Monday, April 21, 2008

TransLink Cops Will Continue To Taser Fare Dodgers

From http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2008/042108_translink_cops.htm


 


 






TransLink Cops Will Continue To Taser Fare Dodgers
"Non-compliant" passengers will be tortured until they behave properly







Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Monday, April 21, 2008


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Police patrolling Greater Vancouver's TransLink system will continue to Taser "non-compliant" passengers and fare dodgers a news conference heard Friday, providing more evidence to indicate that the notorious stun gun has become a tool of official oppression and torture.

Insp. Bob Huston told media Friday that the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service will allow officers to Taser non-threatening passengers at their own discretion following a complaint filed by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

The group provided documents to indicate that passengers who did not pay fares were tasered by police, but this was denied by Huston, even though those documents were from his own police department.

"The latest controversy over Taser use erupted this week after an article on The Vancouver Sun's editorial pages revealed the TransLink police -- Canada's only armed transit police force -- has used Tasers at least 10 times since last July," reports The Vancouver Sun.

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"The department's own records state that in four of those cases, the electro-shock device was used against non-violent, non-threatening passengers. In three of the incidents, the passengers Tasered were being investigated for possible fare evasion."


Asked whether allowing Tasers to be used against anyone who is "non-compliant" is a pretty broad policy, Huston responded, "Yes," "We depend upon the judgment of our officers to deploy the Tasers properly."


Since a Taser is used to ensure fealty by means of "pain compliance," the fact that Canadian cops have now officially asserted the right to torture non-violent citizens who pose no threat whatsoever is proof that Canada is an oppressive police state.


Huston insisted that Taser use was completely safe, despite the international furore that was created last October when Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died after being Tasered by RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport.


The use of Tasers as a tool of official oppression is skyrocketing. The United Nations' Committee Against Torture determined the stun guns to be "a form of torture" that "can even cause death." Amnesty International says it has recorded 245 cases of Taser-related deaths.

Perhaps Canadians should even count themselves lucky that police are armed with mere stun guns and not actual machine guns, as is the case with "Viper" teams that patrol subways and trains in major American cities.

How far are we from the day when travelers on all forms of public transport are forced to wear "Taser bracelets" so that authorities may induce electric shocks wirelessly to ensure compliant behavior?

As we previously reported, The Department of Homeland Security is pursuing the introduction of a device known as the Security Bracelet, a wearable tag that would allow authorities to inflict pain compliance on suspects from a distance, while also recommending law enforcement applications and potential use in "crowd control situations".

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