Henry Aubin on the Police Murder of Robert Dziekanski

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cellphone-video of an RCMP murder:
Robert Dziekanski was killed on October 14 in
Vancouver International Airport

Pulling the plug on Taser deaths
INCLUDING A CAMERA on the electric-shock weapon would help clear up questions on its use

HENRY AUBIN

Everyone is appalled by the tragic death of a man in Vancouver after police shot him with a Taser. But you don’t have to go far to find other cases of questionable use of this electric-shock weapon.

So far this fall, two men have died in Quebec after police tasered them. Unlike the death of Robert Dziekanski in Vancouver International Airport, no videos exist of the incidents, and they have received too little attention in the Montreal media.

On Oct. 14, the same day that Dziekanski died, Montreal police stopped Quilem Registre, 38, because of his erratic driving in the St. Michel area. Police say they shot him with a Taser because he was aggressive. Cocaine has been linked to numerous deaths of tasered people, and tests show that cocaine was in Registre’s blood when he was admitted to hospital after the incident. Relatives say he was in a coma for three days and suffered heart problems before he died.

The other case is still more troubling because a witness says the victim was peaceful. Claudio Castagnetta, a 32-yearold translator, was arrested for loitering barefoot and acting strangely inside a small grocery store in Quebec City. Unlike Registre, he had no criminal record.

The store owner who called police because of Castagnetta’s annoying presence told the Quebec City newspaper Le Soleil that when he asked the man what he was doing, “To my great surprise, he was not at all arrogant and was very diplomatic.” The store owner said that when the cops arrived, Castagnetta told them he had the right to be where he was. When police took him to their cruiser and tried to put handcuffs on him, he resisted – not with violence but by making his body rigid.

Two witnesses say police fired a Taser at him not once but at least three times – although they were unable to say how many times the weapon’s two darts hit him. It took six cops to bring him under control while lying on his stomach. Afterward, he was well enough to tell a lawyer that he suffered from bipolar disorder, but he died two days later in his cell.

Let me say right off that there’s not a mote of evidence that the Taser directly caused the deaths of Dziekanski, Castagnetta or Registre. Eight police forces in this province use Tasers (including the Sûreté du Québec and the Laval and Longueuil police), and a spokesperson for Quebec’s public security ministry, which oversees police, stresses that no deaths are directly attributable to the weapon since its introduction here in 2001.

The key word in all this, of course, is “directly.” The fact is that people hit with Tasers have a way of dying shortly thereafter. Amnesty International counts 18 such deaths in Canada and more than 240 in the U.S.

The only time police ought to be able to use Tasers is to defend either themselves or other citizens from life-threatening attack or injury – precisely the same criteria that governs (or is supposed to govern) police use of firearms.

We can’t tell if the Registre case meets that criteria because Montreal police have divulged so little about it. But the Castagnetta and Dziekanski cases flagrantly fail the test. First, neither victim had threatened police or endangered the public in any way. Second, police fired the Taser at them more than once, then pounced on them en masse (possibly inflicting serious injury on Dziekanski when an officer knelt on his neck).

Both times, then, police used the weapon gratuitously as an easy way to master people. Pardon me if I sound like the National Rifle Association, but Tasers don’t kill people, irresponsible police do.

A way exists to deter police from such casual use of this dangerous device. Taser International now makes a camera that clips on to a Taser and records what’s happening in video and audio. The company’s website notes that this “offers increased accountability – not just for officers, but for the people they arrest. Until now, it’s been the officer’s word against the suspect’s word.” If the suspect survives, that is.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has made the camera a precondition for introducing the Taser to his country. This little gizmo might be worth the Charest government’s consideration.

The above is from today's Montreal Gazette - i apologize for not having time to write about this myself, as some of you have noticed i'm posting a lot less these days. Too much work, and it's not showing any signs of abating...

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RCMP Dirty Tricks

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Comrades should be reading the following article, not because we have any sympathy with drug lords - reactionary scum often in bed with the cops - but because what the RCMP did to them they will most certainly be willing to do to us...

The victims of this police investigation had not been found guilty of anything, but had their homes broken into, money stolen, and were set up to go on a murderous vendetta against each other as a result.

You know if they're pulling this shit here, they're gonna be doing worst against the oppressed and against any revolutionary or insurgent movement they can fuck with. COINTELPRO Canadian style...

From today's Gazette:

Alleged trafficker reels as $2.9 million vanishes
RCMP took cash from basement hiding spot

WILLIAM MARSDEN, The Gazette
Published: Tuesday, March 13, 2007

During its three-year investigation of the Italian Mafia in Montreal, the RCMP secretly broke into cars, homes and safes of alleged drug dealers and bookmakers, seizing millions of dollars in cash and sowing dissent and confusion among gangsters that almost led to a homicide.

On the night of Sept. 14, 2006, the RCMP, acting on a search warrant, broke into a Laval home belonging to the parents of a suspected drug trafficker and seized $2.9 million.

The trafficker and his wife and parents were on vacation in Las Vegas when police searched the house. The money belonged partially to the trafficker and partially to Giuseppe (Pep) Torre, according to court documents.

Police allege that Torre operated a drug-smuggling ring through Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. The drug trafficker, who cannot be named because of a court order, organized cocaine shipments for Torre, police allege.

The RCMP found the money hidden under the basement steps in a metal box and in a sports bag. The two containers were stuffed with 28,794 $100 bills, plus one $50 bill.

The police seized both containers of cash.

The next day, the trafficker returned alone from Las Vegas and panicked when he discovered the theft. As police listened on their wiretaps, the trafficker immediately called Torre, told him about the missing cash and said: "Pep, I'm finished."

"Don't tell me this, man," Torre replied.

The trafficker asked Torre to come to his parents' home.

Then he called his wife and father in Las Vegas. "Listen to me, they took everything. I have nothing left, so ... nothing, nothing."

His father tried to reassure him, reminding him that he was still alive. The trafficker told his father the robbers must have known the money was in the house.

He said what really shocked him was that just before leaving for Las Vegas, "I put in an extra $250,000."

The trafficker told his father he believed his brother-in-law was the thief.

Police then picked up a call to Torre from the trafficker's wife in Las Vegas. She pleaded with him to go to her home in Laval and retrieve money she had hidden behind towels in the bathroom. He could not go because he had to protect his parents' home.

In another phone call, the trafficker told Torre: "I'm gonna f---g choke the guy, cause I'm gonna kill him." Police claim he was referring to his brother-in-law.

The trafficker phoned his sister, told her about the theft and accused her husband. She denied he had anything to do with the theft and told him he should be looking at his "black friends."

The trafficker then phoned Alarme Sentinelle, the company that had the security contract for his parents' home.

"The (thieves) are right now counting their millions, all in browns ($100 bills). It's my money. It's my life. It's my daughter. It's my whole future."

The trafficker called his sister and told her he was going to get his gun and find her husband. He then headed downtown to look for his brother-in-law.

About 10 minutes later, Montreal police stopped the trafficker, searched his car and found a firearm. The car was seized and the trafficker arrested.

After the arrest, Torre arranged for several sacks of money to be picked up at the trafficker's home in Laval. Torre got his wife, Polisena delle Donne, to fetch the money.

On Sept. 18, Torre held a meeting at the Bar Laennec with fellow alleged underbosses to discuss the $2.9-million loss. The police had bugged the bar.

In a second incident, police followed a bookmaker around the city as he delivered money. The man had been running cash from illegal gambling operations in Ottawa and Montreal where betters gambled about $1 billion a year, primarily on sports.

When he left his car to enter a betting shop, police opened his trunk and took a suitcase containing about $43,000 in cash.

In a third case, police broke into the home of another suspected drug dealer, opened his safe and seized about $200,000 in Canadian and $80,000 U.S. cash.

Again, the drug dealer had no idea who had taken his money.

The three-year investigation ended on Nov. 22, 2006, when police arrested 91 people, including alleged leaders of Montreal's Italian Mafia Nicolo Rizzuto, 82, Francesco Arcadi, Paola Renda, Giuseppe Torre, Lorenzo (Skunk) Giordano and Francesco del Balso. The trafficker who lost the $2.9 million was also charged.

The charges include drug trafficking, illegal gambling, money laundering and gangsterism. A trial date has not yet been set.

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