In 1971 at Stanford University, Philip G. Zimbardo conducted a study called the “Stanford Prison Experiment,” which he describes as “a classic demonstration of the power of social situations to distort personal identities and long cherished values and morality…” Basically, he assigned students to play the role of “prisoner” or “prison guard” and discovered that the “prisoner role-players” became severely depressed and highly stressed and the guards became “sadistic.” The two week experiment was ended abruptly after six days due to the negative impact it had on students.

In real life, could it be that police are a representation of Zimbardo’s “prison guards?” While there are good officers who “serve and protect,” there are also many officers who have as Zimbardo states, “been given power, which ultimately distorted their personal identities and values.” As Marvel Comic superhero Spiderman learns, “with great power comes great responsibility.” This includes remaining disciplined and not letting that power influence bad judgment. However, without the same legal repercussions that “everyday folks” would get… (come on, you know cops don’t have to own up to their mistakes the way we all do), when is it time to draw that law-abiding line fairly?

Becoming quite popular amongst the police are tasers, which is defined in Wikipedia as “an electroshock weapon that uses Electro-Muscular Disruption (EMD) technology to cause Neuromuscular Incapacitation or (NM) and strong muscle contractions through the involuntary stimulation of both the sensory nerves and the motor nerves.” Although introduced as “less lethal weapons,” it seems that tasers are actually becoming more lethal due to their high volume of usage. Hand an aggressive cop a taser and look out!

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, since 1999, at least 148 people have died in the United States and Canada after being shocked with tasers by police officers. However, officers and supporters of the dangerous “restraint” claim that the deaths of these individuals were unrelated to the taser. Often, they blame “excited delirium” as the reason for a sudden death after being taken down with a taser, refusing to cast any blame on the way a taser is used.

The term “excited delirium” came about in the “cocaine-wild 1980s” to describe people who died mysteriously in police custody, said Dr Deborah Mash, a brain researcher. “These are individuals that are acting wildly incoherently, completely out of control. Exhibiting super-strength, babbling incoherently… Some individuals jumping on top of police cars. Breaking through plate glass windows. Jumping off of second story buildings,” explained Mash. “Many of them exhibit behavior-behavior [that entails] unexpected strength that would be Hulk-like.”

While this term began as a description of someone on drugs, it is now associated with anyone who is displaying signs of high stress, psychosis etc…. Basically, it describes anyone who comes into contact with police. And some skeptics feel that it is really a legal cover-up for “police brutality.”

“Excited delirium” is not recognized by the DSM IV, (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), which is the God of psychological definitions, if you will. And what that means, in a nut shell, is that if a “psychological term” is NOT in the DSM, than it lacks validity. However, in a court of law, “excited delirium” has been used by officers who were involved in a taser incident-gone-bad, enabling them to side-step punishment and continue tasering their unfortunate captives without any set limitations.

Although there are hundreds of incidences regarding “taser fatalities” (Google it), what stood out to me the most is an occurrence that began on October 13, 2007. When a man who had never flown before, Robert Dziekanski (40), arrived at the Vancouver International Airport, he had no idea that his short life was about to tragically end. Emigrating from Gliwice, Poland, to start a new life with his mother, Zofia Cisowski, in Kamloops, British Columbia, Dziekanski’s flight arrived at the Vancouver International airport two hours late. Frightened and anxious to be in a strange place and unable to speak a word of English, after completing initial immigration processing, Dziekanski was referred for secondary immigration processing but got confused and remained around the baggage carousels (where he recalled his mother telling him to wait). Unfortunately, neither of them knew that she would not be able to enter the vicinity. Sadly, between 4:00 p.m. and roughly 10:45 p. m., Dziekanski wandered around aimlessly, probably hoping his mother would come to his rescue.

After close to seven hours… yes, you heard it right… SEVEN hours…he finally tried to leave the area but did not have all the essential paperwork (which was found in his luggage later on). At 12:15 a.m. on October 14th, Dziekanski was free to leave the baggage area but without the ability to communicate with anyone about his flight info, etc…, he was ushered over to the international arrivals reception area without any clue as to what to do next. Meanwhile, his mother was told by airport staff that her son was not at the airport and she left to return to Kamloops under the impression that he had missed his flight.

Witnesses recalled Dziekanski being visibly upset and agitated. Finally, completely exhausted with no one to turn to, Dziekanski picked up a chair and used it to prop open the one-way doors between a customs clearing area and public lounge. He then walked back and forth, picking up a computer and small table and threw them on the floor.

When security guards arrived, they did not try (even for a second) to calm him down nor did they use the airport’s telephone translation service to assist him as seen on a witnesses video footage of the incident. Instead, police were called, who aggressively approached the man in a confrontational manner and tried to pin him to the wall. Despite Dziekanski’s “unthreatening and now calm behavior,” which is also seen in the video, officers tasered him, repeatedly. After the second taser, Dziekanski began to convulse and then fell to the ground where four officers held him down and handcuffed him. According to another witness who captured the incident on her cell phone, he was tasered four times.

“The third and fourth ones were at the same time,” she added.

Dziekanski cried out right before he stopped moving for good. He died on the scene and his mother, who was interviewed later, sobbed uncontrollably as she talked about her grief and how she will never be able to move past this incredible loss.

While it might be more “politically correct” to beat (no pun intended) around the bush, the harsh truth is that, in my opinion, the cops killed Dziekanski. “Excited delirium….” I don’t think so. When police noticed the terrified man in a foreign country wasn’t moving, they called paramedics. However, Dziekanski didn’t receive CPR until they arrived…15 minutes later.

After the fatality, video-recorder, Paul Pritchard handed over his camera and video to police who said they would return it 48 hours later. That never did happen. Instead, they gave him back his camera with a new memory card and kept the original with the video. Pritchard had to fight for his property to be returned to him in court. When he did get it back, he released the video to the media on November 14, 2007. Police later claimed that the video was “just one piece of evidence, one person’s view.”

You can see a copy of the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IJqdL40lvU

How many more people have to die until police are held accountable for their crimes? And shouldn’t it be against the law not to uphold the law when it comes to police officers? There are just so many questions and so few answers. Where’s the justice? If we only knew.

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