What You See In The Dziekanski Video Is Not Really What You See

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 03:45 AM

The Lawyer representing the RCMP at the Braidwood Inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski had to dig hard and deep to come up with their new witness at the inquiry this week.

Duane MacInnis a Professional Engineer testified that what we saw on that video of the tazering and subsequent death of the polish immigrant is not exactly what happened.

Well it depends you see where your are standing and at what height that would enable a trained person to be able to say whether Dziekanski started towards the police and that is why they tazered him five times.

I tried to watch the event (and the testimony should be referred to in that manner) but couldn’t last because tears were rolling down my cheeks at the silliness of it all.

It would make a great defence in a trial where the police have taken a video confession of the guy saying he killed, Oh say John with an axe.

He could later argue that what you see on the tape that the police are offering up in court as evidence is really not what was going on. The video distorts the manner in which the confession was taken thereby; the case must be thrown out. After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Then the line could be taken, well honey you may have seen and taken pictures of Marry Lou and I in the bar but it actually was all just an optical illusion. That excuse might earn you a frying pan on the head but the idea is just as silly as was tried at the Braidwood inquiry by the RCMP lawyers, they thought it was worth a try.

Why in the world they could not just leave well enough alone is hard to fathom. You blew it, plain and simple and instead of trying to come up with one more excuse, how about just old plain I’m Sorry, really, really sorry.

I’m Meisner and that’s’ one man’s opinion.

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Posted on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: MoneKate on May 27 2009 5:30 AM

I'm so pissed at this whole thing I can't belive how they are trying to write a wrong. Why can't they admit they did not handle this as they should have and they put policies in place so this will not ever happen again. I am loosing so much respect for the RCMP in this huge cover up. Why is it so important that they justify in using this taser on a man with a stapler?

Posted by: shesmiles on May 27 2009 6:33 AM

As far as I'm concerned it's manslaughter, sure they probably didn't want to kill the poor man, but they did. Tazered 5 times, total "over kill", he didn't have a loaded gun, but a loaded stapler? One of him and how many crooked cops were there? It appears that some of the members of our coveted RCMP are not using any skill, there must be a safer way to take down one, terrified person without killing him with electricity. I'm not even sure how they can defend themselves? They kill him, plain and simple. He wasn't a criminal, he wasn't breaking the law - the situation was handled by barbarians who should lose their careers over this. Total misuse of power.

Posted by: taxinapothole on May 27 2009 6:35 AM

I said it before, and I will say it again. When we allowed women into the RCMP, we had to reduce the size requirement of any officer wanting to enter the force, male or female! That is the problem!

So now, instead of using brute force, get out the tasers and the pepper spray! The RCMP have become a bunch of gun toting, taser toting, pepper spraying bunch of thugs, plain and simple! They are the biggest gang in Canada!

It is time we revamp our national police force, because as it sits today, it is a national disgrace!

Posted by: taxinapothole on May 27 2009 6:43 AM

And may I say one more thing, In Mr. Dziekanski particular case, these were not 4 SMALL COPS, These were very large cops, that took this inocent man down, and then tasered him! They should go to jail for the rest of there lives!!

Posted by: diplomat on May 27 2009 7:07 AM

This was already a very sad event, but what makes it even more sad is that these burly enforcers of the law are now making a spectacle of themselves (amongst other things) by claiming they had conducted the *takedown* with 100% efficiency and that there was no other option.

And, of course, that they would handle the event in the same manner if they had to do it all over again! And, why wouldn't they if they so far failed to admit any mistake or wrongful action?

If this is the new standard of conduct and method how fearful does the ordinary citizen have to be if for instance for some medical reason she/he exhibits behaviour which falls outside the so-called accepted ordinary?

Suppose an abnormal public conduct is due to a diabetic or extreme stress reaction?

Scary, indeed.

Posted by: northman on May 27 2009 7:28 AM

Taxi you have reached a new low!

Posted by: seamutt on May 27 2009 7:56 AM

No the cops have hit a new low. Be careful out there folks Regina Depot is turning out new knuckle draggers! In their eyes everyone is guilty until proven dead.

Posted by: Thunder on May 27 2009 9:50 AM

Did Taxi just put the blame on women?

Posted by: Loki on May 27 2009 11:12 AM

I don't think he blames women, just that due to the need to allow them on the force created a situation where entrance requirements were reduced. The only requirements that were reduced were the physical size requirements. Nothing to do with intelligence.

With officers being smaller, the RCMP had to develop and train to different tactics.

The issue was the RCMP officers decision to deploy the tazer within 30 seconds of the encounter. He was itching to see how it worked on a live subject. Of course all the other officers had to rally behind the trigger man and the rest of the RCMP had to back up their decision.

The saddest part of the entire situation is that it will take a foreign government to charge and convict the trigger man with manslaughter and the others with accessory to manslaughter.

Posted by: Resident on May 27 2009 11:53 AM

WOW! Unbelievable what lengths the RCMP will go to to try and have their verson of the events trotted out before the public as the real truth of what happened.
If only the RCMP had realized the errors made and disciplined the officers there would not be such a public backlash. This whole episode smells of a cover up instigated by the highest levels of the RCMP.

Posted by: Arthur Williams on May 27 2009 2:34 PM

To all the folks bashing the cops here, how do you suggest they should have taken him down? Captain Kirk's phaser set on stun? Wave Harry Potter's magic wand at him? Reality doesn't work like Hollywood. Wrestling with someone agitated is just likely to hurt them and you.

The officers did their job professionally, and 99.99% of the time he would have been totally fine. They encountered a guy freaking out in a sensitive security area, so they dealt with it. They did exactly what they should have.

The blame for his death falls with the airport security, who should have found him hours earlier and escorted him to his mother.

Posted by: Clean on May 27 2009 3:13 PM

The police sure appear to be the new low lifes of society.

Posted by: Nowicki on May 27 2009 5:42 PM

The guy was in the airport arrivals so for sure he was not carrying any guns because he has passed through several levels of security. The Police should have said:
"PASSPORT" and then called a translator based on the country of origin, as simple as that, not killing the guy.

This mess could have been avoided if the money spent on the inquiry was awarded to the mother with an apology. Now the RCMP is in a deeper mess that original charges, because of all new "obstruction of justice", false testimony, cover ups and ... .

Unfortunately this is the way things are done by BC politicians. They try to cover up the mess they created in the first place and it becomes a bigger public relations mess and humilating them publicly. Reminds me of things in UNBC and up north it is called "snowball effect".

Posted by: Spikepg on May 27 2009 6:41 PM

There are certainly some less invasive ways to restrain someone who may be of danger to himself and others. In the field of human service many of us have taken a course called Therapeutic Crisis Intervention. This course teaches us how to safely and quickly restrain someone which is not harmful to them in any way. It also provides both the "aggressor" and the "helper" safety until the situation has calmed or until additional assistance has arrived. This may have been something which could have been tried...maybe while waiting for a translator.

Posted by: polar7018 on May 27 2009 7:58 PM

i can't believe that macinnes is telling everyone that has seen the video {must be in the millions}, that what they saw was not what happened.that's another EXPERT
bought over by the rcmp.what do they think we are,a bunch of kids or something.
i'm just wondering if they sit and watch clint eastwoods dirty harry movies when they are supposedly being trained.
STINKS.

Posted by: hammmy on May 27 2009 7:59 PM

Purely pathetic. Very disappointed in this current system.

Posted by: supertech on May 27 2009 9:05 PM

The officers did not do their job with efficiency as A Williams suggests. They murdered someone they hadn't even conversed with and that's because all they can get in the RCMP these days are knuckle draggers. Most young people have more self esteem.

Posted by: skabowl1 on May 27 2009 9:26 PM

supertech.......I take odds with you on the KNuckle draggers assertation...there are many many dedicated excellent men and women in the RCMP, many of whom I suspect are as upset by their superiors and the 4 knuckle draggers involved in this incident.
By bringing in a so called " expert" to tell us that we cannot see and should defer to him, the RCMP HQ are proving to all of us that the top dogs do have to go. They keep trying to circle the wagons and in the process are running over their own toes!!........If it were not for the death, this would almost be a Laurel and Hardy cartoon!
If everyone had accepted fault for their mistakes early on, then I would have been happy to see a rap on the knuckles for the 4 and some additional mandated training. The fact that the 4 and their superiors have gone to such great lengths to try to lie and cover up changes that totally. The 4 and their superiors all need to go. We cannot as our police force people who believe so strongly in mistruths, untruths and downright lies. The 4 made a serious mistake to start.......after that is where things really started to get bad!

Posted by: taxinapothole on May 28 2009 8:32 AM

It was murder, very simple!!!