Vancouver Transit Riders 'Tasered For Not Paying Fares'

Vancouver Transit Riders 'Tasered For Not Paying Fares'

www.theglobeandmail.com

VANCOUVER — The country's only armed transit police have been tasering passengers who try to avoid paying fares.

According to documents provided in response to a Freedom of Information request, police patrolling public transit in the Metro Vancouver area have used tasers 10 times in the past 18 months, including five occasions when victims had been accosted for riding free.

In one incident, a non-paying passenger was tasered after he held onto a railing on the SkyTrain platform and refused to let go.

(visit the link for the full news article)

LOL

Yet more unbelievable abuse of Police powers against citizens. Tasering someone for not paying transit fare?!?

How many people are going to die from this crap before someone steps up and puts an end to this nonsense?

Murray Mollard of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which supports a moratorium, said he was shocked by the news of transit passengers being tasered.

"To apply a taser on someone fleeing the scene while trying to evade a fine is, quite frankly, an outrageous abuse of this weapon," Mr. Mollard said.

"Do we really need police officers with guns and tasers using them in the context of fare evasion? I don't think so. This really is very hard to believe."

www.theglobeandmail.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Ok.. let me start off by saying that I live in Vancouver (proper) and use the skytrain and transit all the time...

now with that outta the way...

so what if the cops wanna tazer dead beats... I say have fun! it's cause of fare evasion that the rest of us pay soooo much in the first place..
stop whinning, pay the fare and don't get tazed! seems like a fair deal to me..

Originally posted by pynner
Ok.. let me start off by saying that I live in Vancouver (proper) and use the skytrain and transit all the time...

now with that outta the way...

so what if the cops wanna tazer dead beats... I say have fun! it's cause of fare evasion that the rest of us pay soooo much in the first place..
stop whinning, pay the fare and don't get tazed! seems like a fair deal to me..

Well then why not cut off their feet so they can't run as fast? The tazer is representative of the military industrial complex oozing its way into day to day life. You know they could spend the time and effort in making a turnstile that could not be hopped instead of figuring out ways to inflict corporate punishment.

What if Godzilla was chasing people down the street? Do you want someone tazering you for hopping the turnstile during an emergency?

reply to post by stikkinikki


Dunno... didn't those kids in Cloverfield hop the stiles to run down the subway tunnel? The little spider-like things still got 'em.

Screw the tasers, send in the little spider things!



BTW, the "chop off their feet" thing... priceless.

[edit on 16/4/08 by cbianchi513]

hey, im totally down with the turnstile idea... but your hippy counter parts here in BC whine that it might cost too much.. or it would add to the fare (which, I will agree is a touch high).

but what you need to understand in all the hippy bleeding heart whining is that alot of the people that skip fares and get tazered are crack heads and other asses of society.

oh no.. police have tazers.. boohoo..

pay the fare.. or face some sort of punishment.. it's a clear, easy to follow rule.. one I don't mind.
the people who usually end up on the wrong end of the jolt, kinda deserve it.

this crap about cutting off their feet is a typical argument from someone like you... it's NOT the same.. pull ur head outta ur bum.

reply to post by pynner


The issue here is that the Police are using excessive force. Are taser's really necessary or desirable? Are these people dangerous? On what grounds should a taser be allowable? For skipping a fare? No way. Anyone who thinks its acceptable to use a taser in these circumstances deserves to be tasered therself, just to see what it feels like.

that's right.. maybe we should talk to them and ask them nicely.. oh wait.. they did that... they hand out fines that no one pays and who gets hit with the cost?? people like me who pay for the service..

and oh no.. not this crap about "police use of force"... yeah.. they are cops.. they are asses.. most are control freaks on a power trip...

pay the fare!!

I don't need to be tazed to know it sucks.. which is why I PAY THE FARE..

Originally posted by rizla
reply to post by pynner

 

Anyone who thinks its acceptable to use a taser in these circumstances deserves to be tasered therself, just to see what it feels like.

Which is the very sad thing, as every officer and security guard who is handed a taser is supposed to be tasered themselves while being trained in its use, as a deterrant to using it too often...

...doesn't seem to be working.

reply to post by pynner


Because not paying a buck twenty-five to get from point A to point B is an offense worthy of having exactly how many amps jolted through your body from a weapon that has caused numerous deaths already?

What the # is wrong with you?!

Only question here is, are we saying it is ok to steal? Those not paying their fines are subject to arrest, and will be detained. In the event they attempt to flee, they will have to just get the thief in the safest manner.

I don't believe they needed to tase a guy that was not even running. there are other ways to get a man to release his death grip on a railing, like pressure points.

But for the thieves that run, and that is essentially what a person is if they utilize a pay service but do not pay, they have to be detained some way.

FYI, I do not agree with tasing a person who is not in the process of fleeing and clearly not attempting to do so. Again, pressure points could have taken care of that.

I pay $136 per month for my pass and as far as I'm concerned, there is a special place reserved in hell for transit fare evaders.

That doesn't mean they should get tasered, but my first reaction was that it could have been worse. This is Vancouver and the transit cops got guns a few years ago.

I can see both sides of the issue here. In my area, we have a VERY vast transit system. Typically, fare evaders just get a ticket, and need to pay a fine. Which is the way it should be, in my opinion.

You know, they think they are saving the $2 it costs to ride the MAX, but how much do you really save when you get written a $100(not sure how much) ticket??


Excessive force, to civilians?? NOT cool. Sorry, dude. Save excessive force for rapists and murderers. Make deadbeats pay a fine, so everyone else's fares can be kept affordable.

Absolutely ridicules! Electrocuting people for not paying a transit fare is barbaric.

DYepes

Only question here is, are we saying it is ok to steal?

First of all nobody's out anything for people who can't/won't/don't want to pay the fare and being against electrocuting people for failing to pay is not saying it's ok, we're just saying it's excessive force.

Those who can pay that do get caught, will pay the fine, the bums can't anyway so why bitch about it, it's not as if they're chartering something that's not there already - as in nobody is out anything. Seems like a few of you suckers are just jealous that everyone doesn't pay equally - big deal. Get over it, slavers.

What are you going to do next through them in jail, so you can give em three hots & a cot and pay some more out of your taxes?

The system was/is paid for everyone by everyone. The fares are only to cover the operating costs. If that many people are not paying then maybe they should implement a better system or just hand out tickets - when possible. Chasing people down & electrocuting them for a couple bucks is the height of stupidity, but then what do you expect, as the cops run as slow as they speak up there in the Dope head Capitol of North America, eh.



[edit on 17-4-2008 by verylowfrequency]

Hey !!!

Now it says "Page not found". The article has been removed??

Is this your lost link?
They want you to pay to read past the first sentence.

Looks like them keystone cops up there in Eh, BC love them stun guns. Here's another article for ya.

RCMP probe stun-gun death

Canadian Press
Burnaby, B.C. — The RCMP’s major crimes unit is investigating the death of a man who died after being shot with a police electric stun gun. RCMP were called to a hotel in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, B.C., late Saturday night after a man came in wielding a knife and a hammer. When he resisted arrest an officer shot him with a Tazer, which sends out a high-voltage electrical charge.

Wonder how many times they pulled the trigger? Probably till the battery ran out , eh?


[edit on 17-4-2008 by verylowfrequency]

reply to post by LostNemesis


here's a working link.

(servelet is changed for servlet)

Thanks for the link Conspiracynut23. Maybe they should use a stun gun on you for posting the link to the article without paying. As, when I tried to read it before your link, they wanted to make me pay.

I notice they listed another death by electrocution in the article

The taser controversy will be in the spotlight again today - the mother of Robert Dziekanski, the Polish immigrant who died after being tasered by the RCMP last year at Vancouver International Airport, is expected to testify before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa.

[edit on 17-4-2008 by verylowfrequency]

Originally posted by pynner
hey, im totally down with the turnstile idea... but your hippy counter parts here in BC whine that it might cost too much.. or it would add to the fare (which, I will agree is a touch high).

but what you need to understand in all the hippy bleeding heart whining is that alot of the people that skip fares and get tazered are crack heads and other asses of society.

oh no.. police have tazers.. boohoo..

pay the fare.. or face some sort of punishment.. it's a clear, easy to follow rule.. one I don't mind.
the people who usually end up on the wrong end of the jolt, kinda deserve it.

this crap about cutting off their feet is a typical argument from someone like you... it's NOT the same.. pull ur head outta ur bum.

Sarcasm my friend. My point is the taser is sometimes a lethal weapon. Google "taser deaths" and see for yourself. I take it from your "hippy bleeding heart whining" comment that you identify yourself with the opposite end of the "political" spectrum (this is about politics right?). Can I make the leap to you perhaps holding the opinion that small government is better? A less invasive government? Well, here they think it is alright to take the chance on killing a person if he/she hops without paying a fare. That's a hippy though so its ok? When does that become not ok to you?

Maybe you could define hippy for me. I would appreciate knowing exactly what scapegoated group I am being marginalized with.

reply to post by ConspiracyNut23


Thank you for posting the link, for the rest of us to read more about how this happened.

Still disappointed, in this day and age, that this is happening at all.