'I'm a good boy,' autistic man, 43, tells officers after they Taser him in bedroom, family alleges
Oct 07, 2008 04:30 AM
Dale Anne Freed Staff Reporter
A 43-year-old physically and mentally disabled North York man and his family are suing several police officers, including members of the Emergency Task Force, and the Toronto Police Services Board for more than $9 million in damages after he was hit with a Taser in his bedroom.
According to the lawsuit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, George Lochner was in his second-floor bedroom when emergency task force officers came looking for his brother Silvano, who was wanted for allegedly threatening to assault his neighbour with a sledgehammer.
None of the family's accusations has been proven in court. In a statement of defence, the police and the board deny all of the family's allegations.
Police Tasered Lochner twice and beat him on his face and all over his body, his brother Silvano, 50, said last night at the family home in a quiet, middle-class neighbourhood.
"It was scary. My brother was in his room on the second floor sleeping when emergency task force officers came in with rifles. They said my brother tried to attack them," said Silvano, as he and his mother Lina, 77, showed the Star photos of George's injuries. "We have a medical report that says he was Tasered twice.
"Look what they did to him – he's handicapped, he's autistic," said his brother.
"Our lawyer, Clayton Ruby, will explain it all at a press conference at his office (today.)"
On Aug. 11, 2006, Silvano, who police said showed "violent tendencies," refused to surrender. The emergency task force team, backed up by tactical paramedics, arrived at the Lochner family home, where George Lochner lives with his parents and Silvano.
Police found George's mother and his brother Paul Lochner in the garage. They told police Silvano was out walking their disabled father and nobody was in the Verwood Ave. home.
The Lochners claim police attacked and punched Paul, pushed him to the ground, "pointed guns at his head" and handcuffed him.
Police then went in the home, "clearing" it room by room and found George lying in his bed.
Police say they identified themselves and told the special-needs man not to move, but say he tried to attack them and had to be subdued. But the Lochner family claims that police Tasered George "numerous" times in "drive stun mode" and "full deployment mode."
"I'm a good boy," George reportedly told police after they Tasered him. Silvano was later arrested.
Police say they used no more force than necessary and that he "suffered no physical injuries."
Summary A 43 year old mentally challenged man was tasered twice becasue the police were looking for his brother. The police said he tried to attack them. The family is suing several police and several men on the task force for $9 million dollars.
Questions,
1. How can things like this be prevented
2. Do you think police should be tasering autistic/mentally and physicly challenged people.
3. How could this relate to our history course, (no tasers, less violence)
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13 comments:
it was a men of 43 years that the pilice was looking for his brother and they were in big trouble whit police and the have spend 9 million dollars
I think that the police have to be very sure that a man have done something bad or not so they have to prove it, before they get one
This is very inserting i think the police should have investigated a little more before they tazered
the man. His family has a right to sew them.
I believe that it was unnecessairy, wrong, and unjustice to taser the mentally challanged man. Just to find his brother not him because the police acuse that his brother was to get arrested, why would they taser the mentally challanged men with chance of not knowing what is happening or where his brother is not just once but twice?
If the police, and the armed force took more careful with the mentally challanged man, the force could've kept the man in silence and try to search his brother without harming the man.
I personally don't think that police officers shouldn't be tasering mentally people they should only taser people that actually have done somethng bad.
I think that things like these can be prevented maybe if they just came in calmy and asked questions. Instead they barge in to houses and use force to bring the guy in, when they could be calm and polite. The same thing happened in an airport and was tasered and died. They weren't careful when they did this they just kept tasering him.
I think that nobody should be tasered. It would be mean and cruel to taser people with disabilities because they might not understand and you still just taser them for the heck of it. This is very wrong and tasers should be banned. This does not relate to what we studied so far because nobody had tasers to taser other civilians back then.
Things like this should not be happening. Instead of tasering him they should have asked him questions. This is innapropriate behaviour on the policemans part. Tasers are lethal and should only be used if the accused is using force against the police. This might have been a misundersatnding but the police should have some sort of a puneshment for this action.
The 43 year old guy got tasered twice because of the police were looking for his brother. He suing the police for 9 million dollars!!!!
1. They shouldn't blame the police he was doing his job.
2. They shouldn't do that but if he was really hide his brother that did somthing wrong that bad.
3. This is related like armys againest villagers that disagree.
I don't think that the police should use tasers that are so power full and from what I gatherd from the story they not only taserd him multipul times they also hit him all over his body which I think was uneccery to do because I theink that the taser would be fine
1. How can things like this be prevented
Answer: Things like this can be prevented, if the police have gathered some more information about the people that they are going to meet.
2. Do you think police should be tasering autistic/mentally and physicly challenged people.
Answer: I don't think the police should be teasering a mentally challenged person. Becasue it is not fair to that person. and also the person has done nothing to deserve to get teasered.
3. How could this relate to our history course, (no tasers, less violence) ?
Answer: Because back then , people that came to Canada, might not speaks the same language that the people used to lived in Canada does. So, therefore the people from British or France might attack the people that live in Canada. Because they dont understand what they are talking about, or they might think that they want to start a war or something
1. How can things like this be prevented:
I think that things like this can be prevented by not putting such dangerous weapons in the hands of policemen and make sure that policemen are carrying out their operations well by doing things like not attacking mentally disabled people.
2. Do you think police should be tasering autistic/mentally and physicly challenged people.
I think that this should only happen when it is necessary only not when they have nothing against them and aren't the person trying to be caught.
3. How could this relate to our history course, (no tasers, less violence)
This could relate to history because many things were done wrong, many mistakes were made because of communitcation problems.
I think it was the police men's fault because clearly the man was mentally challenged and there was no reason for tazering him or anyone else in that matter and the family should be sewing them for that because that was just wrong
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