Contents Disturbing

[leahbobet]

I've been following this story pretty closely:

An eyewitness's video recording of a man dying after being stunned with a Taser by police on Oct. 14 at Vancouver International Airport has been released to the public.

The 10-minute video recording clearly shows four RCMP officers talking to Robert Dziekanski while he is standing with his back to a counter and with his arms lowered by his sides, but his hands are not visible.

About 25 seconds after police enter the secure area where he is, there is a loud crack that sounds like a Taser shot, followed by Dziekanski screaming and convulsing as he stumbles and falls to the floor

[...]

Paul Pritchard shot the video with his digital camera, but afterward he surrendered it to police for their investigation on a promise that they would return it within 48 hours.

The next day, police told Pritchard they would not be returning the recording as promised.

Carr previously stated investigators kept the video longer than they anticipated in order to protect the integrity of the police investigation while they interviewed witnesses.

Saying he feared a coverup by police, Pritchard then engaged a lawyer to start legal proceedings to reclaim the recording.

They have the video up. I'm trying to decide if I have the wherewithal, the responsibility, the right to watch this man die. I don't know. As I've mentioned before, death is the most private thing in my world -- moreso than sex, which is also deeply private -- and I'm torn between that privacy and...I don't know. Bearing witness? Getting it out there?

I will say, this frightens me. It turns my gut.

Folks, please read up on the death of Robert Dziekanski in the Vancouver airport. Please form an informed opinion (which no, doesn't mean my opinion), and write to your MP. When it's on CBC it's pretty much gotten out there, but in my own letter I will be asking for transparency, for oversight, for Parliament to rethink how the staff in airports are trained to react.

Because y'know. I don't want this kind of thing happening in my country.

Comments

[ex-fandrogy.livejournal.com]

Nor do I. The use of tasers in general frightens me, and I think I'm not alone in that opinion -- half of what escalates a situation is that fear, I think. Today they announced new security measures in British airports and I just know that we're going to hear of even more incidents like that simply because people are so frightened of their own authorities. I've heard of people taking Valium to get through their flights, but the new joke might be about needing Xanax just go get through security.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Yeah. You don't stay calm if they might be hauling you off to Gitmo, and then look, you're not calm, get out the tasers.

It's insane.

[monkeyman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been following it as well, and the debates on both sides as to who acted and over-re-acted, but I don't know if I can watch the video.

And, of course, I'll be passing through that airport tomorrow (and going through security twice, since I'm going out to the main area to see a friend for a couple of hours during my layover). It'll be hard not to think about, visual cues or not.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Well, travel safely and easy.

Watching Death Happen

[docdad2.livejournal.com]

I cannot watch it.
I share your consideration that attending/witnessing death is an intimate act. I have been present for too many deaths to want watch another person (whom I do not know) die. A quiet part of me says that to witness another's death without prior relationship lessens that person's passage.

I am sure that if "Non-lethal" police equipment kills then the device is mislabeled.

Re: Watching Death Happen

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I ended up not watching, yeah. It's good to know I'm not the only person who feels that way about witnessing death: I was starting to think it was one of my personal oddities.

And yes. Tasers are...a mess.