Witness steps forward "transit cops had suspect under control and still used taser..
“A second officer entered the scene, quickly had him under control
and at that point, someone next to me said, ‘My God they are Tasering
him again',” said Coleman.“The only aggression I saw in the entire incident was by the police towards the suspect. At no time did I see him resisting.”
Coleman said the officers lifted the man up but put him back on the ground after it was learned he had a knife.
He added the officers threatened to stun him a second time.
Transit police denied they used the Taser because the man did not
pay the fare. They said the situation had turned violent at the top of
the escalator, out of Coleman’s view.“He was swinging at the officer,” said Const. Tom Seaman. “He was
physically fighting with the officers, that is why the weapon had to be
brought in to help control this person, who was carrying a knife.
Why skytrain "police" should not be armed, not with guns or peppers spray.
Bus driver refused to help find girls' attacker
A Vancouver father has told CBC News he wants an apology from
transit authorities after an employee did nothing to help find a man he
said assaulted his children.
Howard Glase said the incident began Wednesday night when a man accosted his three daughters on their way home from school.
Glase said his daughters, aged seven, nine, and 12, were set upon
near John Norquay Elementary School in the city's east end. The man
kissed the girls' feet, Glase said, and then ran through nearby Slocan
Park toward the 29th Avenue SkyTrain station.
The girls raced home for help, Glase said, and he immediately rushed
to the SkyTrain station in search of the man. In his haste, he said, he
parked in a zone designated for buses while he called 911 and searched
the station for a man matching his daughters' description.
RCMP in B.C. used Tasers 496 times last year, Taser inquiry told
The RCMP learned much from the incident last fall at Vancouver
airport where a Polish immigrant died after being Tasered by RCMP and
the force will "answer to what happened on that day," the force's
assistant commissioner said Thursday.
"It was tough for us, very tough," Asst. Commissioner Al Macintyre told
reporters after he gave a submission to a public inquiry looking at
Taser use.
"We learned a lot about information management on such an issue, public communications, and we're (still) learning from it."
Macintyre began his presentation by expressing condolences to the Dziekanski family and was asked about it again by reporters.
"Certainly, it wasn't one of our better days in terms of the way we were portrayed in the media and publicly for that matter.
New use-of-Taser term is 'actively resistant'
The deputy chief of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority
Police Service told a provincial Taser inquiry Friday that it has
changed its controversial Taser policy.
The new policy replaces the term "non-compliant" with "actively resistant," Ken Allen said.
The Taser policy was changed Monday by the GVTAPS board, which includes four senior officers and three civilians.
Vancouver transit police pressed to appear before Taser inquiry
B.C. Solicitor General John van Dongen has told Vancouver's transit
police force he expects them to appear before a provincial inquiry
probing the use of Tasers.
"I have spoken this morning with the
chair of the transit police board (Lorne Zapotichny) and indicated to
him my expectation that the board direct the appropriate
representatives of the transit police to present to the Braidwood
inquiry," van Dongen said Wednesday.
"I have been very clear,
unequivocally clear, with the chair of the board what my expectation is
and if that isn't met then I will pursue whatever remedies I believe
are appropriate."
Transit police refuse to testify at Taser inquiry
The transit police
force -- under fire last month for using Tasers against nonviolent
passengers -- is refusing to testify at the provincial inquiry into the
use of the stun guns.
The Greater Vancouver Transportation
Authority Police Service was to make a submission Tuesday at former
appeal court justice Thomas Braidwood's provincially ordered inquiry,
but decided not to attend.
"The Braidwood inquiry is to get at
the policies; it's not to lay blame," inquiry counsel Art Vertlieb said
in an interview. "They had issues in the media and it was a chance for
them to be transparent, but they felt it was better to deal with the
Police Complaints Commission."
Tasers ignite criticism from council
Burnaby city councillors expressed outrage Monday over the use of Tasers by TransLink's police force.
Greater
Vancouver's transit police - Canada's only armed transit police - have
faced heavy criticism recently for Tasering fare-evaders, including
four people who were "non-violent."
"They are folks that are
probably poor and tapped out," councillor Nick Volkow said Monday. "I
think (transit police) have totally forgotten what their mandate is."
Several councillors also questioned the presence of transit police away from SkyTrain.
Mayor
Derek Corrigan wondered why transit police were involved in a recent
drug bust and an incident at the University of British Columbia.
"They should be on the SkyTrain. That's where the problem is," he said.
"What are they doing on a drug bust?"
Van Dongen quiet on TransLink's Taser use
Solicitor-General John van Dongen has refused to say whether he
supports translink's policy that allows Greater Vancouver transit police to use
Tasers on "non-compliant" passengers.
"I'm not going to answer that question," Van Dongen stated. "I'm not the expert on that."
Below is his contact info, so make sure you let him know whether you think tasering individuals on "non compliant" passengers is just. Hmm potentially lethal force for what amounts to fare jumping.
E-mail: john.vandongen.mla@leg.bc.ca
Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Office
Room 236
Parliament Buildings
Victoria, BC
V8V 1X4
Phone: 250 356-7717
Translink taser use defended and under review
he department's own records state that in four of those cases, the
electro-shock device was used against non-violent, non-threatening
passengers. In three of the incidents, the passengers Tasered were
being investigated for possible fare evasion.
The use of Tasers
by law enforcement officers created an international black eye for
Canada last October when Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died after
being Tasered by RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport.
Despite
recent controversy over whether Tasers represent too great a danger to
be used against "non-compliant" fare evaders, Huston maintained there
is
sufficient medical evidence to support their use.