Should the RCMP officers involved with the Robert Dziekanski shooting, face criminal charges? YES

CBC Politics: Question of the Day

Should the four RCMP officers involved with Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport face criminal charges?

1007 votes

86% said yes

11% said no 

3% said unsure

Their version differed immensely from the video and they lied in court. They professed their absolute innocence yet somehow, felt compelled to lie when appearing before the commission. Too many discrepancies for this to be above board.

They should be charged with criminal negligence causing death or manslaughter. Their actions were inappropriate and they could have handled the situation much better than they did. They did not have to shoot an innocent man. I understand the pressure they must have been under in the heat of the moment, but I believe their actions were impulsive and not rational. They arrived on the scene and electrocuted this man 5 times without any provocation. They threw him on the ground and handcuffed him and one of the officers kneeled on the back of his neck. When he turned blue, stopped breathing and his heart stopped, they did nothing to attempt to help him or prevent his death. When the emergency personnel arrived, they refused to take his handcuffs off to enable the others to administer first aid. These incompetent RCMP officers should be charged with criminal negligence causing death. It is irresponsible and counterintuitive for the police to be dealt with more leniently when they commit crimes than the average citizen. It is frustrating to no end to hear stories of police officers being suspended with pay when they injure or kill people by driving recklessly, using excessive force, or through negligence. If any other citizen were to cause similar harm, they would surely be locked in a cell, given a notice to appear, and/or have their names splashed across the media. In the interest of creating a future RCMP force that is humane, uncorrupted, and truly responsive to the publics needs, the penalties for the all-too-frequent abuse of their authority should be swift and severe. As opposed to the relatively lenient treatment that police receive when the break the law, their crimes should be punished much more harshly than if a member of the public had committed the same act. In addition to breaking the very laws we pay them to maintain, officers who commit crimes shatter the public trust. People in positions of authority should always be punished more severely when the crimes they commit involve abusing that authority. Why the police who caused this man's death have not already been arrested and charged with murder is bewildering, and only serves to add insult to injury. 

"I would have almost gave them the benefit of the doubt at first. But they lied to our faces. When one lie got exposed they made another lie to try and explain the first one, then another and another. That fact e erases any feeble justification they had for this whole stupid situation..
I cant get over of how stupid these guys are, the entire incident was filmed, yet they still lied, how stupid and desperate. No wonder they fought tooth and nail to prevent that footage from being released. And their idiot bosses who tried (yet failed) to sweep this under the rug is just as guilty as the four who did it. They also need to be relieved of their duties, how can anyone trust them after this, then the question arises, what else have they covered up, This is going to follow the RCMP around for a long time. When law enforcement agencies lose public trust, regaining it is practically impossible. The RCMP has become arrogant, and it came back to bite them. One way to try and fix their tainted reps would be to hold these stupid shitheads responsible for killing an innocent man, fire the big-wigs for their cover up and hope to God that the Canadian public forgives them."

"What a stupid question, even more stupid than it would have been over two years ago. None of these officers spoke Polish so they had no idea what the man was saying. From the video he was agitated but there are far more agitated people in practically any public place in the lower mainland. So what grounds did they have for doing what we saw in the cell-phone video? None. At least two of them should have already been sentenced to jail. None of them should still be on the force.

There are important side questions, like how keeping these four on the force affects morale of the other force members and like how capable are today's police officers at achieving a little more presence of mind or even physical strength as opposed to weapons in order to deal with upset people but commenting on those would distract from this most important case."

"A condition worse understood than the actual effects of tasering is excited delirium. I have seen it's effects first hand and it has the potential to become lethal and irreversible unless direct medical intervention takes place. Essentially, the individual becomes so excited/agitated it actually changes their chemistry. This shift in chemistry can cause sudden cardiac arrest spontaneously but more so during a struggle or if being tasered.

Ignoring this syndrome is both naive and irresponsible within the medical community and most police agencies have very little if any training to recognize the potential for such situations.

The RCMP involved did a great wrong in the attempt to cover up what actually happened that day. Had they been properly educated on the risks involved with tasing and handling these situations and had skilled ALS emergency medical technicians on scene an unnecessary death could have been avoided.

The attempted cover up and bold face lies needs to be revisited but we can't charge them in the case of Mr. Dziekanski's death. We need to do the research to understand all the contributing factors and every police agency needs a protocol in place where police are supported by EMS when extremely agitated persons are and or tasers are involved."

"I think it's reasonable to argue that, even though in retrospect the officers' handling of the incident was clearly wrong, there is a danger in having prosecutors become over-eager to second guess police conduct in such situations. They are asked to do a very difficult job in which there can be awful consequences for using either too much OR too little force.

But that argument breaks down when you consider the officers' conduct after the fact. They appear to have withheld evidence, lied outright, and generally brought themselves into disrepute. Prima facie, obstruction of justice charges would probably stick.

And, given that the prosecution's role is to prosecute, and that these men will undoubtedly be defended by talented lawyers, I don't think that charges related to the original incident itself would be out of line. Covering up conduct after the fact can be taken as evidence of premeditation and guilty mind. And the fact is that they killed a guy."