Pay or Play: Vancouver Police Taser Transit Riders Who Fail to Pay Fare

Vancouver transit riders are being tasered. Documents show police have sued tasers on passengers 10 times in the past 18 months, including five occasions when passengers skipped fares.

It appears that the police view a taser as a standard response to a failure to obey police orders. In one case, a passenger accused of skipping the fare was tasered after he refused to let go of a railing.

The translink report said, “After several warnings to the subject to stop resisting arrest and the subject failing to comply with the officers’ commands, the taser was deployed and the subject was taken into control.”

The government is now considering a ban on tasers.

For prior taser abuse stories, click here.

For the full story, click here.