Скачать или смотреть Vancouver Airport Tragedy - Canada

Jan 2008
Following worldwide outrage and condemnation over the infamous incident in Vancouver Internatational Airport of a polish immigrant being killed with a taser gun by 4 heavy-handed airport security staff members, we bring you an exclusive in-depth report on the tragedy in question, and how it connects to the on-going public debate about the use of lethal taser guns in mainstream civilised society.


On October 14, Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was killed by the RCMP at Vancouver International Airport. A month later, millions saw the gut-wrenching ten-minute video taken by another traveler, Paul Pritchard, which showed unambiguously that this was an unwarranted execution. After a grueling 20-hour journey from Poland, Dziekanski, who spoke no English, spent ten hours in the airport waiting for his mother who was, unknown to him, only a few feet away in the public waiting area. The video shows a distressed and obviously harmless man confronted by four RCMP officers who within 25 seconds tasered him with 50,000 volts at close range at least twice. Seconds later Dziekanski is writhing on the ground, screaming in agony as the police crush him with their knees on his neck.
Seconds later, he was dead.


Dziekanski's death sparked outrage across the country and internationally, and in B.C. it has become a focal point for a wave of animosity against the police force. In the days after Pritchard's video first aired, outraged people berated the RCMP at the airport and the four cops were reassigned "for the officers' own safety." Memorials were held in several cities and 1,000 people rallied on November 24 in Vancouver.