Maced, shot with a taser, and then hit with a baton.
He was a tough old bastard. Getting hit with pepper spray, zapped with a taser and then hit with a baton?
Tough.
Don’t issue guns to those bobbies.
He should have obeyed lawful orders.
/sarc or no sarc. You decide.
Suicide by cop.
Not necessarily nor implicitly expressing sympathy for it.
Saying that’s what it was. That old man was ready to go.
They could have subdued him with a blanket. Each grab one side a wrap it around him.
It was a mostly peaceful police brutality over reach.
The old man was in a wheelchair. But he refused to drop the knife. And he was a threat - should he have suddenly lunged out of the chair, he easily could have stabbed one of the cops.
This is not the easiest of calls. But I’d say the cops acted within reason … except they were too damn close when they were talking to the guy.
They were in fear of their lives!
(Is that sarcasm or is it serious? Only my hairdresser knows for sure.)
Yeah, I don’t know. Seems like like they could’ve thrown a blanket over his head and hand and wrestled the knife out of his hand or something. I don’t know.
Feral people are in all ranks of life and it’s spreading.
I have actually had to take a knife from a nursing home resident who was trying to harm themselves and others. I just distracted her attention and grabbed her wrist. No one got hurt and hopefully she got the help she needed.
Cops failed to use brains. EASY to use weapons.
How did this start? Was he crabby and stabby 24/7, or did something light his fuse? Was he “demanding” strawberry ice cream for dessert, when everyone knows strawberry is only served on Tuesdays, after Bingo? Article says staff tried to deescalate for at least 30 minutes. Some people will get mad and stay mad for several hours at a time.
Sad that he could not have been temporarily confined to a certain Cooling Down room, with all but just one staff backing off, reducing all interaction. One staff stays to observe he doesn’t self injure. There should not be the image of 7 young staff “against” this one old man. He will feel backed into a corner.
As a Mental Health Counselor, I have experienced somewhat similar episodes, but never with any one quite that old and potentially fragile in health.
Okay, I watched the video. It’s obvious the poor old guy was a dementia patient who should never have been provided with a sharp knife by the “care home”. I fault the “care workers” for this.
All he understands is that he feels threatened (and he really was being threatened) and doesn’t really comprehend what is going on. They used entirely the wrong approach, too. Calm voice and distraction works much better in such cases.
I could tell stories about what I saw going on in the nursing homes Where my Dad was sent for rehab after hospital stays. Some of the staff would try to goad dementia patients into acting out. It was disturbing (understatement).
I stayed with my Dad from 7am until 10pm (visitors locked out between 10pm and 7am) while he was in these top-rated facilities and insisted those staff members ever enter my Dad’s room unless I was there. I felt so desperately sorry for the man across the hall and the lady down the hallway who had no family members there to protect them.
Other staff were excellent and handled both the man and the lady appropriately and with compassion, using distraction and encouragement.
I’d love to see what transpired before the old guy freaked out and the cops were called. Sometimes people working in these facilities can be incompetent, burned out, or just plain sadistic (and some get a kick out of humiliating helpless old people of a different race). On the other hand, some dementia patients go through a stage where they can be aggressive and irrationally violent and very difficult to deal with.
Whatever happened, what were they thinking giving that man a sharp knife?
Probably the drugs became too much and he went looney. The liver can only process so much and the elderly are given quantities of drugs to keep them quiet. Sometimes it doesn’t work and they lose it. They are old anyhow and a burden. Best to just kill them off and call it natural causes. The kids want the estate anyhow.
Care worker was probably forcing him to do or eat something he didn't want to. He had enough of something. What was the care worker doing that he could poke her in the stomach?
When my mom was in the hospital, she had enough of the blood tests and refused to have any more. Her entire left arm and torso were purple from them. She called me to help her. I arrived, stated she no longer wants blood work. Cops were called. Because of the way they treated me, nearly arresting me, she finally gave in to the test just to get out of that place.
I see my mom's frustration in this old man. He was alone, defending himself. Cops were bullies.
CJD?
Horrible. RIP
They could have thrown pillows or hit him with pillows. Less painful and more effective and better headline.