‘Don’t tase me sonny-boy!’
I swing a hammer from time to time. Guess I better watch out.
What is it about cops not being able to handle senile old ladies?
How big and how old is this stellar example of Chicago’s “finest”?
It’s always hard to draw a bright line on when a weapon shoud be used.
All that said, there was a case where an NYPD ESU officer shot a woman named Eleanor Bumpers, who was an elderly EDP who was threatening people in her apartment with a knife. The police tried to use basically a giant fork to restrain her. It’s didn’t work (I guess never bring a fork to a knife fight, and another officer shot her twice with a shotgun. The first shot disabled her, the second killed her. There was a trial, centering around whether the detective fired a quick pair of shots as he was trained, or whether he fired the disabling shot, paused, and then “executed” bumpers. The officer was cleared. It is a great study in the use of force against people with mental illness.
Completely apart from the issue of the police officers’ decision here, we should be asking stern questions about why an 82 year old woman who “suffers from schizophrenia and dementia . . . is easily confused . . . can be belligerent” is living alone with “officials with the city’s Department on Aging” dropping by to make periodic “welfare checks”. She obviously hasn’t been well for a long time, and if her relatives can’t or won’t take her in, the state should have put her in a supervised living institution a long time ago. Somebody whose mental condition is well known to render them unable to be held legally responsible for their actions shouldn’t be left to live unsupervised.
I don’t get it....was she swinging it menacingly? Just “swinging a hammer” isn’t very descriptive.
I wonder what would have happened if they had just left her alone.
These taser threads interest me.
Did you post this to Gen. Chat? Or did a Moderator.
In any event, see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1922404/posts