If you don't believe that there are a lot of little old ladies with a loaded 12-gauge sitting right inside the front door, you haven't been around much. Letting procedure slip because someone doesn't fit the stereotype of a dangerous individual is how cops get killed.
A lot of predators think little old widow ladies are an easy mark. Little old widow ladies know this. So they get ... prepared. I can't use the word "paranoid," because there really are people out to get them.
But let's look at the account of this event with wording that is factually the same, but with different spin.
The Orem police officer, as yet unnamed by city officials, cited Perry for violating a city ordinance with her "sadly neglected and dying landscape," which resembles dry hay.
The LAPD officer, as yet unnamed by department officials, cited Washington for violating a city ordinance by having his yard in a state that created a fire hazard.
When Perry refused to give her name and tried to walk inside to call her son, the officer tried to arrest her, police say. According to a police news release, while she was struggling, she tripped and fell on her doorstop, cutting open the bridge of her nose. But Perry maintains the officer split her nose when he hit her with the set of handcuffs he was trying to restrain her with.
When Washington refused to cooperate with her police and lunged toward the door, the officer tried to arrest him, police say. According to a police news release, after Washington broke free of the officer's grip, he fell on the doorstep. But Washington maintains that the officer stuck him with his handcuffs.
Did you just graduate from the academy?
It's not always by the book, and there is that little thing called discretion. Clearly there was no common sense discretion used here. And I base this on the officer subsequently being suspended from duty.
Yet even after she fell and cut her nose, and the "threat" was eliminated, he still felt the need to arrest her. Let's be honest with ourselves - this incident occurred because the cop got PO'd that she didn't bow to his authority. His supervisors certainly understood that, as they (1) released the lady quickly and (2) said it will serve as a "learning experience" for him.
Let's brainstorm the ways he could've avoided this incident:
1. Given her a week to get the lawn in order, and told her failing that he'd have to cite her
2. Told her she'd be receiving a citation in the mail
3. Waited to his truck while she called her son (to protect himself from a shotgun-wielding 70 year old)
4. Called his dispatcher, got her name, and left the citation in her mailbox