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Press Release on Blog 2: PAJU: Montreal picket of Israeli Consulate finally ends with consulate moving out of the downtown core. Congratulations to PAJU for showing that determination and dedication pays off!
Wednesday July 30, 2008
Watching the watchers
"Its time that they all came up under our gaze"
Cosmology lyrics
1) COP WATCH - Racial hi-jinks and Taser cover-ups... 2) TROOPS WATCH - One fine mess after another
1) Cop Watch
Digby men file police complaint Complainants, supporters protest Halifax cops’ conduct during June fight ...
Hitherto known as "Canada's Most RomanticTown", Digby, Nova Scotia
was recently invaded by a vanload of off duty police officers in town
to attend a charity event, which apparently they couldn't do without
getting all hooched up and then cruising the main drag like
adolescents, looking to stir up a little trouble from which to
gallantly save the locals by the prodigious application of a Taser gun.
Dawn
Ferris of Dartmouth has friends with black sons who are regularly
stopped by police for no reason and hopes the cops who were involved in
the Digby incident get suspended. "I think that if you’re a police
officer, you’re supposed to be beyond acting like an idiot," she said.
Maybe there's no actual rule that says you have to be; maybe that's just a misperception created by the nicely pressed uniforms.
But never fear, there will be an internal investigation, although, as the complainants rightly say:
"When police investigate police, there is a camaraderie that doesn’t give much confidence to us".
According to the CBC:
Two
people who saw a black-and-white videotape of the fight have said that
a police officer threw the first punch. However, RCMP won't confirm
what's on the tape.
Well,
who can blame them for clamming up on that, though they are vocal on the
issue of the alleged Tasering - but either the police or the media are
confused as to who did what or when. I think that what the following
is suggesting is that the off-duty guys wouldn't have Tasered him
because, well, they were off-duty, so the local cop must have done it,
but only once. They know it was only once because Taser guns have
internal records of their use.
From the Canadian Press:
RCMP
Sgt. Mark Gallagher denied the allegation that an off-duty officer used
a Taser, saying the electronic record of the device that was used shows
it was deployed only once that day.
That's
tough to dispute, wouldn't you think? Not as tough as you might think.
Tasers can be bought on the Internet - for self and/or family
protection. So, maybe, I'm just guessing
... maybe cops who get likkered up and ride around in vans also pack a
little personal "protection" to help liven up the party.
Pssst - wanna buy one for yourself? Here's
a nifty selection. You have to be over 18 of course and consent to a
very quick and shallow check of your criminal and mental health -
no sweat on that. They won't ask whether you plan to ride around in a van looking for a little action.
Here's another site that sells the TASER C2 - which has
"incredible takedown power" [and] "can stop a threat up to 15 feet away
(4.5 meters), allowing you a safe distance to protect yourself and
family from an attacker".
Here's one that asks the all-important question: What effect does the Taser® have on the heart and how does it affect pacemakers? An official medical study summary is appended for your perusal (in .pdf format)
In
fact, no matter what Taser website you visit, they all quote the same
Nebraska physician, Dr. Robert Stratbucker, who in 1966 shocked an anaesthetized pig 48 times with an older lower-powered Taser and found that it didn't affect the pig's heart.
That's
the only test that's been done to date, although apparently there's to
be a new round of pig zapping done by an independent research group -
in which Stratbucker will only act as an advisor, but already the impartiality of the study is being questioned.
Stratbucker himself comes in for some deep skepticism at austinspokes.org:
TASERs
have been attributed to over 100 deaths across North America, since
they were first introduced in 2002, although TASER International's
deeply entrenched medical director Robert A Stratbucker continues to
deny any connection... The second was a notoriously discredited work of
pseudo-science. Funded by none other than TASER International, this
report was authored by Dr. Robert A Stratbucker, whose deep financial
ties with the corporation have been well documented.
Meanwhile, the CBC has reported: Use of RCMP Tasers rises dramatically - it's almost tripled in fact over two years, but the record keeping as to the why, where and who has left a lot to be desired.
"The
more I look at how [the RCMP] function, the more I see the lack of
transparency and lack of accountability. I am flabbergasted," said
[Federal Liberal MP Ujjal] Dosanjh, who was the attorney general in
B.C. when Tasers were introduced there... For their part, Canadian
police say Tasers have saved 4,000 lives since police forces started using them.
They would have had to do
some fancy record keeping indeed to have come up with such a nice round
number of 4000 lives saved! Maybe they used a crystal ball?
=======================
2) Troops Watch
Support our troops, especially when it gets messy
In
our view: Judging the military's actions is easy from the comfort of
Canada - But before you pass judgment on the gunner, the Canadian
military, the defense minister and the government in general, an
examination of the realities of war is in order.
Talk about making excuses! The
reality of war is that it is a barbaric, outmoded way of dealing with
political issues and profit making in an age that could have done so
much, much better for itself, and if people didn't sign up for it, they
wouldn't be having to make such tough decisions.
If
it makes a soldier nervous to have the citizens of a country fight back
with every means available to them when their country is invaded by
foreign guns and bombs, there's a pill for that - it's called "cutting
and running" if you think war is glorious and good, and "common sense"
if you're sick and tired of neanderthal solutions.
But no ...
MacKay confirms 200 new troops for Afghanistan
MacKay
noted that many of the 88 Canadian troops killed in Afghanistan were
struck by improvised explosive devices while doing ground
transportation of materials needed for development and reconstruction
efforts. The new equipment, he said, will save lives. "UAVs give us
that eye in the sky, the ability to see the Taliban when they're
putting these type of devices in the road," MacKay said.
Aw, isn't that cute - "eye in the sky". That's Petie's way of letting you know he's hip with the military jargon
that's been used for years to describe aerial spying equipment. Doesn't
it make him almost sound as if he weren't reading lines? Or maybe he
just knows the song (I told you, there's a song for everything!).
Will
the UAV "save lives", or keep an "eye" on the pipeline? That is the
question. Who knows, maybe we can safely assume that we have seen the
last of deaths by roadside bomb, and maybe we're fools to even hope for
it.
And it seems if the bombs don't do in our soldiers, they'll do themselves in. Disciplinary charges in the military have risen a whopping 62% since the beginning of the Afghanistan mission -
... everything from drunkenness to charges of a sexual nature and drug dealing ...
Those
who are in are trying to escape one way or the other, and those who
aren't in aren't in a hurry to join up, since the Brits say they are facing staff shortages in some key operational areas. The anti-war activist's dream come true?
It's
all such a sham, anyway. Anybody who counts on the military to keep us
safe is a trusting soul indeed. How about that British Hacker, Gary McKinnon,
who discovered that not even the US military's websites were
secure. Poor guy, like most hackers, he's done us a favour by
exposing vulnerabilities, but he made a big mistake in embarrassing the
macho US military, and they weren't kidding when they said they'd like
to see him "fry".
Nice
talk. If he had hacked anyone else, he might have got three or four
years, instead he may get practically life. Let's hope this is another
US show case that falls through from the light of sheer logic.
yayacanada
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