Robert Dziekanski's killers walk free

By derrick; December 15, 2008 - rabble.ca
http://www.rabble.ca/news/robert-dziekanskis-killers-walk-free

VANCOUVER - On Friday, December 13, the Criminal Justice Branch of the province of British Columbia announced it would not press charges against the four policemen responsible for the death of Polish visitor to Canada Robert Dziekanski on October 17, 2007. Spokesman Robert Lowe said there was "no substantial likelihood of conviction if his service proceeded to criminal charges."

The announcement was a big disappointment to the family of the victim and to the thousands of Canadians that have staged rallies and written letters and petitions demanding justice be served. The lawyer for the family said the Branch's decision was based on information supplied by the RCMP. He said that some witnesses did not talk to the force as it compiled its version of events because of an obvious conflict of interest.

The announcement was also another low for the cabal of police and government agencies that routinely swing into action whenever police violence or illegality hits the public spotlight. Lowe attempted to shift the blame for Dziekanski's death onto the victim himself. He said that at the time of his death, Dziekanski was delirious, due to alcohol withdrawal and flight fatigue.

This is a new version of an old song. In the days following the killing, the RCMP said that Dziekanski was exhibiting a medical condition they called "excited delirium" and could only be subdued by force. That explanation was laughed out of the picture by medical experts.

The force suggested that Dziekanski was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. It sent a team of investigators to Poland to dig up dirt on Dziekanski's past. An autopsy disproved the lies of drug or alcohol abuse. The lawyer for the victim's family explained yesterday that Dziekanski was carrying an unopened bottle of vodka in his hand luggage at the time of his death. The branch announcement did not report this fact, presumably because it would disprove the claim of "alcohol withdrawal."

Killing viewed around the world

Dziekanski's death was famously captured on amateur video and broadcast around the world. He came to Canada to visit his mother, Zofia Cisowski, a resident of Kelowna, B.C.

Upon arrival in Vancouver, unable to speak English, he was prevented from exiting the secure section of the international arrivals area of the airport and left to wander for hours. His mother and other family members were waiting just meters away. Like the victim, they received no explanation of what was going on. They left the airport after five hours, believing he had not arrived.

As the hours of waiting stretched out, Dziekanski became more and more agitated over his fate. No official at the very modern airport attended seriously to his concern. Several passengers helped him out as best they could. As his state of agitation rose, police were called. Four RCMP officers arrived on the scene and in less than one minute they blasted him with five taser shots while wrestling him to the ground. They made no serious attempt at communication with him nor with the passengers willing to help out.

Dziekanski was held face-down by the cops with knees on his back and across the back of his neck. He died of a heart attack, though witnesses also said his skin colour turned blue, a sign of asphyxiation.

The young author of the video seen by the world is one of the unsung heroes of this story. Paul Pritchard of Victoria, B.C. voluntarily surrendered his camera to police. He was told they would keep it for 24 hours. When that stretched to 48 hours, then longer, he threatened legal action if they did not return it. When he got it back, he released it to the world.

Of the four police who assaulted Dziekanski, the one who fired the taser, Kwesi Millington, has been transferred to the Toronto West detachment of the RCMP. Two others have been transferred, one to Nanaimo, the other to an unknown detachment.

The fourth officer, Benjamin Robinson, was reassigned to the 2010 Winter Olympics security detachment following the killing but is now under suspension with pay. On October 29, 2008, he killed a 21 year-old man while driving drunk in Delta, a Vancouver suburb. Orion Hutchinson was the son of a local firefighter and was riding a motorcycle when struck at high speed by the vehicle the cop was driving. Robinson fled the scene on foot after the accident, not stopping to see if he could save the victim. He has not been charged.

Ban Tasers?

At least eight people have been killed by police tasers in Canada since the death of Robert Dziekanski. Close to 300 have died in North America since the weapon's deployment. A small number of voices are calling to ban police from having the weapon. But most statements by civil rights figures call for "restriction" of taser use, including "better training" of police and restricted deployment of the weapon.

The first approval of the weapon by police forces in Canada was granted by the then-NDP government of British Columbia in 2000, as recommended by its attorney general Ujjal Dosanjh. Dosanjh has since said he was misled by the weapon's manufacturer as to its lethal potential, but he does not favor its withdrawal.

Dosanjh told the Georgia Straight in May 2008, "I think that ultimately the Taser is a device that [police] may be required to use under appropriate circumstances. The fact is that the RCMP and other police forces need to have stronger national standards for using these kinds of devices."

Attention in the Dziekanski case now shifts to a judicial inquiry that will resume next month. It is led by retired Justice Thomas Braidwood. A first phase heard testimony last spring; the second phase has been delayed because the RCMP said it would not participate if charges against any of its officers were possible.

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No charges to be laid against RCMP officers in airport Taser death

CBC News - Saturday, December 13, 2008
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/12/bc-airport-taser-d...

None of the four RCMP officers involved in the Taser-related death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski will face criminal charges, Stan Lowe, the spokesman for B.C.'s Criminal Justice Branch, confirmed Friday morning in Vancouver.

Dziekanski, 41, died in the secure arrivals area of Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007, moments after he was shot with RCMP stun guns. His death ignited an international debate about the police use of stun guns.

Lowe said Friday that, after a full examination of the evidence, Crown prosecutors found it fell short of the test needed to apply criminal charges.

"In light of this independent evidence … there is not a substantial likelihood of conviction in this case for any of the offences considered. In fact the available evidence falls remarkably short of that standard. Accordingly, the Criminal Justice Branch will not be approving any charges in relation to this tragic event," said Lowe.

Tasers deployed 5 times

According to a report released by Lowe on Friday, the officers used their Tasers on Dziekanski a total of five times, but only three attempts appeared to be successful in administering a shock.

Three forensic pathologists concluded that Dziekanski did not die as direct result of a cardiac arrest brought on by the electric shock from the stun guns, the report said.

Instead the pathologists concluded Dziekanski likely died as a result of cardiac arrest linked to a condition the report called Sudden Death Following Restraint.

That condition was brought on by a combination of:

-Heart disease due to chronic alcohol abuse.
-An agitated state of delirium.
-The stress of the physical restraint worsened by the deployment of the Taser.
-A decreased ability to breathe as a result of being restrained.
-Alcohol withdrawal.

Two medical experts concluded Dzeikanski's irrational and aggressive behaviour before his death was result of a hysterical fear of flying, lack of sleep over a 30-hour period, and dehydration, which would have placed him at increased risk for sudden death, the report said.

Sudden Death Following Restraint usually involves individuals who are restrained after exhibiting combative and bizarre behavior. As a result, said the report, cases often involve law enforcement personnel.

Use of force within guidelines

The report also included the finding of a use-of-force expert brought in from a separate police department by the RCMP to investigate the conduct of the officers.

That officer concluded the four RCMP officers involved were acting with their legal duties to detain and restrain Dziekanski and their actions "represented a reasonable escalation and de-escalation of force based on the actions of the subject."

The report noted Dziekanski had been acting extremely irrationally before the officers arrived, and that after first appearing to calm down, he grabbed a stapler and held it out.

At that point one of the officers deployed his Taser three times on Dziekanski, the report said.

The report also detailed how before Dziekanski left Poland on a flight from Poland via Germany to take up residence in Canada, he became extremely distressed and ill at the prospect of flying.

After eventually boarding the flight, he arrived in Vancouver about 20 hours later, where he waited for 10 hours in the airport's secure customs and immigrations arrival area.

During that time, he made contact with several airport and customs officials, but because he spoke limited English, he was unable to communicate effectively with anyone that he was expecting to meet his mother at the airport .

Then around 1 a.m. PT, he began acting extremely irrationally and violently, attempting to smash the glass windows and furniture in the airport arrivals lounge.

The four RCMP officers then arrived, and fired on him with a stun gun within 30 seconds.

The RCMP subsequently made several public assertions about the incident that were proven false by a video recording made by a bystander, including the number of times the Tasers were deployed and the extent to which Dziekanski resisted arrest.

Mother 'angry' and 'disappointed'

Zofia Cisowski, Dziekanski's mother, said Friday that she was "surprised" and "disappointed" about the Crown's decision.

"I am so angry. I am so surprised that they made a decision like that. I am disappointed," Cisowski told CBC News.

Cisowski also said it's unfair to her son that the Crown stated on Friday that he was going through alcohol withdrawal when he was jolted by the Tasers.

The Crown was trying to imply that her son was alcoholic, which he was not, Cisowski said.

She said her son was never a frequent drinker in Poland. The social culture in the construction industry, where he worked for five years, involved drinking with peers, but Dziekanski never indulged in alcohol.

Cisowski said she remains committed to seeking the "truth" behind what happened to her son, and is looking forward to the second phase of a public inquiry that has been looking into the use of police Tasers and the circumstances surrounding Dziekanski's death.

The provincial government appointed former B.C. Supreme Court judge Thomas Braidwood to conduct the public inquiry.

Braidwood said in November that the inquiry had been postponed twice because the B.C. Crown had not decided whether charges would be laid against the four Mounties involved in the Taser incident.

Following the Crown's announcement Friday that it would not lay charges, the RCMP said its four officers will take part in the inquiry, scheduled to begin Jan. 19.

RCMP Supt. Wayne Rideout said two of the four officers have since been transferred to the East Coast, while the other two remain with the force in B.C.

One of the two officers in B.C. is facing a charge of impaired driving causing death in relation to a fatal crash in October in Delta, near Vancouver. He has been suspended with pay.

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DEADLY FORCE
Police stoop low to deflect blame in Dziekanski case

By GARY MASON; December 15, 2008 - Globe & Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081215.BC...

That the Crown wouldn't charge the RCMP officers involved in last year's airport death of Robert Dziekanski was inevitable.

That the Mounties would stoop so low in attempting to explain how and why Mr. Dziekanski met his demise, well, I don't think anyone quite imagined that.

He didn't die because he was tasered five times by three RCMP officers in October of 2007 in an arrivals area at Vancouver International Airport.

He died, we've been told, because he drank too much and had a fear of flying. And when you mix those two things with 50,000 volts of electricity, terrible things happen.

Take away the booze and the anxiety, and Mr. Dziekanski might still be alive.

Right.

And the Crown and the RCMP in British Columbia wonder why Canadians are so outraged by Friday's decision. Every day, more and more feel it isn't right for police to investigate themselves, as was the case here.

Just imagine if Joe Canadian were tasered in, oh, I don't know, let's say the Bangkok airport.

And Joe Canadian died.

Imagine that the Thai police took nine months to complete their investigation, an investigation that included a trip to Canada to look into Joe's past.

And in the end, they decided not to prosecute the police officers involved.

Their report says Joe died because he drank too much and suffered from a flying phobia, which combined to weaken his system and made him vulnerable when he was blasted with 50,000 volts of electricity.

Imagine how Canadians would react to a report like that.

People would be screaming cover-up.

They'd be demanding Prime Minister Stephen Harper level economic sanctions against Thailand. Canadians would be cancelling trips there.

Well, those were pretty much the circumstances here.

Look, whether Mr. Dziekanski drank a lot or not is irrelevant.

He died after he was tasered by police. If he hadn't been tasered, he wouldn't have died. The only question is: Did the tasering constitute an excessive use of force?

Because the guidelines around the use of a taser were so fuzzy at the time of the incident and so open to interpretation as to what constitutes a threat to a police officer, it was always going to be next to impossible to put together a case against the RCMP officers involved.

Whether most Canadians felt four burly Mounties should have been able to take down one Polish immigrant with a stapler in his hand without having to pump taser hooks into him is irrelevant.

On the use-of-force spectrum that Mounties are guided by, or were at the time, Mr. Dziekanski fit the profile of someone who was a candidate to be tasered. He was agitated. He had been destroying equipment at the airport. He had what could be termed to be a weapon.

Mounties have tasered people for less.

Now, you could argue - others have and more will still - that there need to be stricter guidelines covering the weapon's use.

But at the time, the RCMP officers at Vancouver International weren't doing anything their colleagues hadn't done hundreds of times under similar circumstances.

The RCMP didn't need to go dredging up dirt on Mr. Dziekanski's past to justify its actions.

How horrible and petty-minded that makes our police look. How desperate, too. And the RCMP wonder why their reputation becomes more tattered and stained with each passing day.

The death of Mr. Dziekanski will always be a black mark on the Mounties' reputation in B.C.

But the lengths to which the force went to try to escape blame in the tragedy should be enough to convince everyone that the RCMP should no longer be investigating itself.

The Dziekanski case should be the last deplorable example of why a change needs to take place now.

gmason@globeandmail.com