Yes, Yes - Tasers Are Bad
No!No!No! Tasers are NOT the reason why the public's confidence in the RCMP is eroded:
RCMPComplaintsCommissionerPutsAFingerToTheWind
The information seems certain to further fuel the furor over Mr. Dziekanski's death, which so far has focused almost entirely on the safety of tasers and the actions of police officers.The growing controversy was reflected yesterday in comments by RCMP complaints commissioner Paul Kennedy, who said the critical bond between the public and police is being damaged.
Yet public support for the police is essential to maintaining public safety, Mr. Kennedy reminded the CTV program Question Period.
Public confidence in the RCMP has eroded because the RCMP misrepresents the truth to the public on a regular enough basis that the public no longer trusts in its version of what happened when something goes wrong enough to reflect badly on the force.
Cripes, I don't think we even trust in the RCMP enough to believe its version of what happened when something goes RIGHT for the force.
See, in this current crisis involving the use of Tasers, it's not so much that the RCMP clearly used excessive force in the subduing of someone who wasn't even a suspect in any sort of crime and who presented no real threat to anyone - excessive force which resulted in the man's death - it's that it lied about it. I mean, if we didn't have a video of the RCMP actually killing this man, Tasering him to death, we would only have the RCMP's version of what happened and, although we would be suspicious based on previous RCMP versions of what went down at any other given time that turned out to be somewhere south of the truth, we would have to accept it as, well, the RCMP's version of what happened.
So, at this point, it's not about Tasers - which we all know are lethal weapons, not non-lethal weapons as Taser International claims they are - and yes, we can all see how the RCMP defence is being set up to play out (I mean, if I was a lawyer for the RCMP officers responsible for Robert Dziekanski's death I'd sure as hell be pointing my finger at Taser International) - it's about the essential and very correct lack of trust we have in the RCMP to tell us the truth.
But this is where, for me, the government comes into the picture. Because the government, if not the RCMP, is supposed to work for us, Canadians, the people who pay its salary, the people who elected it to represent us - ALL of us. And what we're getting back from the New Conservative Government of Canada with regards to the death of Robert Dziekanski by RCMP officers using Tasers purchased with taxpayer dollars from Taser International is a lot of New Conservatism and not much else.
It's the government that should be demanding answers - for us - of the RCMP, of Taser International, maybe even of Vancouver airport security. We've got a video of the event - we know what happened - we're way past eroded trust in the RCMP, Mr. Complaints Commissioner. Now we need our government to step outside its New Conservative ideology and take the lead in asking a lot of hard questions of itself and who it does business with and why the RCMP continues to lie to the public about what happens under its watch. This government, this New Conservative Government of Canada claims to be all about law and order, peace and security, and yet it clearly isn't because it refuses to take responsibility even for something as straightforward as the Tasering death of Robert Dziekanski.
Watch the video, Mr. Prime Minister - and proceed from there, please. Your Evangelical Christian heart will surely lead you in the right direction.
