Thursday, November 15, 2007

This Is My Canada?!?!.....

"In the moments before his death, Robert Dziekanski raised his hands as if pleading with the four Taser-wielding RCMP officers who surrounded him.

You cannot hear what is being said when the first jolt explodes and Dziekanski begins to scream............ " For the rest of this story, see here .

I've chosen not to post the actual tape, but instead am posting this one from yesterday. If you choose to watch this tragic event in it's entirety, see here.

I'm fucking furious. When did my beloved nation become a police state? It must have been while we were busy watching the Neocons to the south of us destroy their country, we forgot to pay closer attention to what they were doing in our own. Well, this one's for you Stephan Harper et al: Not in my country! Yes, it's still my country, ashamed of it as I am right now, and be damned if I'm going to watch it degenerate into a pale copy of Bush's America. I refuse to go down without a fight, and that's just what you've asked for allowing, even encouraging this sort of thing, you bastards. True North, strong and free!

4 comments:

billie said...

welcome to shades of a north american union. unfortunately, america seems to export only violence.

fjb said...

Sadly betmo, you're right. I guess we each have our demons to deal with, on either side of the border. I know we're supposed to be forgiving, but I'm not able to do that right now.

Steve Bates said...

Tasers are deadly weapons. Until people in both our countries understand that, we will continue to see people needlessly and in some cases cruelly killed in circumstances in which they probably could have been subdued without the use of deadly force. It just isn't right.

Those of us in the U.S. who are frequently frustrated with the violent tactics of some law enforcement officers and agencies here have often looked to Canada as a model of how it could and should be done. But things appear to be changing. What do you think is going on?

fjb said...

Steve,
Any irrational behavior is viewed as a potential terrorist threat, the federal funding for basic training has been cut, and evidently our officers are trained in the use of tasers by Blackwater, to name a few.

But on a brighter note, this is an example of how we tend to deal with things that really make us angry up here. This story isn't going to die, because we won't let it.

The leadership of our federal government is currently the Conservative party, backed by those factions who are similar to, and some are even the same, as those who support your Republican party. Public opinion matters up here, though, and that's part of the joy of parliamentary governance, even though the house debates can sometimes be equated to watching 3 year olds argue on a playground. The MP's are held responsible by their constituency, I think on a higher and more critical level than your state representatives. This incident will be debated until policy changes are made, as long as we the people demand it.