RCMP taser 82 year old on hospital bed

"An elderly man in Kamloops, B.C., was zapped three times on the torso by a police stun gun while lying on his hospital bed, CBC News has learned.
Frank Lasser, 82, appeared fragile Thursday when he showed the Taser marks on his body and talked about the ordeal he went through Saturday.

"They [police] should have known I had bypass surgery," Lasser told CBC News."

Full story here...
www.cbc.ca...

Well, to be honest - I know I am meant to post an 'opinion' on the topic, but quite frankly.. I am speechless at this time.

I'm pretty old myself, but I don't think I would worry too much about taking something away from an 80yo in a bed after surgery.

I too am speechless here. It seems the police are going to extreme to make the public fear and distrust them. It's almost like fighter putting on a tough face for the opponent.

It makes you wonder if there's something more to such mindsets than merely enforcing the law.

That's a bit ludacris. An old man on his hospital bed with a knife *is trying to imagine what kind of knives a hospital has* and 2 or 3 officers have to zap him? Who knows what kind of knife it was, or if he really was that threatening with a knife... but tasing him THREE times???? Come on now....

Edit...

I can see one zap being justified but not 3... And I see people on the CBC comment page saying what the cops did was right, and that we weren't there so we possibly couldn't know the caliber of the situation. I don't think anyone could convince me otherwise. Just horrible.

[edit on 5/10/08 by SegaNerd]

That officer should be sued.

That is deadly force against an 80 year old individual. Anyone who understands electricity understands that tasers are mostly safe due to low AMPs - even with high voltage.

However, when the heart is in a weakened state - whether due to drugs, age, or other conditions - the taser easily has enough amps to possibly stop the persons heart.

This man could have, and probably should have, died.

What's the problem? They were trying to disarm a delusional individual with potentially deadly weapon before he could injure himself or anyone else with it. If this old man would somehow killed/injured himself or someone else the question would have been why the RCMP didn't do more to stop him. He has a weak heart. I doubt struggling over a knife with three mounties would be very good for his health. The taser seems to me to have been the safest and obviously most effective method.


Three zaps from a taser may seem like a lot but maybe that's how many it took for him to drop the knife.

reply to post by zephyrs


Three zaps on an 82 year old man is about as safe as shooting him. The odds of him living after having heart surgery are slim.

Why get your hands dirty when it's easier to zap 'em. I think these gadgets are making cops lazy. Just an uninformed opinion, after all I wasn't there so who knows how much of a risk he really was to himself and others.

They are trying to create a false condition to dismiss accusations of stun gun murder now similar to what they did with false memory syndrome www.azcentral.com...


note the way they imply to people working in the medical industry that they should get on board or suffer for it

Unbelievable. Totally unbelievable. Some retraining is in order here. Wouldn't want to be the mounty down at the station. I can hear it now.

I am posting this from a cardiac nursing perspective. (left nursing to pursue another career and care for my little one )

No 1) The man was one constant low pressure oxygen. They used an electrical stun gun on a patient on oxygen ? They possibly could of ignited the O2, which in turn would of flashed over into his respiratory system and caused the cylinder to explode. Death from a fried set of lungs ? NASTY!)

No 2) Post anaesthesia psychosis is a common occurence after cardiac surgery, and most other major surgeries with a prolonged 'down time' under sedation. Nursing staff should of known this and should of been aware of the possibilities. The fact he states he was 'confused' and unable to recognise WHY he still had the knife in his hand speaks volumes.

No 3) The man has had bypass surgery . . . . . . the heart was clearly damaged for them to need to operate... and any one who knows the heart knows it works on conductivity from the SA and AV nodes . . . . a damaged heart getting zapped by a tazer THREE times ?

(Bypass surgery is carried out due to poor blood flow through the hearts coronary arteries. Long term damage causes heart irregularities and decaying of the ability of the hearts tissues to conduct electricity due to ischaemia through lower blood supply to the tissues. Bypass surgery is MAJOR league stuff).


I hope to God above these scummy tards get fired and sued to high Heaven.

And secondly I hope the nursing staff are fired along side them. Their medical / nursing practises are shoddy to say the least.

Thats Canada for ya , the velvet dictatorship . Canada is like one of those neighbors who steps out of his house, laughs and mocks how screwed things are at his neighbors. Yet can't see the disarray his own home and family are in. I'm a Canadian BTW , I'm really pissed at whats happening here.

[edit on 13-5-2008 by OpusMarkII]

What ever happened to talking to a guy and treating him with some respect? He was mad for some reason and had a knife in his bed. " In his bed". Now was he up and running around trying to slice people up or was he making a point that he didn't want that stupid Bi@ch touching him anymore? I bet the right person could of talked the old man out of the knife and made things better, but no, call the police and let them take care of it.

Originally posted by zephyrs
What's the problem? They were trying to disarm a delusional individual with potentially deadly weapon before he could injure himself or anyone else with it. If this old man would somehow killed/injured himself or someone else the question would have been why the RCMP didn't do more to stop him. He has a weak heart. I doubt struggling over a knife with three mounties would be very good for his health. The taser seems to me to have been the safest and obviously most effective method.


Three zaps from a taser may seem like a lot but maybe that's how many it took for him to drop the knife.

Are you sure he wasn't just eating his dinner or something. I mean the RCMP are a real crazy bunch.

Mountie1:'Look he's spilt gravy on the sheets'
Mountie2:'Thats it I've had enough! let's 'do' the old bastard'

If I were them I would have fired a baton round at his head from about a metre away, I can see it now the old git screaming 'you'll never take me alive copper' flailing with the butter knife.

Maybe all they had was a Tazer allthough you would have worked him over abit with the stick just to prove the point.

[edit on 16/5/08 by carslake]

took the #ty's out put crappy in. hey bastard works damn wrong thread! duh

[edit on 16/5/08 by carslake]

Sign now the official petition to Ban Tasers at petitions.number10.gov.uk...

There are already 435 Taser related deaths in North America (full list here: Taser News)
Amnesty international recommends a suspension on all use of tasers until a rigorous, independent and impartial inquiry into their use & effects is carried out. (Amnesty International)