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TO-TTC Shooting: "This Doesn't Sound Like Something That Should Be Happening in a Free Society."
July 28, 2013 - 7:21pm
Many Questions in Fatal TTC Streetcar Shooting (and vid) - by Joe Warmington
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/07/27/many-questions-in-streetcar-fatal-s...
"TORONTO - Bang, bang bang.
Six seconds of quiet.
Bang, bang, bang.
Pause.
Bang.
Pause.
Bang.
Silence.
This doesn't sound like something that should be happening in a free society.
There are a number of questions..."
Man Dies in Street Showdown With Police (and vid)
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2013/07/28/man_dies_in_street_showdown...
"Sammy Yatim, 18, is identified by friends as the person slain...Majed Yatim, who identified himself as Sammy Yatim's uncle, said he was still dealing with his nephew's sudden death.
'It's unbelievable. He was just a child,' he told the Star Sunday morning. 'I am still grieving right now.'
He said Sammy and his family moved to Canada from Syria four or five years ago..."
Sammy Yatim: Family of Dead Teen Stunned and Baffled By Police Shooting
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2013/07/28/sammy_yatim_family_of_dead_...
"...Since when did it become a crime to be a teenager, I ask you? And since when does a scrawny 110-pound-something teenager become a threat to a dozen or so brawny policemen, when he is isolated in an empty streetcar?"
No worries...The officers involved will be punished with an all expenses paid vacation,followed by a stern tongue lashing.
Family in Shock After Police Shooting on Toronto Streetcar (and vid)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/07/28/toronto-ttc-stree...
Sammy and his family were from Aleppo...
'Opposition' Mercenaries Nassacre Civilians in Aleppo
http://www.globalresearch.ca/opposition-mercenaries-massacre-civilians-i...
Canada, of course, supports the 'rebels'...
This is a disgusting act of police violence.
If you're in Toronto tomorrow, please try to attend this march/vigil:
Anybody remember how tasers were promoted on the idea that police could take out someone with a knife without killing them, and ironically enough in this case, they used the taser after shooting him?
CP 24 reported Sammy Yatim had contacted a friend hours earlier to tell him his phone had died and to arrange a meeting. He speculated Sammy may have been lost and said that although 'polite and respectful' he was shy due to his 'uncertain English'.
There is a march and vigil for Sammy Yatim now scheduled for Monday, July 29, to start at Yonge-Dundas Square and march to 14 Division via Dundas and Bellwoods. Please help spread the word.
For more information on this developing story follow the twitter feed here
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23sammyyatim&src=hash
Enhanced video showing the killing of Sammy Yatim by Toronto Police
http://youtu.be/lG6OTyjzAgg
Horrible. At the time I read this, I was playing with my (approximately) 3-inch knife, a little Opinel I use for cutting up fruit and cheese. I suppose I could kill someone rather helpless with that, but even one brawny, trained police officer? Not a chance.
But I'm not a brown or black-skinned teenage boy, who sounded more confused than anything else.
I hope a lot of people show up for the demonstration, and that this crap doesn't go unchallenged. When the Montréal police last killed a brown-skinned teenage boy, he didn't even have a wee knife.
Streetcar Gun Killing Of Teen By Police Jolts Security Expert (and vid)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/07/29/toronto-streetcar...
"...The family, which moved to Toronto from Syria about five years ago, is hiring a lawyer and wonders how police could shoot him multiple times even after it appears he went down. His sister, Sarah, said her family is in shock."
Oddly enough a lot of knives used in combat are 5-6 inches long. Wasnt that how long this knife was? (I know a witness said it was about that long)
I mean its no minature hammer (re:Yu)
Security Camera Footage of Police Shooting on TTC Streetcar (and vid)
http://globalnews.ca/video/748601/security-camera-footage-of-police-shoo...
"Newly released security camera footage shows the moments before, during and after Toronto police shot and killed Sammy Yatim."
Sammy Yatim: 'In his death, he will live forever,' says his mother (and vid)
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2013/07/29/sammy_yatim_in_his_death_he...
"Thousands of people turned out for a vigil and march on Monday evening to protest the police shooting death of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim, including his mother and sister..."
Sammy Yatim Protest Gets Heated Outside Police Station (and vid)
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/29/sammy-yatim-protest-photos_n_367...
"The officer involved in the shooting has been suspended with pay.."
According to his mother, Sammy collected Swiss Army knives.
It's puzzling why the cops didn't just lock down the streetcar and let the kid cool off. Based on the information we have thus far, there was nobody left on the streetcar except Sammy, so he no longer posed a threat, even if he was waving around a machete or a butcher knife.
As it stands, it looks like he was executed for being disobedient.
Sounds fitting, although I thought we had abolished the death penalty.
Toronto Police Didn't Need to Shoot Sammy Yatim: Editorial
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2013/07/30/toronto_police_didn...
"Every Torontonian is owed an explanation for what happened on that streetcar just after midnight on Saturday. And it's important that answers go beyond this particular shooting. Yatim wasn't the first person to be felled by Toronto police bullets while acting erratically.
Indeed, events like this happen with alarming frequency."
They make it sound like a disicpliary thing but the reality is all cops involved in a shooting are suspended with pay while a SIU investigation goes on.
When we were kids, most of us carried pocket knives. The game I most remember playing at school as a kid involved flicking knives into the ground.
I know we don't live in that kind of world anymore, but it is terrible and absurd that something (learning how to handle a knife) which is being promoted as resistance to over-protective parenting could contribute to getting someone killed.
I've watched the videos several times, and this was massively incompetently handled. I am experienced in Nonviolent Crisis Intervention, and while my certification has lapsed, I used to instruct the course for my agency. (CMHA Toronto) Also, I have probably more practical day to day experience than this Cop, given that they said he was a 6 year veteran. I have been at the pointy end of a knife with less backup, a less secure situation, and no weapon other than my skillsets. What happened the other night was a huge massivley incompetent badly handled cock-up resulting in a death. There were just so many things obviously badly done. Having said that, I have worked with, and stood beside police officers who had and used very impressive skills in crisis de-escalation. I know for a fact that the training is there, but it's probably just a one day thing, and not emphasised much.
good post; even TV cops try first to talk and calm down a suspect...
the guy was not in a crowded place, he was surrounded by metal streetcar walls, sealing him in, so to speak
I don't get it, unless the cop later claims there was a bomb in his backpack or something crazy like that, but even then, clear out the area and seal it off ...
He will claim the guy started to come at him. If a guy has a knife and is less than 25 feet from you, he will stab you before you can shoot him if he comes at you. (mythbusters actually just tested this)
So the only safe claim is he thought or saw he was starting to come at him with the knife and he reacted.
And the taser guy just reacted more slowly (or had to draw the taser and then fire) which is why he was tasered after being shot.
I cant see any other defense other than panic and fear which would explain why no one else there fired their gun which you would think they would have done if he really had started coming at them
Why can police officers from other countries be able to handle a kid with a knife without resorting to a gun while Canadian officers cannot? And why is no one questioning the lack of disciplinary action of the officer who discharged the taser gun well after the fact on a kid who was already down and possibly dead?
I am so thankful that someone had a video of what happened. I only wish that the person had waited a week or two before posting the video. That way we would be able to find out if the police version of what happened matched what was recorded on video.
Was I wrong that all cops involved in a shooting are suspended with pay? According to the Police Union I am
I was reading a police release about the murderer,I mean,officer who shot this kid and I almost puked...They had to emphasize the fact that he's a 'family man' and the 'father of a new born baby'...It's as if this officer is the real victim.
I usually frown on union busting but the Brotherhood has to go.
Go ahead and puke. Get it all out. You will have everyone's blessing for it is most warranted.
What is the name of the officer who impulsively discharged the taser gun on a dead kid? And why has he not been suspended?
There were TWO trigger happy officers on the scene who were both surrounded by a swarm of other officers on duty. Simply focusing on the one officer is not enough.
The media has been conspicuously silent about the taser gun operator. I know that it is far less extreme than the cold blooded sociopathic murder, but it is just another impulsive and flagrant misuse of a taser gun not long after the Braidwood Inquiry into taser gun misuse by police officers.
It doesn't have anything to do with the police using excessive force but is it true this man initially pulled a knife on a female passenger and made sexually threatening gestures to her?
I haven't read too too much about this story. Personally I carry a decent sized pocket knife. If the police are speaking to me I will inform the police I'm carrying a knife and twist my hips to show them where it is. I'd like to think if I had a knife in my hand and there were police around I would drop it right away, is there any references of someone being so scared that they don't think to drop what's in their hand when confronted by police? If this mans blood pressure was up and adrenaline was going he might not even realized what he was doing.
I know people think all police carry tasers but in my home town only supervisors do, I wonder which police on the scene had tasers.
I listened to one of the passengers on the streetcar being interviewed and he said the guy was threatening people after one woman screamed and ran to the front. He moved towward the passengers with the knife and his arm stuck out straight with it. He demanded no one leave but everyone fled accord to the wtiness and the cameras show him being the last passenger to leave, then the driver then after a minute the cops and shots. Another witness(the one with the original video posted to youtube) said the kid was taunting the cops while they yelled at him to drop it. But they do not say what he said so how do they know it was a taunt?
The taser user may have just been slow on the draw, acting independantly of the shooter (and would have been a supervisor since regular cops dont get tasers)
Paladin in Toronto only supervisors and ETF have tasers
Officer Suspended in Shooting of Sammy Yatim Identified (and vid)
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=975599&playlistId=1.1389913&binId...
"CTV has learned the identity of the police officer involved in the shooting of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim. James Forcillo is described as a family man.."
If Police Handled Sammy Yatim Situation 'By the Book', Then We Need to Rewrite the Book - by Chris Selley
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/07/30/if-police-handled-sammy-yatim-by...
"...An agitated man with a three-inch blade should not have posed sufficient threat of grievous bodily harm to any one of the gaggle of officers on the scene - collectively armed with knees, fists, batons, pepper spray and at least one Taser, for any of them to open fire.
If what happened was anything close to by the book, then we need to rewrite the book.."
Knife-Wielding Yatim Told People to Stay on Streetcar, Witness Says
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/30/sammy-yatim-streetcar-shooting_n...
"Sammy Yatim was holding a knife when he ordered people not to leave a Toronto streetcar, says a young man who used a bicycle as a buffer between himself and the teen, who was subsequently shot by police..