The following is an excerpt from an article by Christie Blatchford of the National Post. The article refers to the death of Sammy Yatim who was shot by Constable James Forcillo.
"The shooting itself prompted angry protests in the streets, a review of how Toronto Police deal with so-called “people in crisis” — those, like Yatim, who are emotionally disturbed either from drugs or mental illness — by a former Supreme Court judge and led then-Chief Bill Blair to seek to equip frontline officers with Tasers. Less than three months after the shooting, Blair asked his police board for approval to deploy another 184 Tasers into ordinary officers’ hands; the board refused. Then as now, only sergeants and specialized units have Tasers.
On the night Yatim was killed, Forcillo shouted for a sergeant with a Taser to be summoned to the scene. Clearly, Forcillo would have used it — and despite controversy surrounding the weapon, it is almost always less lethal than a firearm — and the odds are Sammy Yatim would still be alive.
By the time the sergeant arrived, Forcillo had fired both volleys, and Yatim, a pathologist testified, was likely dead. Only seven more Tasers — 579 — are deployed now in Toronto than there were in 2013, none on the frontline."
So, here is the dumbness. The chief asked for an additional 184 Tasers to be used on the front lines. However, there are 579 tasers in the hands of supervisory officers. This begs the question: Why not take 184 tasers out of the hands of supervisory officers and transfer them to front-line officers? Better still, why not transfer all 579 to front-line officers where they are readily available when needed.
Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.
