Will Koblensky Reports

[willonline-blog]

Eligon jury back with recommendations

By Will Koblensky | Posted: Feb 13 2014 10:29 am Find original story here.

There were mentally ill people waving scissors and knives, there

were police shooting them to death, and now, a jury has

recommended methods of avoiding these tragedies.

Suffering from illness and bullets were Reyal Jardine-Douglas, 25,

Sylvia Klibingaitis, 52, and Michael Eligon, the 29-year-old who was

gunned down on an East York street. These three very similar cases

from 2010 to 2012 were the subjects of a coroner’s inquest that now

has its jury verdict. That verdict does not bring with it any criminal

charges like a conventional court case would. Instead, the jury has

proposed changes to police practices, aimed at preventing this from

happening again.

They sifted through 220 proposed recommendations, and yesterday

settled on 74, including: refinements in police training to help officers

better understand mental illness and associated behavior; training in

verbal de-escalation of confrontations with the mentally ill; and

investigation into better defensive equipment for police, like shields

and body-worn cameras.

“I believe Michael Eligon would be alive today if one of the police

officers had just said ‘Hey, lets talk to him in a calmer, slower

manner,’” Peter Rosenthal, the Eligon family’s lawyer said. Talking in

a calmer, slower manner is a type of a de-escalation technique,

something mental health advocates have been asking for and police

have been resisting when an “edged weapon” is involved.

“You can use de-escalation techniques when you have the time,” the

president of the Toronto’s police union, Mike McCormack, said.

“When someone’s charging at you with a knife, you have to react.”

The lawyer representing Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair told the

inquest expanded use of Tasers is the way to go. McCormack is

adamant on Tasers too.

“I don’t know if they (Tasers) would always change the circumstances

but it gives the officers an intermediate use-of-force option between

the baton and the gun,” McCormack said. “But it won’t change the

outcome in every situation…. Sometimes, lethal force is necessary.”

That’s not a universally held view.

“Tasers are not appropriate weapons for these types of situations….

One of the darts could fail or improperly attach to the person,”

Rosenthal said. “I’m very opposed to further or expanded use of

Tasers.”

Rosenthal thinks police should coax the individual to stop rather than

barking orders in the traditional sense, “because mentally ill people

can’t respond to traditional orders.” Officers use de-escalation

techniques, but they don’t necessarily take that person’s state of mind

into account.

“An officer could (also) approach the individual with a shield and

apprehend them that way,” Rosenthal said.

Using a shield or body armour isn’t a practical option according to

McCormack, because it’s too bulky to carry or wear.

Implementing “mobile crisis intervention teams” and putting body

video cameras on cops were other suggestions put forward by

lawyers for the victim’s families and mental health activists.

McCormack doesn’t think cameras will change police conduct.

[willonline-blog]

Toronto’s Black Lives Matter activist organization held an anti-racism rally during the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri over a young African-American man being shot to death by police.