Posted by Damozel | Back in 2000, when airport security was worse than it is now and airlines' treatment of bilked and frustrated customers just about as bad, my husband Don died suddenly. It was Christmas, my friends were all out town, and I lived hundreds of miles away from my family. My brother drove to Florida and drove me back up to Carolina for a few days so I could be with my ailing mother before my late husband's funeral.
When my mother took me to the airport a day before the funeral, we got caught in traffic. As a result,...
the airline gave away my premium-price seat and coldly---in that gelid-eyed, dead-souled broken-record way that the world's airlines train their personnel to use with their abused customers---told me that they could get me a seat on a plane the next day (the day of the funeral). It came with a severe rebuke for my having been late and the standard-issue strong assurance that my problem was not their problem, though they'd "see" if they could help me.
Well, my friends, I "had a hissy fit," as my elderly (and mortified) mother framed it.
As a plea in mitigation, let me point out that I was grief-stricken, emotionally depleted, exhausted, scared at the prospect of returning (alone) to the house where I'd lived with my (dead) husband; dreading the funeral, dreading the flight (I have a phobia about flying) and on and on. I yelled at the employee, who of course responded like an android with a broken empathy chip, and stomped out. Eventually, a (female) guard rather kindly tracked me down and firmly forced me to return to the lobby. A man whom I hope heaven/fate will reward gave up his seat, bless him, so I could go to the funeral. Humiliatingly, I cried all the way home. I will NEVER forgive that airline----or really, any airline----for what this normally conciliatory-to-a-fault, equable, diplomatic, soft-spoken, middle-aged lady went through on that terrible day, right down to the humiliation of being spoken as if I were a mental patient and forcibly/gently made to go back and be 'reasonable' in front of the bemused other passengers.
But today it seems I have cause to be thankful that it wasn't worse, because via Charles at "Mercury Rising" I found this report at AOL News of a non-English-speaking Polish man being tasered to death at Vancouver Airport by the Canadian Mounties for---in circumstances that might not be justifiable but that most people would find understandable:
A video of a Polish immigrant being jolted with a police Taser at the Vancouver airport shows the man screaming and writhing in pain on the floor shortly before he dies.
The video, taken by another traveler on Oct. 14, shows four Royal Canadian Mounted Police converging on Robert Dziekanski, who could not speak English and who had languished in the airport arrivals area for 10 hours after his flight arrived last month. (Man Dies After Airport Tasering)
Charles and I once had a temperate, courteous argument-in-comments over the use of tasering and whether it should be lawful. A friend of mine who is a small-town prosecutor (and who used to think it was a good way for the cops to subdue dangerous criminals without using lethal force) subsequently attempted to set me straight. She believes it should be outlawed and was so sickened by a video of repeated (fatal) tasering she saw that she quit her job.
And now I have seen a lethal tasering for myself..
Charles at Mercury Rising:
He had damaged some property and was behaving erratically. At the time he was shocked, he was surrounded by four police officers. At no time had he endangered the life of anyone at the airport.
Requiescat in pace, Robert. (The Taser: a substitute for lethal force? )
A Canadian traveler who witnessed the incident shot the video. Here's the BBC report for those who don't want to look at it (better not, perhaps).
It starts before the police arrive, with Mr Dziekanski seen through a glass wall in a customs area. He appears agitated, sweating and breathing heavily. Airport security officials and passengers watch from the other side.
Having landed 10 hours earlier, he is seen pacing back and forth through an automatic door, standing briefly in the doorway with a small folding table, and then later with a chair.
At one point, he takes what looks like a laptop computer off a counter and throws it to the ground, and then throws the small table against the glass wall.
Four policemen then walk into view. They walk through the glass doors towards Mr Dziekanski, who turns his back on them. Witnesses say he appeared to pick up a stapler.
Seconds later, Mr Dziekanski is stunned by a Taser and falls down screaming and convulsing.
He is stunned a second time, and then the police officers restrain him on the floor. Mr Dziekanski's screams die down, and he is seen lying still.
A voice is heard saying "code red", which is code for a medical emergency.
An autopsy found no sign of drugs or alcohol in Mr Dziekanski's system, and failed to pinpoint the cause of death. (Canadian stun gun death on video, BBC News)
Here's the backstory: The tasering victim had come to Canada to visit his mother. (BBC News) The victim had never flown before and didn't speak English. (BBC News) Neither he nor his mother realized that the place where they were supposed to meet was inside a secure area with no view of the arrival gate. After 10 hours of waiting---she had gone home after six hours--- he panicked. (BBC News) No one, the report adds, tried to help him. (BBC News) The family's lawyer said, ""I was expecting to see a confrontation, a discussion and things go sideways, then the tasering... That's not what you see," he said "(BBC News) .
No, because this man, like me on my own (privately) historic occasion was scared, emotionally exhausted, and---eventually---panicked and had a meltdown.
Here's the video:
A person who watched the video commented, "I've got epilepsy. If I was tasered, I would die. I would rather be shot in my arm or leg."
Really? Because so do I have epilepsy; or at least I apparently have, or have had, some form of seizure disorder. Would being tasered kill me? If so, I guess I am lucky that the police in the airport where I made my unladylike scene weren't using tasers. Would I have died? If I had, it would have killed my mother and I'd never have lived to meet my now husband Nick. Because make no mistake about it: I made---by post-911 standards---a scene.
True, I didn't destroy property or behave in a way that threatened anyone. But that is because I was a grown up lady in my forties with some controls still in place (and my mother present)---and "airport security" was still called, because they didn't want an angry, weeping, scene-causing fortyish widow wandering round loose. What if I'd been a dark-haired, dark-eyed non-English-speaking man?
What were they thinking? I don't know. But, as the lawyer points out, you don't really see any attempt by the police to find out what is going on with the poor man. Do the police, or some of them, think tasers are a "safe" alternative to subduing someone and that you should subdue first, ask questions after?
It won't matter to Mr. Dziekanski or his grief-stricken, inconsolable mother. And---just so you keep this in perspective ---when I checked an AOL poll, 22% of the 52,000 or so people polled so far "yes" to the question "Does this tasering seem warranted?" Frankly, I know a lot of people who would say yes; he was acting violently toward property in the airport. But bizarrely enough for tasering to be the police's first response?
What if someone with a disability behaves "bizarrely"? What if someone with a seizure disorder (like me) does? It can happen? I've definitely been known to behave "erratically" prior to a seizure. What if someone who has a mental disorder gets frustrated and starts flinging around property? What if something awful has happened to the person so that their normal controls (and defenses) are down? What if such a person has just been driven over the edge by being first mistreated and then treated like a pariah by airport personnel trained in the art of reducing customers to a puddle of tears, sweat, and frustration OR by hours of wandering helplessly about, being completely ignored by them?
I don't know why Mr. Dziekanski didn't try to get help for himself before going berserk. But human beings are human beings. They have a frustration threshold. They sometimes panic (for good reasons or no reason) and behave in ways that require intervention.
In this instance, the issue (for me) is what degree of force should be used by police against civilians behaving erratically. It's going to happen.
Perhaps it is necessary for the police to have some way of subduing those who are potentially dangerous without having to risk getting killed themselves. For me to decide that tasering should be outlawed, I'd need information about the alternatives available to police and---in particular---what they'd do instead if they didn't have tasers.
For me, the problem in this case isn't the taser, but what I'd consider its seriously premature use. . If these Mounties hadn't had tasers, what would they have done instead here? And what were their options short of causing the poor man's death? My husband, who was a special constable for years with London's Metropolitan police, walking a beat in that city, assures me that there are alternatives (the UK does not permit tasering).
It seems to me that tasers, if authorized at all, should be recognized as an extreme response and potentially lethal. In other words, they should only be used in situations in which a reasonable person would agree that the person presents an apparent danger to the police (screw property). Perhaps they should only be authorized in situations where the police would clearly be authorized in shooting someone. Or perhaps they should be outlawed. Because with fear at such a pitch as it is now in airports, aren't the police and security personnel in these situations more likely to see subduing resistance as the FIRST resort?
And because, as Mercury Rising puts it, Who will guard the guardians?
Click for full-sized photograph, "Triptych," by {standard grey/c;olson} / eciad?!, who writes:
"Video by Paul Pritchard
R.I.P Robert Dziekanski
Respect to both. And his mother."the cops in Vancouver have been pretty notorious for various shenanigans, the RCMP as a whole have been steadily losing their credibility---both police forces seem to think they are not accountable for their actions. I genuinely hope this acts as the tipping point. Seriously---I want heads to roll whether in the RCMP or among airport staff for letting his happen, or to be specific: letting it escalate via complete negligence to such a tragic point. No excuse.
I don't want this incident to be lost in the 24-hour news cycle's collective amnesia, which is why I made this piece, I guess."
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After 6 Years and $20+ Billion, Airport Security Still Lacking
With regard to MercRising, that's a very gracious post, Damozel. And a very touching one as regards your own experience. When we are able to see ourselves in the other, we gain much wisdom.
Posted by: Charles | November 16, 2007 at 03:19 AM
Wow. What a tragedy. I watched the video and I have to say, I'm very upset by the way the police acted once this many was unconscious. They just seemed to be walking around like it was no big deal. It's very scary to think that a person could receive this kind of treatment. Imagine how this poor guy felt. He spoke no English, had been flying for many, many hours, was lost, and could get no help. I think I would become irate also...only I would have behaved alot worse!
Posted by: Sonya | November 16, 2007 at 11:25 AM
There was a story a week or two ago about two officers tasering an 80 year-old woman with a mental illness. Apparently social services had called because she was acting erratically. The officers entered the house and tasered her without trying any other method to subdue her. I believe she suffered some sort of injury and their excuse was that they believed their lives were in danger.
If these were guns, they absolutely would not be allowed to shoot first and deal with the consequences later. I think too many law enforcement personnel are given these tasers without any kind of restriction training or guidelines so they are lazily resorting to them for everything rather than deal with situations themselves.
P.S. I completely can relate to your airport experience. Two years ago, coming back from my grandmother's funeral in Florida I had a similar experience except my flight was canceled after I'd flown one leg of the journey. After 10 uncomfortable, miserable hours in the Atlanta airport and having a second flight canceled as I was two feet from boarding it, I had a similar emotional melt down when they stoically told me it would be days before I could go home. I did in fact make it home that night.
Posted by: J. Lynne | November 16, 2007 at 01:38 PM
Man look the police is brain wash it did not take all them two take him down the only reason they did that because they are train that way and you would think if they were train the right way knowing that if someone is not arm with nothing that they could easylyput him in cuff but they wanna ack like little kids and try out they new toy well if I was one of them officers I would of communicated with the man find out the problem he was gone behave im smart like that his only one man I took down men bigger than me and I did noy kill them
Thats just only one man one man not no beast
thank for your time JESUS love you and SO DO I
Posted by: Odvelt O Augustin Jr. | November 17, 2007 at 12:34 PM