Koncowe dni
klamstw kanadyjskiej policji przed komsja w sprawie zabojstwa Roberta Dziekńskiego
Taser inquiry: Mountie not a trained medical person
Given the template in which the commanding officer
didn't have up-to-date first aid or Taser
certification, there were many moments of sick humour
during this week's questioning of senior officer, Cpl. Benjamin
"Monty" Robinson. (By out-of-date, one should explain his first-aid certification expired
in March 2003 and his Taser training in March 2006.
Still, he testified he considered himself capable of offering medical
assistance to Robert Dziekanski and give commands for
Taser use, although he didn't carry one himself.)
Here's an example of the type of daily exchanges that had
listeners groaning:
Don Rosenbloom, lawyer for the
Polish republic, attempted to ascertain Robinson's awareness of Dziekanski's condition as lay on the floor, face down,
hands cuffed behind his back.
Robinson had observed his ears were blue.
Rosenbloom explained
to the inquiry that's what happens when someone is cyanotic: the extremities
turn blue.
"Extremities?"
asked Robinson, as if puzzled.
"Yes," said Rosenbloom.
"Would you agree earlobes are an extremity?"
Replied Robinson: “I’m not a trained medical
person."
For the record, it should be noted another officer
considered Dziekanski's "blue
discolouration" serious enough to merit a Code 3 emergency call to
paramedics. Dziekanski was pronounced dead at the scene.
* * *
Liberal MP Mark Holland, the public safety/national
security critic representing Ajax-Pickering, said he couldn't even imagine
how Dziekanski's mother, Zofia
Cisowski can sit daily, as she's been doing, and keep
hearing and seeing (the video) and know, "this is the way her son's
life ended."
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THE CANADIAN PRESS
PHOTOS |
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Zofia Cisowski and,
lower left, her son, Robert Dziekanski. |
But she continues to hold vigil in the Braidwood
Commission inquiry room, listening, watching, occasionally sobbing softly or
wiping her brow with a cloth. She looks like her deceased son, the same
round face, almond-shaped eyes and dark hair. At 71, she shows what her son
might have looked like had he lived another 31 years.
Dziekanski planned to live with his mother in
He arrived in
He wandered helplessly around the secure international arrivals area,
with nobody apparently able to help him, before police were called. She drove
home to a message saying her son had been found and was fine. Around 2 a.m.,
she began the drive back to the airport, only to discover the information was
tragically false.
The Pritchard Video: How good are your eyes?
I'm posting the Paul
Pritchard video again, now the four Mounties involved when Robert Dziekanski died at
Eyes of people in the
courtroom, and the adjoining press room, blurred this week, gazing repeatedly
at the amateur video and trying to follow whichever laser pointer was used to
focus on an image. We had the advantage of seeing it enlarged, sections
isolated and stopped. But it's still possble to do it
without the court's equipment.
Here's the thing: The
Mounties describe their calm entry into the airport arrivals section where
Robert Dziekanski was located. Cpl. Benjamin
"Monty" Robinson says he spoke to the Polish immigrant and, while he
knew he didn't speak English, made a series of hand gestures to make his
commands known. Stop, calm down, put your hands on the counter, etc. Earlier
statements from the Mounties suggested Dziekanski was
agitated and threatening when they arrived - before the hand signals began -
and that once he picked up the stapler, he swung it wildly. That was later changed
to just holding the stapler. A great deal of effort was spent in court staring
at the video in an effort both to determine what Dziekanski
was actually doing when police arrived and trying to pinpoint Robinson's hand
gestures in a sequence of events that led to Dziekanksi
ultimately pickeing up a stapler from a counter.
The next screening
focused on what happened after Dziekanski was down,
how the Mounties checked his medical condition, where Robinson's knee was
in relation to his neck - which would have been an inadvisable use of pressure
- and whether they rolled Dziekanski off his stomach.
The court had the
advantage of having the sound of the Taser being
administered added to the sound. Without that, it's hard to determine exactly
when Dziekanski is being Tasered.
The whole thing is rough going, but I leave it to readers to watch the
video and determine what you can see.
* * *
Mea culpa
for not blogging from the Braidwood Commission
yesterday. I'm writing for the weekend today and will return to it on
Decoder a last time
on Monday.
March 25, 2009
Back to the Pritchard video: Where's the corporal's knee?
As of Wednesday
afternoon, the Braidwood Commission Inquiry is peering at the Paul
Pritchard amateur video to determine where Cpl.
Benjamin "Monty" Robinson's knee was when Robert Dziekanski was on the ground. Was he putting pressure
on Dziekanski's neck?
The focus was on 24
seconds in the video, from 5:10 minutes to 5:34 minutes. You
can see Dziekanski on his stomach and his head
visible. Just below his head, Robinson's sole is visible. Lawyer Don Rosembloom, acting for the Polish republic, argues the
angle of the sole of his shoe eans his knee - or
some part of his leg - was resting on Dziekanski's
neck, thereby applying pressure.
"I know where my
knee was and it wasn't on his neck," said Robinson.
* * *
Robinson, who was the
senior officer that night, is finishing his third day of testimony. He appears
to be getting testy. Rosenbloom said when emergency
crews arrived, Dziekanki had no pulse.
"If that's what
you're telling me," said Robinson.
Braidwood Commission: Watching amateur video until eyes glaze
It's probably the most
watched 10 minutes ever videotaped on the RCMP, with the possible exception of
training videos. But this is no training video.
It's amateur video taken
by bystander Paul Pritchard at the
Again today,
Commissioner Thomas Braidwood, lawyers, spectators and witness RCMP Cpl.
Benjamin "Monty" Robinson pored over details in the video at the
public Braidwood Commission inquiry examining the events of Dziekanski's death. Every lawyer uses it in an attempt
to show how statements from RCMP officers differs from
scenes in the video. This morning's challenge was to pick out Dziekanski's hand movements before he moved to an
airport counter and picked up a stapler. Were they threatening towards the
four officers or, as suggested by lawyer Don Rosebloom,
a mere fluttering of hands essentially at his sides?
* * *
Whenever the video
differed greatly from today's testimony from Cpl. Benjamin "Monty"
Robinson, he would remark: "I saw it."
At one instance,
however, he gave a long description of how there were "small little
movements" of Dziekanski's hands, but
"you're not going to see that."
Asked Don Rosenbloom, lawyer for the Polish republic: "Can you see that?"
* * *
Robinson also seemed
to have trouble understanding Rosenbloom's
vocabulary.
"Important?" he asked, as if
hearing a strange word for the first time. He was considering a
question about RCMP Taser use.
* * *
Retired B.C. justice
Thomas Braidwood certainly has a problem with names. Yesterday, he called Walter Kosteckyj, lawyer
for Dziekanski's mother, Zofia
Cisowski, "Dziekanski"
a couple of times.
Today, he keeps
calling Rosenbloom, "Rosenberg."
March 24, 2009
Were it not for 10 minutes of amateur video
It's impossible to
cover the Braidwood Commission inquiry without wondering how things would
have turned out without the 10-minute amateur video of events shot by bystander
Paul Pritchard.
Odds are it would be
very different. Indeed, would there even be an inquiry into how Robert Dziekanski died after being jolted five times by an RCMP Taser? No wonder Pritchard had to get a lawyer to get the
Mounties to release the video (and camcorder) they'd seized from him at the
airport.
Supervising Mountie: "I failed
to articulate well."
No kidding.
Once again, the
testimony at this morning's Braidwood Commission inquiry into Robert Dziekanski's death was like going through the looking glass
into Wonderland. On the stand, Cpl. Benjamin "Monty"
Robinson - the supervising officer that early morning in 2007 - gave a
very different account of events at the
"So you were
wrong?" said lawyer Walter Kosteckyj (acting for
the deceased's mother), repeatedly, about Robinson's earlier statements.
He'd said, for example Dziekanski had stacked
his luggage up against the door of the arrivals section.
"It didn't
happen?" asked Kosteckyj.
"No," said
Robinson.
One by one, Kosteckyj went through earlier statements and got the same
matter-of-fact "no" from Robinson.
So, was Dziekanski really "swinging" a stapler at
the team of four Mounties and did he really
try to "hit them with it."
"Ah,
no."
And was he "angry
and pissed off . . . kinda aggressive . . . not just
where he's wired up."
"No."
Did it really happen
"really quickly where he took the stapler and started swinging it at us."
"Not 100 percent
accurate, no," replied Robinson.
Robinson even
contradicted his earlier statement Dziekanski hadn't
gone down after being Tasered once - out of five
hits.
"You agree he
went down?" asked Kosteckyj. "So that
wasn't accurate either?"
"I didn't
articulate that well, no."
* * *
Robinson obviously
took advice from his lawyer, Reg Harris. Mostly,
he seemed almost disinterested but he snapped to life whenever he could fire
off at Kosteckjy: "I don't see where you're
going with this."
He even did it when
the lawyer was just asking him to point out his own location on the video
of events that night taken by amateur Paul Pritchard.
At one point this
morning, the inconsistencies in his testimony had a confused Commissioner
Thomas Braidwood calling Kostekyj, "Mr. Dziekanski."
* * *
The
morning's low point? Had to be when Kosteckyj
was asking Robinson about Dziekanski's symptoms once
on the ground. He'd already established Robinson's first aid certification had
expired and was asking about breathing sounds. In his first report to the RCMP,
Robinson said they sounded like "snoring."
He tried to explain
today, then stopped.
"You're smiling,
sir!" snapped Kosteckyj, asking Robinson if he
found something funny.
"No," came the reply.
No further explanation
was offered.
Throughout that
exchange, Dziekanski's mother, Zofia
Cisowski sobbed quietly. She's been a constant
presence at the inquiry.
March 23, 2009
Dziekanski's mother cries out at inquiry
As Cpl. “Monty”
Robinson went into court this morning for his testimony at the Braidwood
inquiry, Zofia Cisowski
called out to him to say she wanted to talk. She said she had questions, but
Robinson didn’t stop.
Her son, Robert Dziekanski, died after being Tasered
five times by an RCMP team under Robinson’s command.
Later, however, Cpl.
Peter Thiessen, from the RCMP’s
communications section, told reporters she would be able to speak to Robinson.
He said he spoke to Cisowski this morning to say,
“Absolutely (she could), if that’s what she wants.”
He told reporters,
huddled into a media room beside the Braidwood Commission at the federal courthouse, she “declined at that point.” He added the
meeting could occur tomorrow.
Cisowski had been
waiting hours for her son at the airport on the day he died.
Mountie can’t see himself
This morning’s
Braidwood Inquiry into Robert Dziekanski’s death
would be funny, if the subject weren’t so tragic.
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Cpl. Benjamin
Robinson |
Today, commission
lawyer Art Vertlieb questioned Benjamin (Monty)
Robinson who, as corporal, was the commanding officer on the scene that early
morning of Oct. 14, 2007 when the newly-arrived Polish immigrant died in the
secure international arrivals area of
He had been Tasered five times by Robinson’s team of Mounties. Asked
about seeing four Mounties on the scene, Robinson seemed puzzled.
“Weren’t there four?”
asked the lawyer.
“Well, I can’t see
myself,” replied Robinson.
A shortish
man in dark shirt and jacket, Robison gave monosyllabic answers for most of the
morning, or said: “I don’t know.”
He did note, however,
that his own Taser training had been out-of-date
since March, 2006.
Autor: Linda Diebel -s a veteran political reporter who worked across
She's been described as "that mean Diebel person" by President George H.W. Bush and someone "with a good head on her shoulders" by Noam Chomsky. They're probably both right.
Infonurt2 : Ten
szef grupy policjantów robi wrażenie “umsłowego”.. Tragedią jest więc ogromną
fakt że zycie obywateli Kanady jest w rękach takich ludzi – przy czym
uzbrojonych w smiertelny sprzet : pistolety, Tasery i stalowe ogumione pałki
którą jeden z nich walił w ciemie Roberta. Dziwne że żaden z prawników tego nie zauważył- bo te kilka uderzeń stalową pałka wzdłuż –
było po prostu dobiciem ich ofiary..
Web405Another RCMP officer retracts statements at Dziekanski inquiry
In the hours and days after Dziekanski collapsed and died on the floor of
The officers said they had to wrestle Dziekanski to the ground - evidence disputed by a witness video to Dziekanski's dying moments.
Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson told a public inquiry into in Dziekanski's death Wednesday that he made erroneous statements to those homicide investigators.
"I didn't articulate it well," Robinson explained during his third day of testimony at the inquiry.
"I'm blending the whole interaction," he said. "I did the best job I could. I admit there are inaccuracies."
Dziekanski, a Polish man who didn't speak English, died on the floor of the arrivals area following five blasts of the Taser.
Robinson has insisted he was simply ineloquent when he gave two separate statements to investigators probing the in-custody death. The three other officers have said they gave their best recollections of a fast-paced, stressful event.
Robinson acknowledged Wednesday that Dziekanski was relatively calm when police arrived and initially followed their directions.
He also conceded that Dziekanski didn't swing the stapler, as officers told investigators, and collapsed to the floor on his own after the first shock. Their initial accounts said he continued standing after the first hit.
All the officers have retracted parts of their statements to homicide investigators when confronted with the bystander's video. Some of the officers' errors - for instance, that Dziekanski had to be wrestled to the floor - were consistent among them.
The lawyer for the Polish government has offered his own theory: The officers were lying to justify their actions.
"It's not something that should be casually blended together because it misleads the investigators," Don Rosenbloom told Robinson.
Earlier this month, when questioning the officer who fired the Taser, Rosenbloom went further.
"I am suggesting that you and your fellow officers intentionally misled (homicide) investigators and you continue to lie under oath at this commission, do you deny that?" he asked Const. Kwesi Millington, who denied the allegation.
The inconsistencies have raised questions about the Crown's decision last year not to charge the four officers, and prompted calls from the Polish community to re-open the case.
When announcing their decision last December, B.C.'s Criminal Justice Branch said the bystander's video supported the officers' accounts.
"This is so obvious, it should be re-opened, because there was no justification not to charge them," Zygmunt Riddle, a Polish man who has sent an Internet petition to the provincial government, said outside the inquiry Wednesday.
Jurek Baltakis, a friend of Dziekanski's mother who says he represents the Polish community in her home town of Kamloops, B.C., said he wants the investigation re-opened, but by a special prosecutor, not the RCMP.
A Crown spokesman in B.C. has said it would be up to homicide investigators to decide whether to re-open the case.
The RCMP have said that's a decision that will have to wait until after the inquiry.
Regardless of what happens in
Przemyslaw Jenke, the country's consul in
"The Polish penal code does provide for this kind of situation," said Jenke, who has been attending the inquiry.
Jenke said Polish prosecutors asked Canadian officials for information related to the investigation soon after Dziekanski died, but have so far received no help.
If Polish prosecutors do decide to lay charges, Jenke said the officers could be tried in absentia.
"We do not have an extradition treaty
between