MURDER BY POLICE..... in TORONTO ....PLS READ...:( A streetcar named death Thursday, August 1, 2013 Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight is advice that’s been given in the movies. Sammy Yatim learned the lesson the hard way Saturday when he brandished a knife at 22 armed Toronto police officers and was promptly shot at nine times in 12 seconds. He didn’t stand a chance, but he should have. Police and their union are warning people not to draw all of their conclusions from the videos that were shot by witnesses. That, too, is good advice. We cannot know all of the details until several investigations are complete. But there are unalterable facts that are plainly evident from these moving images. Witnesses said Yatim had pulled the knife and exposed himself before ordering passengers and the driver off the car at midnight. When challenged by police who responded within a minute, the 18-year-old Syrian immigrant is reported to have responded with profanity. Witnesses were surprised at how quickly the shooting followed the first of several orders to drop the knife. A single officer fired three shots at Yatim sending the teen to the floor of the car, his legs still moving. Five seconds later the policeman fired four more times. Nine and 10 seconds later came two single shots. As if that wasn’t enough, when officers stormed the bus they shocked the prostrate teenager with a Taser. Presumably, he still showed signs of life though danger to police at this point seems unlikely. Thirty minutes after it began, Yatim was pronounced dead. Why wasn’t the boy tasered first? While police crowded around the front door of the car, one officer did enter from the rear door, after the shooting. Police are trained to try to talk an armed, agitated person into dropping their weapon. That did not happen here. No specially trained police negotiator was called to try to diffuse the situation while a small army of officers guarded the otherwise empty streetcar. No one was in imminent danger and police were there in sufficient numbers to stop Yatim if he had charged out the door at them. But why aim to kill? Why not aim at his extremities — perhaps to knock the knife from his hand? Why use lethal force first? Yatim was vastly outnumbered. Yet police acted as if this was a one-on-one confrontation with an officer in imminent mortal danger. With so many questions unanswered, we must await whatever answers come from SIU and internal police investigations. But one thing is certain: once an officer decides to use lethal force there is little chance of survival. Public Share StatusCancel
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 08:48:22 +0000
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