Ottawa urges RCMP to ban use of sponge rounds, CS gas for crowd control – National | 24CA News
The federal authorities says it needs the RCMP to ban the usage of two crowd-control instruments that forces throughout the nation say they’ve of their arsenals: sponge rounds and CS gasoline.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s workplace confirmed that it needs the measures outlawed, even because the RCMP declines to say whether or not or not it would adjust to that instruction.
The resolution to limit even the usage of “less lethal” options to crowd-control instruments corresponding to rubber bullets and stronger types of tear gasoline has some critics questioning whether or not the federal Liberals are enjoying politics with policing.
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“Removing less lethal options from our members’ available options raises real concerns for public and police officer safety,” National Police Union president Brian Sauve mentioned in a press release.
The affirmation that the federal Liberals need the instruments banned comes after The Canadian Press raised questions on a mandate letter Mendicino gave to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki final yr.
The letter directed the pressure to cease utilizing three use-of-force strategies: the “carotid control” neck maintain, rubber bullets and tear gasoline.
The RCMP made headlines just lately when it confirmed that it nonetheless permits officers to make use of the controversial neck maintain regardless of these directions and the truth that different police forces have stopped utilizing it.
The pressure doesn’t use rubber bullets or the more-dangerous chemical compounds known as tear gasoline, which trigger irritation to an individual’s eyes and mucous membranes.
But the minister’s workplace is now clarifying that it needs comparable instruments banned, too.
Mendicino’s workplace mentioned in a press release that it used the phrases “rubber bullets” and “tear gas” within the mandate letter “as they are general language understood by most Canadians.”
It confirmed that it considers the milder CS gasoline and extended-range impression weapons, which hearth foam rounds, to be the operational phrases for such instruments _ that means that it does need the RCMP to cease utilizing them.
That got here as news to Sauve and different consultants, who say that the choice is a departure from present coverage, since police forces throughout the nation and around the globe have such crowd-control strategies of their arsenals.
The RCMP mentioned in a press release that it’s “working with partners, stakeholders and bargaining agents” to evaluate the mandate letter _ and gave no indication that it intends to observe Mendicino’s orders.
“The RCMP continues to report publicly on our use of police intervention options, including the carotid control technique and the 40 millimetre extended range impact weapon that fires sponge-tipped rounds, not rubber bullets, as well as the use of specialty munitions,” it mentioned.
It added that its prolonged vary weapons, in use since 2017, “provide an officer with more time and distance from an individual being responded to in order to better enable de-escalation and communication, when tactically feasible.”
Public disclosures present that the RCMP used CS gasoline 102 occasions in 2021, and it used extended-range impression weapons 86 occasions.
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The public order models of main municipal police forces, together with in Vancouver and Toronto, confirmed to The Canadian Press that in addition they have entry to the instruments.
In an interview, Western University criminologist Michael Arntfield argued that CS gasoline is “entirely different” than the compounds usually known as tear gasoline, and sponge rounds are completely different than rubber bullets.
He mentioned tear and rubber bullets are “very inflammatory terms,” citing pictures of coups d’etat, or of police attacking individuals who had been marching for Black civil rights exterior Selma, Ala., in 1965.
“I’m not sure why those terms would be used if the government was serious about looking at less lethal alternatives.”
Arntfield mentioned he’s “genuinely confounded” about why Mendicino would “tack on” a request for the RCMP to cease utilizing police instruments which can be commonplace throughout Canada in asking them to cease utilizing the neck maintain.
“It looks like political theatre and has absolutely nothing to do with law enforcement operations.”
On Parliament Hill this week, Mendicino mentioned broadly that there’s a have to reform regulation enforcement establishments.
“We are closely consulting and collaborating with law enforcement and experts in the area to take an evidence-based approach so that we can keep our community safe, while at the same time making sure that police have the tools they need when it comes to de-escalating,” Mendicino mentioned.
But he wouldn’t reply questions on why the RCMP appears to be defying his directions, strolling away from reporters when the query was posed.
El Jones, an activist who helped lead a examine on defunding police forces, says police are “an unaccountable force in Canada.”
The undeniable fact that the RCMP isn’t following political path reveals that impunity, she argued. “I think the police are very much signalling to us, no one can tell us what to do.”
The subject of which instruments are and aren’t obtainable to police is receiving heightened consideration following the killing of Tyre Nichols, who died after being overwhelmed by police in Memphis, Tenn., in early January.
The “carotid control” neck maintain, which the RCMP reported it used 14 occasions in 2021, had been extensively condemned after George Floyd was killed when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for greater than 9 minutes.
Jones mentioned police aren’t clear sufficient about their insurance policies or how a lot coaching they supply for officers with regards to the usage of pressure.
“We don’t have good use-of-force study in Canada,” she mentioned. “The picture of use of force in Canada, period, by the police, is just not very clear.”
