OVER THE EDGE November 7-21, 2007 "Mitchell Grant, Photo Editor Taser Tae, Whos “IT” next? I normally support the RCMP and police forces of Canada. I believe that it is a thankless job that, like military service, doesn’t receive enough credit or thanks and instead receives more grief then deserved, but sometimes, events start into mo- tion that make even me raise an eyebrow and pause. All summer I was reading stories about people screaming for inquiries into the activities of RCMP in specific cases where those in custody have died. Who conducted those inquiries one might ask? The RCMP. And who was found to be in the right? The RCMP. On every account. More recently, stories have abounded in the media about tasers and their use by police forces worldwide. This has mostly been because in the past month, three people in Can- ada have died after being tasered by police officers - usually multiple times - as well as another 14 who have died since the weapon was instituted in Canada approximately five years ago. In Britain - where “beat cops” or normal constables, are not allowed to carry pistols - police forces have insti- tuted a test during the past month to allow regular of- ficers to carry tasers, not just special firearms squads as it has been for the past 3 years. Since then there have been three major (re- ported) incidences where officers used a taser on a total of four people. In the past decade in the US, over 150 people have died after being tasered, but on all ac- counts, the policy was ex- onerated because the deaths could not be directly linked to being tasered. Even Steve Tuttle, vice-president of TASER International Inc was recently quoted in an interview with CTV News- net that they’re “59 and 0” in court, referring to lawsuits where people attempt to scientifically prove that the taser itself was responsible for their death of their loved ones. So where does that leave us, those that could end up on the receiving end of these weapons? September 18, Quebec City police tasered Claudio Cast- agnetta, an Italian immigrant who entered a store without shoes on. When he refused to leave the owner called police who arrived on the scene. After Castagnetta resisted arrest, he was tasered several times. While friends and family insist Mr. Castagnetta lead a clean life and that he suffered no mental instabilities, Mr. Castagnetta was quoted once before he died by a family lawyer as describing himself as bipolar. Later in Montreal, Quilem Registre, 39, was pulled over after being spotted driving erratically and ramming other vehicles. Police believed him to have been intoxicated and say he became aggressive during questioning and resisted arrest. Digital How a taser operates POLICE STUN GUN Microprocessor Registre was unarmed but his sister says he was hit six times by tasers. After being rushed to a hospital, he died of liver and heart failure. Finally, we come to a case just as tragic, if not far more: Mr. Robert Dziekanski, a Polish man of 40 who was tasered on October 14, after hours of travel and being forced to wait in Vancouver Airport. Mr. Dziekanski spent five hours on a bus from Poland to Frankfurt travelling to what would be his first and last trip on an airplane, which was delayed in flight two hours, finally arriving at about 3:30 Saturday afternoon, making the total flight from Frankfurt to Vancouver 13 hours, putting his total travel time at 18 hours. His mother - who had been taking classes and working two jobs for seven years so she could afford to bring her son to Canada and open a busi- ness with him in Kamloops - had driven down earlier that day to greet him, but she could not get to the international wait- ing area. Of course, her son, being a new immigrant, could Gun fires two needile-lipped darts that trail electric cable back to ihe handset | Laser Sight Air Cartri dge The Taser gun fires darts thal release a 60, 000-volt electric charge which temporarily paralyses the target -Imace Courresy cr BBC.com not leave the area and processing him took time. After hours of waiting and begging for help - telling airport staff that she must get to her son as he could not speak English and could only understand Polish - and then being told her son was not in the terminal (when in actuality he was no more then 200 feet from her most of the day) she left at 10:00 pm to return to Kamloops. When she got home hours later there was a message on her phone saying her son had been found. However, she did not know that he was already dead. Some- time around 1:00 am police were called about a man acting aggressively and arrived on scene at approximately 1:28 am. Within two minutes they had returned to their radios reporting that a man was tasered. Mr. Dziekanski could not speak Eng- lish. A witness claims that two officers, after asking Mr. Dz- iekanski twice to put his hands on the desk in English, tasered him at the same time, and then one officer tasered him a third time when he appeared to still be struggling after having the combined force of 100,000 volts passed through is body. Mr. Dziekanski left Poland with three suitcases; two of them were filled with Geography books. Stéphane Michaud met a similar fate, losing consciousness and then dying in the Ottawa International Airport after being arrested. However, he was not tasered. Officers often refer to times when individuals seem to have incredible strength and endurance, are impervious to pain, have an elevated body tem- perature, sweat heavily and are acting bizarre or violent, as being in a state of excited delirium. They believe that this may be responsible for the deaths of Mr. Michaud as well as the taser victims. Excited delirum can be brought on by cocaine or crystal meth use, alcohol, or mental illness. Mr. Dziekan- ski’s autopsy came back with no obvious physical or internal cause of death and his toxicology report - according to the family’s lawyer - came back clean. In cases of taser use that ~ lead to death or serious injury, officers almost use the same defence, claiming it’s either the taser or gun. Knowing offi- cers personally, and having witnessed their training and even examined the history of the actions of police officers over more than a century of service in Canada, I think it is safe to say that before tasers, officers had ways - other then pulling their side- arm - of dealing with drunk or belligerent members of society that didn’t- lead to death or serious injury on the behalf of either party. In Canada officers are told not to fire tasers at an individual’s head, neck or genitals, or to shock them multiple times. However, they are told to make mul- tiple strikes as barbs may or may not pierce the skin and deliver an effective shock. The taser, after reaching the target either through barbs or arcing which allows the weapon to be used at range of 6.4m (approx 20 feet) or less, delivers 50,000 volts into the human body, interfering with, or mimicking the target’s nervous sys- tem, temporarily disabling their body. A study done at Wake University found that only three out of 1000 cases had to be admitted to hospital after being tasered due to injuries and two out of 1000 cases died after being tasered for various reason. Wake University, the US Justice Department and TASER Int. Inc have released statements declaring tasers safe. In Jackson- ville, Florida, as well as other communities in the US, offi- cers stopped using tasers completely after a year of use due to safety concerns. Gun has — ‘a range of up to 6.4m Season’s Greetings From Stephen Harper Rosh Hashanah Cards Just a Misguided Attempt to Win Votes By Dave Suore THe Corp Weexty (WiLFRiD Laurier University) WATERLOO (CUP) -- During Rosh Hashanah last September, Canada’s Jewish community found something strange in their mailboxes: a greeting card for the Jewish new year from Stephen Harper. Even though I’m Jewish and my family never received one of the government’s greet- ing cards, it seems shady the Conservatives would let everyone know they have a list of who’s Jewish by mailing them. Still, Harper did nothing immoral by send- ing out Rosh Hashanah greetings. It was how- ever, hopelessly misguided. Much of the criticism stems from allega- tions that Harper’s collection of the data was illegal. No government documents such as driver’s licenses or taxation forms require people to disclose their religion. Only on census forms do citizens have to provide that information, which can only be used by Sta- tistics Canada and would be against the law for Harper to access. The prime minister’s office says they got the names and addresses of Jewish families from public directories obtainable through any Jewish-Canadian citizen. Many cities have lists of Jewish residents circulating around synagogues and Jewish community centres. Harper technically did nothing wrong by accessing them. A Jew trying to track down an old friend could have done the same. No one has outright said it, but I take of- fence to likening Harper to Hitler. Comparing the mailing of Rosh Hashanah cards to anything holocaust-related gravely trivializes a profound and horrific historical event. Harper is by no means persecuting the Jews by sending them holiday greetings. Even hinting at it is absurd and irresponsible. But I still don’t support his action, as the card sending gesture seems insincere and politically motivated . Only areas with a high concentration of Jews were targeted to receive cards, suggesting it was an effort to gain voter confidence in those ridings. Rosh Hashanah is a time Jewish families gather together and celebrate the new year, not a time to make a political pitch to people.