{"id":4133,"date":"2008-07-14T13:23:03","date_gmt":"2008-07-14T12:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=4133"},"modified":"2008-07-14T13:23:03","modified_gmt":"2008-07-14T12:23:03","slug":"tasers-used-on-suicidal-mentally-ill-in-ottawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/surveillance-big-brother\/tasers-used-on-suicidal-mentally-ill-in-ottawa\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasers used on suicidal, mentally ill in Ottawa"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Neco Cockburn<\/a> | More than half the people shocked with a Taser by Ottawa city police over the last eight years have been suicidal, mentally ill or emotionally disturbed, reports obtained by the Ottawa Citizen say.<\/p>\n

The newspaper obtained use-of-force reports for 115 Taser-related incidents between Oct. 15, 2000, and March of this year through a freedom of information request.<\/p>\n

That time period begins just a few months after the Taser was introduced in the city as part of a pilot project.<\/p>\n

Although most incidents occurred in houses or apartments, at least three people were hit with a Taser in hospitals and four others in police cellblocks, the reports said.<\/p>\n

In one incident, Ottawa police officers arrived at an apartment one night about five years ago to find a suicidal male with four steak knives embedded in his stomach.<\/p>\n

He did not follow their commands, so officers drew a gun, but used a Taser instead, and took him into custody within about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

The reports are regulated by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and are to be filled out and reviewed by the police service.<\/p>\n

In another recorded incident, a man armed with a Taser was found in a public bathroom and was struck with a Taser by police after allegedly being unco-operative.<\/p>\n

Several cases involved people who were allegedly actively resisting arrest or threatening and assaulting police officers or other people at a scene.<\/p>\n

In 2000, a male threatened to shoot a paramedic crew that arrived at an apartment. Last year, a “very aggressive, very large six-foot-four, 250 pound male” was “not interested in verbal communications” and threatened three officers at the scene with “I’m going to punch your f—ing lights out.”<\/p>\n

Sixty-five males and 13 females were involved in Taser incidents. The person’s sex was not indicated in 37 reports.<\/p>\n

The high-profile deaths of several people in Canada who had been shocked by Taser have made the use of the device highly controversial. Some say the stun-guns should be banned pending further investigation into their safety, while others argue they save lives.<\/p>\n

Much of the debate was prompted by the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died in October after RCMP officers used a Taser on him at Vancouver International Airport.<\/p>\n

Last month, the RCMP’s watchdog agency issued a report probing the force’s use of Tasers, and recommended that no officer with less than five years experience be allowed to use the device.<\/p>\n

The RCMP public complaints commission also recommended the force instruct its members to immediately seek medical attention for the target of a Taser and make changes to its reporting form in order to include more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Neco Cockburn | More than half the people shocked with a Taser by Ottawa city police over the last eight years have been suicidal, mentally ill or emotionally disturbed, reports obtained by the Ottawa Citizen say. The newspaper obtained use-of-force reports for 115 Taser-related incidents between Oct. 15, 2000, and March of this year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1614,1616],"tags":[49],"class_list":{"0":"post-4133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-surveillance-big-brother","7":"category-usa-news","8":"tag-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}