I ride the B.C. transit system in Vancouver any time that I am in the city –
Bus, Train or Seabus – It’s the only way to go in a city choked by single vehicle traffic.
But what is this that I hear via the CBC? B.C. Transit Cops are using taser weapons on fare scofflaws?
The CBC website reports – Transit police have fired Tasers 10 times since January last year, and three cases involved non-violent suspects, according to internal police reports obtained by CBC News using access to information laws.
In one case, a person ran from transit cops during a check for free-riders and “the Taser was deployed as the subject fled,” the documents say. Another person who didn’t pay the fare was arrested but “grabbed onto the platform railing and refused to let go … the Taser was deployed.”
I ride the “trolley” or diesel buses regularly and drivers are explicitly instructed not to be fare regulators or police – as a result, there is lots of abuse. On the Trains it is another matter. Transit cops are there for some good reasons. The additional visibility of a peace officer on a system only mildly beset with violent incidents is a plus. But why the additional firepower in an already peaceful environment?
Have we learned nothing from the Vancouver International Airport incident when a confused and dehydrated Robert Dziekanski was tasered and died?
The officers on B.C. transit should not have these weapons.
Comments?