Mr. Robert Dziekanski did not deserve to die but he died because incompetent, immoral RCMP police officers neglected their training and obligation to the public, clearly acted excessively and in haste, and wrongfully escalated almost instantly to the conducted energy Taser weapon, had killed an innocent man in the process. The four RCMP officers on the scene had wrongfully overreacted to the situation before them. An innocent man died as a result of their misjudgment and excessive use of force. ”
Their after-incident reports at the time disagree with the video evidence and, more damagingly, with their sworn statements to the Braidwood commission. They each claimed Mr. Dziekanski refused to co-operate with them, although the video evidence seems to indicate he, being a non-speaker of English, was complying the best he could with commands they gave by gesture. And while they insisted he became “combative,” picked up a stapler to use as a weapon and lunged at them, none of that is supported in the video recordings. More damning for me was what the officers told paramedics on the scene. While the officers had jolted Mr. Dziekanski five times with their Taser, they informed paramedics they had stunned the blue-faced, convulsive, breathless victim only once, a possible sign that even then they knew they had done something wrong and were preparing a common cover story.”
And ever since, their RCMP superiors also falsely have been attempting to cover up their blameworthiness. They tried to block a comprehensive video taken at the scene from being made public. They resisted an inquiry, whitewashed their own findings and, as we learned this week, kept 18,000 documents — some highly damaging — from being seen by the formal inquiry and from the public. These great unacceptable transgressions — the attempts also by the brass to keep the truth from coming out — is the basic managerial problem now plaguing the once-proud national police force. It confirms the massive institutional rot and corrosive culture at all of the echelons of the RCMP. An RCMP formal apologize for its role in all this is not enough. All Mounties who helped perpetrate a cover-up should be sacked.
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