They must have put a freeze on Tazering new Canadians and people with minor traffic violations.

I happened to be watching the CBC late news the other night and saw for the first time the incident which occurred resulting in the mans death. The CBC investigation indicated what happened, including time lines in relation to the amount of time the poor fellow was tasered. The CBC investigation also very clearly brought forward that this taser incident apparently followed proper protocol. The report also indicated that the RCMP had modified the document that had been drawn up that outlined the proper and safe use of the taser to suit their own needs. This modification consequently gives the front line officers complete discretion to use the weapon as they see fit while exercising caution at the same time. According to the CBC report, because there was no strong medical evidence indicating that it could be fatal to apply repeated hits with the weapon, it was OK to do so. To make a long story short....reading between the lines.....I was left with the perception, the RCMP believe they have done nothing wrong.
This weapon was apparently tested by two contractor test facilities. One independent testing facility was owned by the manufacturer of the taser and the other independent contractor tested the weapon on individuals for a maximum of one time per person for no more that 5 seconds. The poor fellow that has died was tasered five times for a complete duration of over 30 seconds before he succumbed to the electric shocks.
The above article tells me that rather than pulling a gun to control a situation it is OK to pull a taser. I think both these weapons are unnecessary in this case based on what I saw, if the right officers are selected for the job. The RCMP is filled with people of the outlaw cowboy nature, by the way these are not my words, but the words of police officers themselves.
The report above and the statistics indicates to me that in 2008 the RCMP became very fearful of the consequences when this civilian was tasered to death. I am concluding that after the individuals death it was probably strongly suggested to all members they had better back off on their unrestrained usage of the weapon.
After listening to this CBC news investigation I am now even more concerned about the RCMP corporate vision of what is right and wrong, to me change is not just needed.....It is "absolutely required".
I believe that change is required right now.

I think the RCMP need better training. I would not want their thankless Job. Don't be so hard on the RCMP, you aren't walking in their shoes. This taser incident was not totally their fault. Customs and immigration are also at fault. RCMP members involved in this will never get over it. It was handled wrong by everyone .

How about this thought. Tasers have now been around long enough that even the dimwit thugs, thieves, criminals and rioters have figured out that they would prefer not to brawl with the RCMP and other Police. Even without being used, Tasers cause thugs to calm down. Now THAT is what frighten the liberal weenies, you know, the ones that detest the Police and want to see them hurt as often as possible.

What bothers me immensely about this whole issue is that, if we did not have the video taken by a bystander, we would all have been coerced into believing the RCMP story that the poor, deceased Polish immigrant was a "giant of a man, threatening the life of no less than four members of the force (with a stapler perhaps weighing 4 ounces)and that they had to taser repeatedly whilst wrestling him to the ground". Add to that the recent events in B.C.= The death in custody in Houston, or Vanderhoof. I wonder about other issues that haven't been reported. And I hear the "testimonies" of the RCMP, who clearly have no problem in lying like rugs, even in the face of the factual video we have all become familiar with. Is this the mentality we need to enforce our laws, and keep the public peace? No, I think we deserve a lot better.

I think the RCMP needs to be broken up and disbanded to a new provincial force with the required retraining done for all officers in the new force.

At the federal level the RCMP should be replaced with an investigative force similar to the FBI in the states that works on crime investigations and not dealing with day to day general policing.

The new provincial police forces should be subject to civilian oversight through the provincial governments IMO.

Ya, but then WTH do you know!

I do not have a hate on for the RCMP nor do I consider myself to be a liberal weeny (unless this means I love hot dogs), and there is very little that scares me or surprises me in this world anymore. Oh...and I'm not a preacher, please accept my apologies for coming across like one.
This is just one persons opinion.

The individual RCMP members in this case will probably never forget this incident and they shouldn't. As a group they made a decision to taser a man until he died and then proceeded to try lying their way out of the whole situation.
As "willowynde" stated above, with out the private video taken we probably would not have heard about any of this and this mans mother would still be minus a son, but she would be left wondering "WHY". "All she knows is her son is gone and never coming back".
When this type of behavior is deployed by individuals, groups, RCMP or otherwise, the people involved need to be prepared to accept the consequences of their actions. I do not believe that the job of being an RCMP officer is thankless. Some members actually directly and indirectly save lives every day and for me this is all the thanks that is required in this job. The rest of it may be a surprise to the many that delve into the career of an officer of the law. They find that criminals are not nice people and their boss's are not so nice either...but guess what the majority of the world population is not of the criminal mind...they are actually kinda nice and not deserving of the same approach that a criminal minded person would be subject to.
I have worked in environments where senior individuals who call the shots within corporations have purposefully gone out of their way to find some one to use as a sacrificial lamb to get the message across to the mass's, in this respect the result is many innocent people get hurt without good reason. Even that low life criminal that is being described above deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.
We could debate all manners of reasons why this incident happened the way it did and we can even allow that perhaps in the heat of battle a poor decision was made.
What I struggle with is the basic truth, which is, the officers and their superiors are doing every thing in their power to protect their own, even to the point of lying to the world. This type of behavior, to me does not indicate remorse or responsibility for the killing of a perceived innocent person. This appears to be a corporation trying to protect "their own" rather than to protect and serve the public. We as human beings are charged with the responsibility of caring for the lives around us and the decisions we make will dictate the burden that we as individuals will have to carry around for the rest of our lives, just because some wear badges and carry weapons does not mean they are exonerated from this basic principal of life.
I do agree that I have not walked a mile in "their shoes" so therefore I do not see or experience what they do on a daily basis. Does this mean that what I saw in the CBC report did not happen?...does this mean that people should be exonerated for doing bad things just because they wear a badge or carry a weapon. I think not.
I am not a police officer but having been in similar situations without the support of a weapon or other people, let me tell you it does not take long for a person to learn how to communicate.
I believe, the wrong approach was deployed. I believe that cool heads, compassion and a desire to try to understand the situation at hand would have resulted in a peaceful outcome. I believe that it is way to easy to pull the gun or the taser, simply because these weapons are close at hand, and there appears to be no attempt to verbally communicate first.
So a guy kicks a chair,
so a guy picks up a stapler,
so a guys yells in an agitated manner at people who are being aggressive with him.....does this make him a dangerous person....the answer is no...but anyone can become dangerous if you push them to hard. This whole situation was misread and mishandled by our trained police officers and the action taken was inappropriate.

In the case of the mans death at Vancouver airport the blame rests with the airport staff. If they had showen some compassion and got someone who understood him to talk to him [in an airport there should be someone coming or going who spoke polish] the RCMP would not have been called. In fact there was a person who spoke polish sitting right there for most or all of the time. HIS MOTHER. Was it to much trouble to put two and two together . POLISH LADY ASKING FOR HER SON POLISH MAN SITTING IN LIMBO Get real people. It should be someone at the airport facing the heat. Not the RCMP.

I dont want to defend the RCMP officers in this case. However, before the armchair experts get too carried away describing how cops shopuld or should not handle people we ought to remember the world isnt what it once was. It is now not only possible but even likely to get hepatitus or even HIV from many of the people you might have to reastrain. That abusive drunk/junkie OFTEN spits or bites or bleeds on the arresting officers or attending medics. I dont blame the RCMP for preferring to zap em and wrap em rather than wrestle around and maybe spend the next few weeks/ months waiting to see the results of some blood tests.
If you are messed up enough to threaten the cops then you are already a danger to yourself, regardless of whether you get tasered or not. If the cops have to worry about making people dangerous by pushing them too hard then how in blazes are they supposed to do their job? I dont think the folks who advocate respect and manners and sensitivity training for police officers know much about the job. Further, i think people EARN respect and consideration by behaving within the law. THose who break the law need to expect some smackdown.
It is getting pretty bad when the family of the man shot dead by police in vancouver are complaining that they stopped him just because he matched the description of robbery suspect they were searching for.
When everyone thinks they have the right to disobey the law, resist arrest and make money in court for every perceived slight then it wont really matter what protocols the police have to follow. We wont have any law, or any reason to expect people to risk their skins to uphold it.

PS How many of you would charge around a foreign airport trashing the place because you were stuck in the airport and not allowed to leave? I for one would have been scared and accordingl docile. I sure as well would have gone really, really quietly when the polish/german/italian/ whatever police showed up in force!

One has to wonder if the Polish visitor ,might have had phycologicle problems ?before he got here.

"Further, i think people EARN respect and consideration by behaving within the law. THose who break the law need to expect some smackdown."

Ummm ... how much of a threat was the old guy in the wheelchair that got tazered?

Gimme a break. I saw the video and I know what I saw, sorry. I've also been following the cops' testimonies on the news. Real believable bunch ... they'll have to do better than that to convince me their actions were justified.

Tazered not only once or twice ... but 5 times.

He never stood a chance.