Law Enforcement and Autism - Communication Not Tasers

In Canada controversy rages over the use of Tasers. The world has seen the Paul Pritchard video of the death by police arrest of Polish speaking Robert Dziekanski who was Tasered and physically subdued .... to death ... by a group of RCMP officers in a Vancouver airport. As was evident in the video Mr. Dziekanski did not speak English. 18 people in Canada have died after being Tasered since 2003. There are other serious issues raised by the video including why the RCMP fired Taser shots at the gentleman when he appeared to pose no threat to them.

The use of Tasers and other force to "subdue" persons with communication difficulties should be of particular concern to parents and caregivers of persons with autism. As reported in Lessons in autism planned for police " Law enforcement officials in California and Ohio who were not trained in dealing with autism used stun guns to subdue two children with autism earlier this year." The article advertises workshops planned in New Jersey by Dennis Debbaudt who has worked extensively with police forces and whose workshops will focus on "ways to successfully resolve a call involving a person with autism, Asperger's syndrome and other developmental disabilities. The primary goal is to make the community a safer place for people with developmental disabilities."

autism

New Brunswick Public Safety Minister John Foran Decrees Taser Use To Continue

I was disappointed to see the comments from Public Safety Minister John Foran as reported on the CBC New Brunswick web site article N.B. won't ban Tasers, but considers new guidelines. In that interview Minister Foran was reported as indicating, without any explanation, that "New Brunswick Public Safety Minister John Foran says he is not prepared to ban the use of Tasers by the province's police. Foran said his department is looking at developing new guidelines for Taser use, but he sees no need for an immediate ban."

On December 24 2006 I sent an email request to Minister Foran, Premier Graham, Health Minister Murphy and Justice Minister and Solicitor General TJ Burke requesting that the New Brunswick government "prohibit the police use of TASERS or at least suspend such use until your government has studied their safety and you personally feel comfortable with their use on New Brunswickers." My concern, beyond that of any citizen's concern, arises from the fact that I am the father of a profoundly autistic boy with limited communication ability and autistic persons and persons with developmental disabilities have been Tasered on occasion in North America because they lack communication skills and police will often use Tasers in situations where the person with whom they are speaking "fail to comply" with their communications, that is with police orders or directions. In the recent Vancouver tragedy the gentleman was unable to communicate because he did not understand English.

My letter from last Christmas Eve stated:

December 24, 2006

Hon. Shawn Graham, Premier
Hon. TJ Burke, Minister of Justice and Attorney General
Hon. John Foran, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General
Hon. Michael Murhphy, Minister of Health

Dear Honourable Premier and Honourable Ministers:

As the father of a 10 year old autistic boy with severe communication challenges I have long been aware that persons with autism and other disorders which impair communication skills have on occasion been TASERED by police forces in North America; in some part because police will use TASERS when dealing with "unruly" persons who do not respond to commands just as they sometimes use forceful takedowns in effecting arrests of such persons. I am concerned about the use of such dangerous weapons on New Brunswick citizens by our police forces.

The announcement by New Brunswick's Chief Coroner Dianne Kelly that she has set a date for an inquest into the death of Kevin Geldart, 34, who had been reported missing from a Moncton hospital ward on May 5, 2005 and who died after Moncton police used a Taser gun on him later that day, increases my concern as does news that the Fredericton City Council has voted to authorize the purchase of TASERS for use by Fredericton City police officers.

TASER use has raised concerns around the world and its use has preceded the deaths of approximately 50 people in North America since 2001. A TASER is a weapon which discharges a high voltage shock sometimes causing cardiac arrest, sometimes immediate and total loss of muscle control resulting in serious head injuries from unprotected collapse of the victim.

Amnesty International has called for cessation of TASER use by police forces pending further study of their safety and has stated that the use by police forces of TASER weapons as contraventions of international standards prohibiting torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as well as standards set out under the United Nations (UN) Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by law Enforcement Officials.

Please be safe not sorry. You have great and necessary responsibilities to weigh on your consciences. The unnecessary death of New Brunswick citizens should not be among them. I ask that your government prohibit the police use of TASERS or at least suspend such use until your government has studied their safety and you personally feel comfortable with their use on New Brunswickers.

Respectfully,

Harold Doherty

63 Alder Avenue
Fredericton NB

I don't know if the New Brunswick government gave my expression of concern any real consideration. I do not enjoy any particular weight or influence with the government. And the police forces in New Brunswick perform a vitally important service to our society. Their officers deserve everyone's respect and appreciation. When their representatives urge our Public Safety Minister to permit the continued use of Tasers in apprehending citizens it is understandable that their wishes would be given great weight.

Still, given the numbers of deaths arising when individuals have been Tasered it is long past time that governments, including the New Brunswick government, stopped accepting without real, independent study, assertions about the safety of Taser use. A single Taser shot to a healthy police officer who knows the shot is coming is obviously not the same as the often multiple shots, true shocks, which hit people of unknown health in heightened emotional states.

Since last December there have been more Taser induced deaths in Canada and the US. The world has seen that Robert Dziekanski was Tasered, and subdued with rough physical force, when the arresting officers were not in any visible danger, and without any obvious attempt by those officers to communicate. The officers probably did not understand the Polish language being used by Mr. Dziekanski but they could have tried other means to communicate including facial expressions and hand gestures. As the father of an 11 1/2 year old boy with very limited oral communication abilities I have had to learn to communicate in every manner possible.

It is time police officers focussed more on communication, more on defusing situations, and less on firing their Tasers on people. Tasers are not safe when used on persons of unknown health in difficult circumstances. The evidence can be found in the deaths that have ensued. The false belief that Tasers are harmless have probably contributed to their occasionally unnecessary use on persons like Robert Dziekanski.

Hopefully too our political leadership will do more than simply tell us that regardless of the deaths that ensue New Brunswick citizens who lack the ability to communicate will be subject to Taser shots and possible death. Hopefully when Minister Foran says that the government is developing new guidelines for Taser use he actually means it. Hopefully those guidelines will encourage officers to use Tasers only when necessary and only when they, or other citizens are being threatened, and not simply for "non-compliance" with a verbal command. A command which may not be understood by many.

RCMP Wilful Blindness To Taser Realities

As Canada, Poland, and the family of Robert Dziekanski still try to absorb the fact of his death while being Tasered in the Vancouver airport the RCMP continue to spin the myth that Taser's are harmless. [Admittedly the weight of the arresting officers on his head and chest area may have been factors].

It is difficult to understand as anything other than spin control the statement by RCMP BC commanding officer Gary Bass that "Withholding Tasers as a tool, and without evidence that a conducted energy weapon was responsible for Dziekanski's death, could put other people and RCMP members at risk, Bass argued." Uh, there is evidence Officer Bass. The evidence is that Mr. Dziekanski died as part of an arrest in which he was Tasered more than once. That is in fact evidence that the Taser shocks were responsible for his death, although other contrary evidence may be produced during the investigations.

Officer Bass should also be aware that since Mr. Dziekanski's death 3 more deaths arising from Taser incidents have occurred in the US, in Maryland, Florida and New Mexico. Only wilful blindness could lead one to ignore the evidence that, in some cases, Taser shocks cause deaths.

Time to Face Facts - Tasers Kill

Defenders of Tasers have some good arguments to justify their use by police authorities. A Taser is certainly a less lethal weapon than a bullet from a gun. One of the weakest and most absurd arguments though is that Tasers don't kill. When people die while, or immediately after, being Tasered it is clear on any reality based assessment that the Taser was, at the very least, the culminating factor that contributed to a death. In Canada 18 people, including Polish visitor Robert Dziekanski, have died while being Tasered or shortly thereafter since 2003. Today comes word from Maryland that 20 year old Jarrel Gray died after being Tasered by police and falling to the ground unconscious. Mr. Gray was apparently involved in a fight which police were attempting to break up when he was Tasered. Whatever prompted the Taser use, whether it was justified or not, will be examined, but one thing is clear - a 20 year old man was Tasered and fell to the ground and died.

It is time to face facts - Tasers kill.

Tasers, Videos and The Death of Robert Dziekanski

Because of citizen Paul Pritchard and his video recording of the tragic death of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish visitor to Canada, who could not speak English, the world has seen, and is forming its opinions, about Mr. Dziekanski's death. For me it was difficult to watch this video and I can not really imagine the ordeal his mother has endured.

It is not clear to me, because of the progression of events, whether Mr Dziekanski died as a result of the multiple Taser shocks or from the application of physical force and weight to his head and neck by members of the arresting team; or from some combination of these elements. Hopefully a thorough inquiry by independent investigators will establish more certainty.

Unless though, there is evidence that by some incredible coincidence, Mr. Dziekanski was about to die anyway from some unrelated medical condition which just happened to cause his death as he was being Tasered, and officers' were applying their body weight to his head and neck area, then some combination of these arrest methods caused or contributed to his death. Common sense dictates that conclusion.

I do not believe for a second that this vulnerable man died as a result of an alleged medical condition known as "excited delirium syndrome" often relied upon by coroners and other official investigators each time a victim dies after receiving Taser shocks or physical "restraint" at the hands of arresting police authorities. Such reports trot out this as yet unrecognized "syndrome" to explain the deaths of people who die shortly after receiving Taser electric shocks, without in any way implicating the electric shocks, in some cases multiple electric shocks, in those deaths. This explanation is essentially used to exonerate arresting officers.

In one instance in 2006 involving a 21 year old autistic man in Perris California who died after being piled on by several arresting officers Sheriff's officials claimed that the young man died from "autism induced excited delirium syndrome." In explaining deaths of arrested persons following Taser shock or physical force by police authorities The Book of Unrecognized Medical "Syndromes" is invariably consulted while The Book of Common Sense is left to the side, unopened.

Without the Pritchard video the world would not have seen the horrendous final moments of the life of Robert Dziekanski. The primary information source relied upon by news agencies, and the world, to understand this tragic event would be the RCMP, the police force whose officers Tasered and physically sat upon Mr.Dziekanski as he died. This is not the first time that citizen or news video have painted a fuller picture of an arrest incident than what might otherwise be available from police sources. The Rodney King arrest is probably the most well known. I was involved as legal counsel in a much lesser known case in which videotape evidence of CBC cameraman Roger Cosman was a critical factor in my client's acquittal on an obstruction of justice charge - R v LeBlanc, 2006 NBPC 37 (CanLII).

In that case Charles LeBlanc , a well known blogger here in New Brunswick, was arrested by police officers on June 9th, 2006, at an event at the Saint John Trade and Convention Center known as the “Atlantica” Conference. On that day the entrance area to the conference was disrupted by a group of more than 20 masked protesters who stormed the main entrance doors to the event knocking over tables in the admission area and physically pushing police officers in attendance. Mr. LeBlanc, who was not participating in the protest, was present taking pictures and was arrested by the police who executed a take down arrest on him with knees pressed to Mr. LeBlanc's upper body area. Mr. LeBlanc was charged with obstruction of justice but was acquitted. The most important piece of evidence in the trial was a CBC video recording by CBC cameraman Roger Cosman who was filming the protest events and caught Mr. LeBlanc's arrest on videotape. Judge William McCarroll, after noting a number of discrepancies between the evidence of arresting officer Sgt. John Parks, and the CBC videotape, acquitted Mr. LeBlanc.

In the cases of Rodney King, Robert Dziekanski and Charles LeBlanc, video tape evidence was critical, in each instance, in ensuring that the evidence of the arresting officers, who are active parties in any arrest situation, did not form the only reliable basis for assessing the evidence of what took place. It is very difficult. because of human nature, for officers to provide objective evidence once they become involved as arresting officers. In some cases an accused will not be considered as credible a witness as an arresting police officer. A videotape can provide an objective means for a defendant to meet the challenge of rebutting a police officer's testimony. In the case of Robert Dziekanski it provides a voice for someone is no longer available to speak for himself.

Hopefully the investigation of Mr. Dziekanski's death will establish more than the immediate cause of his death and will conduct a thorough, and credible, examination of the safety of Tasers generally. Hopefully too they will investigate the use by coroners, pathologists and official spokespersons of unrecognized medical conditions like "excited delirium syndrome" and "autism induced excited delirium syndrome" in explaining deaths arising during or immediately after Taser shock or the use of physical force by police. In the meantime police forces should cease Taser use in any but the most extreme cases which, by any measure, the Dziekanski situation was not.

It might also be time for police forces to be directed to videorecord their arrests and other situations with citizens where arrest is likely to occur whenever it is possible to do so safely. I realize that this will not always be possible and that police attention has to focus on the situation at hand. It does not seem unreasonable though, in this era of easy digital video recording, for police, in situations like that involving Mr. Dziekanski to have one of the several members present video recording the event. Otherwise, without the good fortune of a professional cameraman or bystander recording an event the real picture may never be known.

In Canada it is reported that Mr. Dziekanski is the 18th person in Canada since 2003 to die incident to a Taser arrest. Let us hope that in 2011 the news will not be reporting on the 36th person to die in Canada incident to a Taser arrest since 2003.