By now I’m sure all of you know about the taser death of 17-year-old Michael Langan by the Winnipeg Police Force. While it is hardly surprising that this happened, the response by some members of the public and city officials is jaw-dropping.
It is clear–and has been for some time–that the Winnipeg Police Force are out of control. Aside from this most recent “appropriate-use-of-force,” the police in this city have had inquiries against them for the shooting of aboriginal youth Matthew Dumas and the 1991 shooting of aboriginal leader JJ Harper.
Recently, they have also come under fire for dropping drunk driving charges against an off-duty officer who slammed into a car killing a woman last February.
City officials have defended the attacks saying that the use of force was appropriate and there is no reason for them to stop using tasers. If the comments on CBC Manitoba are any indication, it is clear that some Manitobans are siding with the cops on this attack and even accusing the parents of negligence and not raising their child appropriately.
The Winnipeg Police claim that this youth was “brandishing a knife,” which still remains unclear, and that he was a threat to those around him. Was he threat to a ring of cops armed with tasers and pistols? What happened to any sort of diplomacy or negotiations by the police? It is clear that these have been replaced with the use of force and 50,000 volts surging through your body. Assuming they fired the electrodes, which penetrate the skin and cause the human body to become a wet saline highly conductive terminal, then the resulting death is perhaps not so surprising. Wall terminals in North America are only 120V, and we know these can cause a severe shock. Voltages of greater than 50 V are capable of producing heart fibrillation if they produce electric currents in body tissues which happen to pass through the chest area. The electrocution danger is mostly determined by the low conductivity of dry human skin. If skin is wet, or if there are wounds, or if the voltage is applied to electrodes which penetrate the skin, then even voltage sources below 40 V can be lethal if contacted.
Consider this case: A construction worker killed by a 13,800 volt overhead power line. A taser emits nearly 4 times the voltage.
There should be an immediate moratorium on taser use declared by all police departments across the country and an independent investigation into Langan’s death.
Chris Webb is an activist and journalist living in Winnipeg. He is currently publishing assistant at Canadian Dimension. Read other posts by Chris Webb.
