Jeeebus]

well I guess he won't be throwing any more chairs around.


EDIT: Any chance you could actually link to a real news article, rather than an opinion fluff piece?

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Jeeebus
well I guess he won't be throwing any more chairs around.


EDIT: Any chance you could actually link to a real news article, rather than an opinion fluff piece?

here is one from the right wing paper to contrast the pinko.


http://www.nationalpost.com/ne.../story.html?id=1346179

It's moving from bad to worse for the RCMP at the Braidwood Inquiry.

As much need as there is to believe the sincerity of officers testifying before inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, to understand the degree of threat they felt distressed traveller Robert Dziekanski presented at the Vancouver airport 16 months ago, and to accept their version of events, we may not.

With more testimony still to come, it is too early to draw every possible conclusion, let alone make recommendations, which is Mr. Braidwood's ultimate task. Sadly, that some have attempted to justify, obfuscate and disguise seems no longer in question.

On Monday, the inquiry heard from Constable Kwesi Millington. He is the officer who deployed a Taser at Mr. Dziekanski five times. The stricken Mr. Dziekanski died.

Inquiry commission counsel Art Vertlieb took the witness back to the airport encounter on Oct. 14, 2007. Constable Millington testified he had considered himself the officer "in control" at the scene because he had tried speaking with Mr. Dziekanski and that "he was looking at me."

Constable Millington was the only officer in the group to have a Taser. Aside from his training, he had never used one before. He recalled how Mr. Dziekanski grabbed a stapler from an airport counter. There'd been no doubt in the officer's mind what the object was. A common office gadget, but in the context, a weapon.

Still, had Mr. Dziekanski threatened with it? The inquiry heard last week from another RCMP constable; he had written in his police notebook, post-incident, that Mr. Dziekanski "came at members screaming." The same constable admitted to the inquiry that the description was erroneous. Mr. Dziekanski had not come at them with the stapler, screaming.

Const. Millington recanted a lot more. The inquiry heard on Monday that he had made misstatements to police investigators and had taken inaccurate notes of the event.

According to Const. Millington's initial statement to police investigators, made just hours after the incident, Mr. Dziekanski moved away from the four officers almost immediately after initial contact was made.

"He backed away from us and he was still yelling," Cost. Millington had told investigators.

Maybe not, he conceded on Monday, after viewing the Pritchard video footage of the event, made by passerby Paul Pritchard. In the footage, Mr. Dziekanski is not seen or heard yelling during his brief and fatal RCMP encounter, at least not until receiving the first of five Taser jolts.

(Indeed, it appears that Mr. Dziekanski had actually complied with a command to move towards the airport counter.)

Mr. Dziekanski did make a poor choice, however; he picked up the stapler, which sat on the counter.

In a police statement, Const. Millington recalled that Mr. Dziekanski then "raised [the stapler] high and started advancing towards us." The Pritchard video does not support this.

"Tell us when [the video shows] he's moving towards you," instructed Mr. Vertlieb.

Const. Millington did as asked; some spectators in the gallery laughed derisively at the weakness of his evidence.

In a formal report he had been required to file after the incident, Const. Millington claimed that "the male swung the stapler wildly with his arm at the members." Compelling stuff, but the constable admitted on Monday it did not happen.

Const. Millington did deploy his Taser, on his own initiative and without receiving an order, the inquiry was told. The Taser probes hit Mr. Dziekanski.

Mr. Dziekanski screamed, staggered away from the officers, and dropped to the ground.

In his formal, written report, the constable claimed that Mr. Dziekanski "was still walking towards us, arms raised," prompting him to deploy the Taser a second time. "He was still standing," Const. Millington also noted in a police statement. "He hadn't gone to the ground...He seemed to feel the effects of the Taser but he didn't fall due to that," the constable also said, in a police statement.

Mr. Dziekanski was then "wrestled to the ground," he told investigators, three separate times.

On Monday, Const. Millington acknowledged that Mr. Dziekanski had in fact fallen after the first Taser shot, and that he had not been "wrestled to the ground." None of the officers touched him until he was writhing and screaming on the airport carpet.

Why, asked Mr. Vertlieb, had the witness then fired a second time, again at his own discretion, considering his target was on the carpet, his feet in the air, and obviously in pain?

Mr. Dziekanski had felt the effects of the first Taster jolt, replied Const. Millington, but he had not been "immobilized" as intended. "We were trying to get him under control."

But since he was no longer combative, "how could the second Tasering be justified?" asked Mr. Vertlieb.

"He was combative when he first had the stapler and it's a fluid situation," answered Const. Millington. "You reassess when possible but it's a very fast moving situation."

Const. Millington's least wretched moment on Monday was when he explained that he "never intended for Mr. Dziekanski to pass away." Undoubtedly. But it wasn't enough to rescue his credibility, or to explain his previous misstatements.

The inquiry continues.

National Post

I hope this one is less fluffy for your taste.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com.../BNStory/National/home

VANCOUVER ? A bulletproof vest, handgun, baton and pepper spray were not enough to quell the fear RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington says he felt when confronted by Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski during a fatal October 2007 incident at Vancouver airport.

At the time, Mr. Dziekanski was armed with a stapler he had grabbed from a counter.

So Constable Millington, the only one of four attending Mounties equipped with a taser, used the conducted energy weapon on Mr. Dziekanski once, then went on to jolt Mr. Dziekanski four more times over a total of 31 seconds as officers struggled to restrain and handcuff Mr. Dziekanski.

"He had the stapler open, his other fist raised. He was in a combative stance, as we call it, and was approaching the officers, I believe, with the intent to attack so I deployed the taser at that point," he told the Braidwood inquiry into Mr. Dziekanski's death on Monday.

Constable Millington said he was aware of the evidence the taser was fired five times, but that he was only aware of four blasts.

He said he could hear "clacking" sounds that suggested, according to his training, that the current was not going through and making connection with Mr. Dziekanski. So he kept firing as the officers struggled on the ground to handcuff Mr. Dziekanski.

"Can you tell us how four healthy men from the RCMP could not gain control of him when he's in that position?" commission counsel Art Vertlieb asked.

"I don't know why he was not under control. He was fighting so that's why we had to use [the taser]."

Mr. Vertlieb later asked the officer whether he was "scared."

"Yes," said Constable Millington, who earlier noted that the fact the stapler was open would make it "more" of a threat.

Within moments, Mr. Vertlieb had the constable take the actual stapler in question and hold it to show the inquiry how Mr. Dziekanski brandished it. Constable Millington, 32, stood in the witness box and complied.

The resulting scoffing sounds, snorts of derision and other noises from the spectators' gallery grew so obvious that inquiry head Thomas Braidwood, a former B.C. supreme court justice, had to counsel spectators to cut it out.

"It's necessary, ladies and gentlemen, to not really make any comments by way of different noises," he said.

Two other Mounties told the story from their perspective last week ? the first time the public has heard from the officers involved in the incident. But the testimony from 32-year-old Constable Millington has been especially anticipated because he actually discharged the taser.

That decision set off a chain of events that has prompted an enduring debate on the police use of stun guns. Ironically, this was the first and only time in Constable Millington's four-year career as a police officer that he has deployed a taser on the job.

"You're in good physical shape and well trained in the arts of defence and controlling people," Mr. Vertlieb asked the officer.

"Yes."

"We heard from your [fellow officers] that they were scared. In fairness, I want to ask you the same the question. Were you scared at that moment in time?"

"At that moment when he picked up the stapler, I feared for the safety of the officers."

Constable Millington earlier said he and his three fellow officers, all posted at the RCMP's airport detachment, responded to a call that a man was acting erratically in the international arrivals area of the airport and throwing luggage around, then were told he was throwing chairs through windows ? which turned out to be untrue.

They proceeded to the scene without discussing a strategy. A bystander said Mr. Dziekanski, who had spent about 24 hours flying to Canada to start a new life with his Kamloops-based mother, then became lost in the airport for about 10 hours, did not speak English.

Constable Millington said Mr. Dziekanski, 40, was walking back and forth, "seemed very sweaty" and "very agitated." The officer tried hand signals, he said, to get him to calm down, asked for his "passport" and "identification," assuming he would understand, and mimed writing on paper with his hand.

Mr. Dziekanski, he said, threw up his hands ?"I interpreted that to be defiant" ? and turned away, knocking some things off a counter and picking up a stapler.

"He held it up with one hand, fist with the other, and started to approach us with hands up." Constable Millington said he expected Mr. Dziekanski was going to attack. "So I deployed the taser at that point," he told the inquiry.

There were a number of inconsistencies in Constable Millington's original notes on the incident, available as evidence. He had written, for example, that officers has to wrestle Mr. Dziekanski to the ground when, in fact, he collapsed after being tasered.

Mr. Dziekanski soon suffered fatal cardiac arrest. The cause of death was listed as "sudden death following restraint." An autopsy found no sign of drugs or alcohol in his system.

The Crown has ruled out charges against the officers.

Constable Millington said he acted in accordance with his training. "Of course, I never intended this result," he said. "I never intended for Mr. Dziekanski to pass away."