Posted on 11/07/2007 12:41:38 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
Chicago cop's actions against mentally ill woman probed
Unless an 82-year-old grandmother is holding a loaded gun, there's no excuse for police officers to use a Taser.
None.
But that's what happened Oct. 29 when Chicago Police officers went to a West Side home to make a "well-being" check. The officers were responding to a request from the city's Department of Aging.
Apparently, the department had received an anonymous tip that Lillian Fletcher, who has a history of mental illness, was home alone and in need of assistance.
When Fletcher refused to open her door, police were called. Although Fletcher cracked the door, she still refused to let her visitors into the house.
But police officers wouldn't take no for an answer and pushed their way in. Fletcher ran and got the hammer she keeps beside her bed.
"My grandmother is easily confused," her granddaughter, Traci Taylor, said Monday. "She probably didn't know what was going on."
Taylor is one of her grandmother's caregivers. She said her grandmother has schizophrenia and dementia.
Normally Fletcher is looked after by a homemaker or by her own daughter and Taylor. Only recently did these women find themselves between homemakers.
"She can be belligerent," Taylor said. But she's 82 years old, 5 feet 1 inch and weighs no more than 160 pounds, she added.
"I just don't think they should be Tasing 82-year-old women. That's ridiculous."
Reportedly swinging a hammer
According to a police source, when officers arrived, Fletcher was "swinging a hammer" and becoming "increasingly violent."
When Fletcher failed to stop as ordered, an officer discharged a Taser. Also, it's worth noting that Fletcher hasn't been charged with violating any laws.
"The matter is being looked into by the Office of Professional Standards, and the Chicago Police Department will also be reviewing the matter to determine if procedures were followed," a police spokesman said.
After Tasing Fletcher, officers took her to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where she was treated. Her family is concerned Fletcher may have suffered a stroke. Citing privacy laws, a hospital spokesman declined comment.
But Taylor said a social worker at the hospital advised relatives of the circumstances surrounding Fletcher's hospitalization. Fletcher was released five days later, but she is still complaining about her hip and a burn on her abdomen. Doctors told Fletcher's family that she should be seen by a neurologist because she has fluid on her brain and may have to undergo surgery.
'There has to be another way'
Unfortunately, despite Fletcher's documented mental condition, police officers -- including a sergeant -- resorted to the same tactics they use when they are dealing with violent criminals.
For instance, last August, Chicago Police officers were accused of causing the death of a South Side man after they subdued him with a Taser. The officers were responding to a 911 call placed by the man's family. Allegedly, Gefery Johnson was combative and resisted arrest. Officers used a Taser and pepper spray on Johnson, and he later died.
Last week, the Cook County medical examiner's office ruled Johnson's death "accidental" and blamed cocaine intoxication rather than the Taser.
About 150 field training officers will soon be equipped with new Tasers. About 200 sergeants have had Tasers for about five years. Obviously, there are times when a Taser should be used to keep the peace. And disabling an out-of-control person is better than shooting that person and asking questions later.
But in Fletcher's case, police officers showed extremely poor judgment. Even if she didn't look elderly, there was no question she was mentally disturbed.
How do these police officers justify using such force on an elderly woman? Where was their compassion?
"I want people to know what happened," Taylor said. "I want them to try and do something as far as regulating Taser use. We're talking about an 82-year-old woman.
"There has to be another way to stop her -- use your stick and block the hammer," she said. "Knock it out of her hand. How hard is that?"
They should have stayed on their own side of the door.
If the cops can’t handle an 82 y/o lady w/o using their damn taser, then they should be working on the other side of the donut counter, not wearing a stinkin’ badge.
How about starting with "Justification for entry".
Cop must be a leftover from Reno's forces!!
From the article: The officers were responding to a request from the city’s Department of Aging.
***
It wasn’t an anonymous tip.
So if it turned out she was being held against her will, you would have fully supported the police decision to leave. Somehow I doubt that you would feel that way.
I should have said “Should the police have anticipated...”
Even being swung by an 82- year old, a hammer is a deadly weapon. I guess they should have just blocked the hammer strikes with their heads.
Cops make mistakes, but I don’t assume they are wrong based on a news story.
“I’ll bet you’ve never stepped foot in a cop bar.”
I’ll take that bet. I believe I’ve still got the pay stubs to prove it. You all talk?
Too Late!!
“So if your wife or daughter was being raped in your home you would want the police to find a judge and get a warrant?”
Nope. There’s a difference between the situation presented in the article and the one you’ve described, no?
Agreed. They shouldn’t be crashing in doors without warrants. PERIOD
Orwellian.
The Cops didn’t have to worry about the dam hammer until they breached her door and then she went into her bedroom and grabbed it.
They are lucky it’s Illinois where its almost impossible to get a firearm, if they did, we would have a different headline.
Nobody should ever be dragged out of their home for a “well being” check. For one thing there shouldn’t be such a thing as a “well being” check, but letting that slide anybody that’s well enough to tell the checker to go the hell away is fine.
There are too many badge-heavy black-glove bloused booted thugs out there now, and a LEO's death, like the one in Broward who caught one in the head, provokes a shrug and a click of the mouse. You don't defend us civilians anymore. You prop up and protect a corrupt mayor, or thieving county commissioner, or crooked governor.
Now, when you get caught beating, stealing, raping, killing, it's "suspended with pay" until the heat dies down. After all, how can we 'civilians' POSSIBLY understand?
From the article: "Apparently, the department had received an anonymous tip that Lillian Fletcher, who has a history of mental illness, was home alone and in need of assistance."
"So if it turned out she was being held against her will, you would have fully supported the police decision to leave."
Stick with the facts. There was no one inside and no reasonable cause to break in! Furthermore, the evidence is they did not suspect, or believe that anyone was forcing her to send them away. They did in fact believe that they were going to "help" her, regardless of what she thought.
"Even being swung by an 82- year old, a hammer is a deadly weapon."
Not by an 82 y/o lady. These cops weren't toddlers. They were grown men, or butch females.
"Cops make mistakes"
Some mistakes are unforgivable, and this is one of those.
My Grandmother is in her 80s, and if she was swinging an hammer around thinking she was defending herself, she could definitely do some damage.
There isn't really any good choices when cops are forced to restrain the elderly mentally ill. In many cases they have lost a lot of bone mass. Physically overpowering them can result in serious injuries, but so can falling to the ground as the result of being tasered.
"There has to be another way to stop her -- use your stick and block the hammer," she said. "Knock it out of her hand. How hard is that?"
Swinging a nightstick at a crazy old woman who is flailing around with a hammer is likely a lot riskier than tasering her.
It is a sad situation, but I think this liberal idiot should let my grandma whack him with a hammer once before he claims that an 82 year old woman with a hammer isn't a threat of serious injury.
Of course the author also makes an obvious attempt to bring up a guy who died of a cocaine overdose after a fight with the cops that included him getting tased as an example of how a taser could kill someone.
You can see how carefully he has to parse his words to try and make it appear that the taser is what killed the guy.
This is a sad situation. Ideally cops or others could calm her down and make sure she is ok without having to use force at all. However, sometimes that isn't going to be possible.
These people act like tasering is some horrible form of torture which someone might never recover from. It is painful, but not damaging, and not lasting. It is a few seconds of pain and loss of muscle control. I've never been tasered myself, but I've talked to people who have been voluntarily been tasered when being trained to use them.
The say it is something they would definitely try and avoid, but there were no lasting ill effects.
If this poor old woman is somehow scarred by the situation it likely has more to do with having to be overpowered in her own home, than due to the particular method.
Doctors told Fletcher's family that she should be seen by a neurologist because she has fluid on her brain and may have to undergo surgery.
That could very well be causing her psychological symptoms. I have a friend who's mother had to have a shunt put in to drain fluid build-up on her brain. The fluid build-up sometimes made her act pretty crazy, including one incident where she had to be hospitalized and restrained before they figured out what was going on.
Hopefully, that might be a major cause of her apparent mental problems, and they can reduce of cure those symptoms, and she more throughly enjoy the rest of her life.
I'm gonna half to bookmark this for later . . . when the JBTs respond.
I am not a police officer, but I am honored to be confused with one. As for the rest of your comments, I will just let them stand.
On face value I agree. However, she was known to be mentally unstable, and may have given the officers plenty of reason to believe that she was a danger to herself.
The author's characterization of the situation with the druggie that died of an overdose doesn't lead me to believe that he's portraying the circumstances under which the police entered objectively.
If the woman hurt herself and the police had decided to just leave, the liberals would be in an uproar because the police should have protected her from herself.
I believe you have a right to refuse entry to the police, however if you are obviously suffering from dementia, and not in control of your own actions, it isn't quite so clear.
Bunch years ago and she was swinging a big kitchen knife. Had Alzhiemer's and thought her husband of 50+ years was a stranger that broke in. SHe needed to be calmed down before the Chicago paramedics could take over.
"I've seen little old Alzheimers patients pull big handfuls of hair from the scalp of muscular orderlies and nurses."
You exaggerate.
As I said these cops needed to be fired and working the other side of the donut counter. They never should have been cops in the first place.
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