 |
@wehaitians.com |  |
No one writes to the tyrants | |
HistoryHeads/Not Just Fade Away |
| Correspond with us, including our executive editor, professor Yves A. Isidor, via electronic mail: |
| letters@wehaitians.com; by way of a telephone: 617-852-7672. |
| Want to send this page or a link to a friend? Click on mail at the top of this window. |
|
 |
|
| Posted Sunday, December 16, 2007 |
| Taser death sparks march |
| By Michelle Lalonde, The Gazette Writer |
About 100 people marched through St. Michel yesterday to protest against what they called the abusive use of Taser guns by police, and to demand justice for a man who died in October after he was tasered by police.
The march was organized by the family of Quilem Registre, 38, who died after police allegedly tasered him five or six times while trying to arrest him.
Police have said Registre was suspected of drunk driving when he was stopped on 23rd Ave. near Jean Rivard St. on Oct. 18. He was pronounced dead four days later at Sacré Coeur Hospital after suffering multiple heart attacks.
Family members called on politicians to take a closer look at the use of Tasers by police, considering 19 people have died after being shot with Tasers by Canadian police officers in the past five years.
"We want people to realize there is a real danger with the use of Taser guns," said Francine Registre, sister of the dead man. "It doesn't just save lives. It kills.
"We want (the government) to do real studies and not just take the word of police," she said.
"I can understand using one Taser charge on a person to subdue him, but when they are using six charges on one person, I wonder if we are really trying to save a life there," Registre's cousin Evans Sanelus said.
The Registre family moved from Haiti to Montreal when Quilem was 7 years old. Many at yesterday's march claimed race was a factor in his death.
Marchers stopped in front of Montreal police Station 30 and chanted: "Down with police racism!" and "Down with Ku Klux Klan police!" in reference to the outlawed organization in the United States that advocates white supremacy.
Mandeep Dhillon, of No One Is Illegal Montreal, a group that works with immigrants and refugees, said racial profiling - where police make assumptions based on a person's race - is a growing problem in Montreal.
"I wasn't there (when Registre was tasered), but for me, there is no question that racial profiling happens. If you are black, brown, indigenous in Canada, the levels of incarceration, police brutality and violence you face are quite heightened," she said.
Dan Philip, who heads the Black Coalition of Quebec, said Registre's death again raises the issue of procedures for investigating civilian deaths at the hands of police in Quebec.
When someone is killed or seriously injured by a police officer, investigators from a different Quebec force are called in to investigate. In the Registre case, the Sûreté du Québec is investigating.
"It's always these hidden, false investigations," said Philip, who joined the march yesterday. "We must - all of us - demand an independent, public inquiry into any circumstance where police commit violence against citizens."
The marchers were escorted by four police cars and at least one officer went into the crowd to discuss logistics with the protesters.
mlalonde@thegazette.canwest.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007
| Wehaitians.com, the scholarly journal of democracy and human rights |
| More from wehaitians.com |
Must
learnedly read, too; in part, of intellectual rigor