(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2008 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3).

People's Voice Editorial

An RCMP Taser cover-up has renewed the simmering controversy over police abuse of the 50,000-volt stun guns. The Canadian Press and CBC report that the Mounties refuse to release crucial details recorded each time an officer uses a Taser: who is being hit, whether they were armed, why they were fired on and whether they were injured.

     The media obtained forms under the Access to Information Act showing 4,000 RCMP Taser incidents over the past seven years. Incidents have risen to more 1,000 annually in 2006 and 2007, from about 600 in 2005. An estimated three-quarters of Taser victims between 2002 and 2005 were unarmed. As the Globe and Mail reported on March 25, "several of those reports suggested a pattern of stun-gun use to keep suspects in line, rather than to defuse major threats."

     This pattern is confirmed in Vancouver, where a Freedom of Information request recently compelled the police department to post details of about 150 Taser incidents from 2002 to early 2007. In many cases, police fired as soon as someone displayed a "fighting stance," or to get non-violent suspects to follow orders, recalling the Robert Dziekanski death at Vancouver International Airport last October.

     The facts are clear: Canadian police forces increasingly use Tasers as a cheap and easy method to stun civilians into submission. This powerful weapon, so easily abused, is a menace to the public and should be removed from police arsenals.