Peter Lowestoft

I wonder what sort of thread we would have had if the RCMP had spent hour after hour after hour negotiating with this male in an international airport, which, if in the UK, may well have been shut down incase the male was a terrorist..
"The police are armed, why dont they just sort it out" etc etc
POLICE...DAMMED IF YOU DO....DAMMED IF YOU DONT....

dbd33

We would have no thread because people doing their jobs in a measured fashion isn't worthy of comment.

ijmk

Been through Warsaw airport twice. Didn't see any guns. Tazers are unheard of. Outside the airport is surely much less safe.

As an Eastern European I can just confirm that most of us understand each other to some extent. Exceptions: Hungary, Romania, Moldova and Baltics. And the whole Eastern block learnt Russian till eighties. There had to be no problems finding someone to talk to the guy.

The story is frightening, same as the one about that poor Brazilian. We come from poor countries scraping by on everything we have, just to get a warm welcome by those guys?

boxerdog03

I can understand your frustrations, feeling whatever you do it's not good enough for the general public (I work with children with schizophrenia, so get the results of bad press from both mental health and child protection angles), but there are generally lots of mistakes and oversights with these incidents.

The important thing is that lessons are learnt from what happened and steps are taken to prevent anything like that from happening again. From watching the video (and I recognize it's not the full story) the officers didn't even appear to attempt to de-escelate the situation, You don't need to speak the language to try that. Then there are other methods to restrain people without using un-necessary force, shouldn't these be tried first? It's all health staff have.

I don't think it's a case of Dammed if you do, Dammed if you don't, I think it's a reasonable response from the available evidence. Would you have honestly used the taser in that situation?

johnscone

What's the answer then HOWARD? I deal with stuff every day which is identical to what I would have faced in the UK. Here the result is a Tasering incident & if you take the Taser away it'll be a pegging or someone will get shot. In Britain we were relatively unarmed & more hands on - looks like that approach would have worked in this case... no one is denying that the gun thing is a greater risk here but surely cops can pick their fights better than this?

Purley

I guess in retrospect, his mother should have taught him at least something in English. Maybe she should have mailed him a piece of paper with her address in English, or the fact that he was Polish and could not speak English. It wasn't his fault. I suppose he still might not have found anyone to look at his piece of paper, but things might have turned out differently if he had something that said "I am Polish and do not speak any English and I am to meet my mother at Vancouver airport."

However, all very well of me to think of that now its too late!

G77

If he was emigrating, isn't there a requirement of being able to speak English or French? How did he manage to get PR without a word of either? Or am I being naive?

MikeUK

Maybe it's worth remembering that a 'taser' is supposed to incapacitate
That nobody expected it to kill him or even leave him with any injuries

Its worth considering too that they are seen by many police force as less lethal than many other conventional methods of restraint

Biiiiink

Family class immigrants don't need to know either language. Although I don't know if this man was family class - can parents sponsor adult non-dependent children?

Kittykerr

do you know anything about police use of force? do you know where tazer fits in the continuum of force?

from your comment i guess not.

do some research then reconsider your post.

Lychee

I was thinking of the same thing when I first heard this story. But what really struck me was that this was his first time on an airplane. As a result, he was probably not only unfamiliar with airport procedures, but also with airport etiquette. It's a thought that crossed my mind...

dbd33

His inability to speak English should not have been a surprise to anyone. He was in an international airport in Canada. Lots of people in major airports in Canada, indeed in the streets in Canada, don't speak English.

startwin

Absolutely. The main languages spoken by employees of YVR are definitely not English or French. But the language of human compassion is universal. YVR touts that it is the best international airport in the world. It is a beautiful facility. But evidently this is going to leave a huge black mark on it. Still waiting to hear valid reasonings from YVR and immigration. WE have to assume that the visitors for the 2010 Winter Olympics that will go through YVR will not have to carry notes to say they do not speak English or French, and will not be expected to speak our language at all.

Tasers are meant to be a one-shot thing, aren't they? Most witnesses said there were multiple blasts from the taser, and from the video it sounds so, too. Trigger-happy cops with no crisis intervention skills.

Danny B

So what is your point? Are you suggesting that they were right to tazer him first and ask questions later?
Maybe if it was one Mounty on his own I could understand using pepper spray, but come on, not 4 of them and still having to use a tazer. ******* cowards.

And Yes I did do a stint with a Constabulary in the UK but it wasn't my cup of tea.

Kittykerr

my point is in many circumstances tazer is a lower use of force than having to physically wrestle people to the ground. there is a much lower chance of injury from tazer than hands on techniques.

and many armed police the world over are told that getting hands on is a last resort as it can lead to them getting hold of your firearm off your belt and causing more problems. in fact when i was on the ARV in the UK we were told NEVER to wrestle people to the ground whilst we were armed.

as i said. do some research before you comment on subjects.