Head Mountie gets zapped

Published Saturday May 3rd, 2008

Stung by criticism, Mountie Commissioner Elliott zapped with taser

THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - The head of the RCMP has been stung lately by criticism about tasers and now Commissioner William Elliott has been zapped by one of the electronic guns.

Elliott was willingly tasered during a visit to Alberta, along with the province's solicitor-general, Fred Lindsay, and an assistant.

Lindsay said it was Elliott's idea to be shocked with the electronic gun after they watched a demonstration by an RCMP emergency response team on Thursday.

"I think it started with the commissioner, just in conversation, so it just proceeded from there," Lindsay said yesterday.

Elliott was the first to get the jolt, which burned a tiny hole in his shirt from the electric charge, said Lindsay, who added he put a T-shirt on over his own shirt before he was zapped.

"My shirt survived and so did I."

It wasn't clear exactly where in the torso either man was hit.

A spokesman for the RCMP in Ottawa said Elliott would not be commenting on the experience. But Lindsay described his shock as one of the most painful experiences in his life.

"I remained standing up, but certainly was unable to do anything as far as moving. It freezes you to the spot.

"I couldn't describe any experience that would be more painful than that. It's pretty much over the whole body," he said.

"Certainly afterwards, it's a little bit warm in those two entry points."

Lindsay said he was fine moments later, however.

"Within seconds, the pain is gone and you're back to normal."

Elliott told Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh during a Commons committee meeting in February that he had never been hit with a taser -- voluntarily or otherwise.

Neither had Dosanjh, who served as British Columbia attorney general when tasers were introduced there.

In April 2003, the RCMP issued an operational bulletin prohibiting use of the taser on civilian volunteers for demonstration purposes.

However, the force has frequently turned the weapon on officers in training sessions.

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Here's the major difference: Ten officers were not surrounding him in an adrenelin induced scuffle and the trigger on the tazer was not held down repeatedly. Any video I've ever seen of a tazer victim clearly showed electricty-induced convulsions that officers mistook for resisistance, therefore, they kept slamming their finger on the trigger.

It applies exactly to the concept of firing a bullet with means to disable a criminal only to have the entire magazine emptied due to the adrenelin charged atmosphere.

The reaction of a victim to being basically electrocuted, is twitching and writhing. Officers mistake those reactions as resistance, especially when trying to apply handcuffs, and adds to the stress which the officers warrent as a need to taze again.

Obviously proper training is not tought!