One of therein questions of concern is about the definition of use of force and how it applies to the police force in perspective of their training. We can expect that the training of a police officer involves making sure that the officer is ready to make split second decisions about life or death. An officer usually has very little time to access a situation and chart the best course (Lobobucci, 2014). In such events, it is his training that helps him. So to understand the nature of force, as it applies to the police, we must look at their training. According to the Toronto police, “an officer is not authorized to draw handgun, point a firearm, or discharge a firearm unless he or she has reasonable grounds to believe that such action is
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This model suggest the various levels of force that might be necessary for tackling various subject behaviours. It is interesting to note that Yatim was exhibiting behaviour that a police officer has been trained to identify as hostile. It involved ignoring the offer, aggressive verbalization, refusing to comply with a lawful request and aggressive stance (Lobobucci, 2014). It is no wonder that the training of the officers would have suggested a use of a high level of force especially considering that Yatim was armed. But what is not apparent is why the officers felt that they needed lethal force beyond the use of tasers. Yeti was clearly not armed with a gun and did not present any threat level that would need an officer to discharge nine rounds into the man. The “shoot to stop” ((McNab, 2009) policy would suggest that the officers should have stopped firing after Yatim had dropped to the ground. But that is not the case …show more content…
All three involved suspects armed with sharp edged weapons who, while portraying threatening behaviour, posed not immediate bodily threat to the officers (CBC, 2014 ). They were all shot down dead when they moved towards the officers on scene. The only explanation in these cases is that the assailants were behaving in a threatening manner. More importantly, as the inquest into these cases found out, there was shaking lack of communication attempts. No communication beyond the order to “drop the knife” and “stop” were attempted (CBC,2014).
Furthermore, the case of Robert Dziekanski tells a story of blatant police misconduct and deliberate misrepresentation of the facts by the police. Mr. Dziekanski, a polish immigrants, was tasered five times by the police force at the vancouver airport in 2007, though he was unarmed. He pronounced dead on the scene. The police later tried to bury the video of the incident that had been recorded by another traveller. From the video it is apparent that the police did not attempt to control or de-escalate the situation before resorting to taser.
Here we can revisit the racial profiling issue again in light of the last case
This model suggest the various levels of force that might be necessary for tackling various subject behaviours. It is interesting to note that Yatim was exhibiting behaviour that a police officer has been trained to identify as hostile. It involved ignoring the offer, aggressive verbalization, refusing to comply with a lawful request and aggressive stance (Lobobucci, 2014). It is no wonder that the training of the officers would have suggested a use of a high level of force especially considering that Yatim was armed. But what is not apparent is why the officers felt that they needed lethal force beyond the use of tasers. Yeti was clearly not armed with a gun and did not present any threat level that would need an officer to discharge nine rounds into the man. The “shoot to stop” ((McNab, 2009) policy would suggest that the officers should have stopped firing after Yatim had dropped to the ground. But that is not the case …show more content…
All three involved suspects armed with sharp edged weapons who, while portraying threatening behaviour, posed not immediate bodily threat to the officers (CBC, 2014 ). They were all shot down dead when they moved towards the officers on scene. The only explanation in these cases is that the assailants were behaving in a threatening manner. More importantly, as the inquest into these cases found out, there was shaking lack of communication attempts. No communication beyond the order to “drop the knife” and “stop” were attempted (CBC,2014).
Furthermore, the case of Robert Dziekanski tells a story of blatant police misconduct and deliberate misrepresentation of the facts by the police. Mr. Dziekanski, a polish immigrants, was tasered five times by the police force at the vancouver airport in 2007, though he was unarmed. He pronounced dead on the scene. The police later tried to bury the video of the incident that had been recorded by another traveller. From the video it is apparent that the police did not attempt to control or de-escalate the situation before resorting to taser.
Here we can revisit the racial profiling issue again in light of the last case