Toronto - How Dead Do You Have To Be?

These things happen. We are living in cheap times, and the fast lane is littered with some very expensive wrecks.
Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine, p. 228

If it wasn't for a clear headed citizen with his ankle bracelet cell phone, it is very likely that we would have never even heard of the death of  Sammy Yatim. The murder took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada sometime late last Friday night or early Saturday morning. Somehow the youngster slipped his clutch plates and ordered the clearing of a Toronto streetcar at knife point, so the story goes.

Glock 17 - plastic cops plastic gun...

Of course the street car driver hit the hidden panic button and every cop within a radius of God only knows quickly started to appear at the scene. Now if you know any old cops, the first thing that they will tell you is that the most dangerous thing in a cops life is another cop going for the gun too soon. Since 9/11 cops have been getting all the funding beyond their wildest dreams. We always hear about the Ninja like training that they all get today. And we have all heard about the latest body armour that even the most common beat cop gets in any city in Canada.

 So when it comes to disarming a lone nutter you would think that a big burly constable would walk right up to the mental miscreant and deftly disarm and subdue the poor citizen, armed with a knife, gun or both. Haven't any of these cops of today seen any recent movies? And as per the Oracle of Ottawa's view on the matter, it is much more fun to beat the crap out of someone face to face that threatens me then just shoot him from a great and safe distance. But that is just the Oracle, old school macho...

Well if you have seen the video, which appeared to the Oracle on Sunday last as he checked in to his You Tube account and noticed it in the popular now section! So that means that the whole world has or will soon see it. That sure is good for Canadian tourism isn't it? As the Oracle of Ottawa pressed the play button he was floored! Never in his life had he observed a cold blooded murder for real in a Canadian city. But if you watch the video carefully and count the shots fired, it seems that one of Toronto's "finest" emptied the contents of his Glock's clip into the kid. (9 Shots - listen and count carefully...)

 But it gets even worse, upon closer viewing. After all the shots are fired, and the mob of cops enter the bus, to subdue the corpse, you hear that unmistakable sound of a Taser being deployed! (At 1:00 on the video...) It is just unimaginable, but they Tasered the kid after they killed him! Now we all know that most police departments put their recruits through a ton of "wiring" tests before they are hired. Perhaps they should start screening for Dyslexia?

The real ironic, ignorant fact of this whole mess is that it got recorded from more than one angle. There is no way out. It makes the Oracle break into a wry smile. The results of living in our locked down world, that has most of us covered 24/7 as soon as we walk out the door in the morning is that the system is catching more cops than criminals! Do you think there is any information in that fact? Well do ya?