[wardaddy]

well...this proves the pen is not mightier than the pistol

can’t see justification for this one whatsoever

[dennisw]

At least no dog was shot /sarc

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Well, we don't know all of the facts. Wondering if the police person could have kicked the chair backwards, maybe suffering a minor wound to the leg. Or, could the second officer grab the wheelchair down low and pull it back and/or knock it over? a guy with one arm and one leg is not going to be getting up right away. Was a Taser available? Certainly a lot of questions with this one.

The guy in the wheelchair really needed to go to jail for trying to stab someone with a pen.

[dragnet2]

Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the man cornered the officer in his wheelchair

wow...Does Houston PD think anyone will buy that?

No sale Jodi!

[tomkat]

.. calm down and remain still

I hope the crippled guy becomes part owner of the HPD !

[Sloth]

Geez, couldn’t he just kick him in the chest or something?

[cva66snipe]

There is no picture of the guy but I don't believe he was in a typical push type wheelchair. Let's say he was in a 300 pound plus his own weight motorized wheelchair instead. With that you can not just push one. With that you can literally pen someone to a wall. My wife did several hoods that way in a Target LOL. Depending on where the Joy Stick Control was located he could both maintain control of chair and the thought to be weapon.

Unless a person is familiar with all the different makes and models disabling one {disengaging the drive} takes guess work. Jazzy Chairs have a lever on the rear & a Permobil has the lever locate on the right hand side.

Yea understanding what a motorized wheelchair can do I can see how he could corner two officers. If he penned them by going frontward he would be well within stabbing rage.

The only advantage the officers could ever gain would have been if the could have possibly approached from the back which would not allow him to have harmed them.

From the history it sounded like he needed to be in a facility where there were several orderlies 24/7 there to assist. I've seen a 80 year old 4'10" woman with a cane give about 6 CNA's and Orderlies a good fight.

There's good cops, there's bad cops, and there is the factor that in the mid 1970's patients who needed to be in full staff facilities were turned loose on the street or in less staffed group homes. That so called human rights act done in the name of so called patients rights has caused a lot of patients with mental issues where they become a danger to others to be killed. The Cops do not usually have benefit of a persons mental illness history.

[LibWhacker]

Suicide by cop.

Imagine what it’d be like to suffer a stroke and as a result be paralyzed from the neck down, confined to bed, unable to speak or move - except maybe some feeble movement in a thumb and forefinger on one hand.

What if you decided your life was no longer worth living? What would you do? You couldn’t shoot yourself because nobody would give you a gun, and you couldn’t hold it if they did. You couldn’t jump out the window because you’re totally paralyzed except for that one thumb and forefinger and would find it absolutely impossible to get to a window to defenestrate yourself.

Not to worry. All you’d have to do is type out 9-1-1 with your tongue on your bedside phone in the hospital and when the cops arrived use your thumb and forefinger to wave your Bic at them in a threatening manner. They’d all empty their guns into you, afraid you might kill every one of them with your Bic pen, which later they would describe as having looked like a very big, and very well-sharpened KaBar.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[. . .a five-year veteran of the department. . .]

Thank goodness they dispatched an experienced cop. Rookies might have shot everybody in the neighborhood.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I have no illusions about cops. They more and more are turning into arrogant enforcers of the government’s will.

However, I am always very hesitant to second guess cops in crisis situations. A one-armed man still has one arm to pull an gun and shoot it. If you are in a tense situation with cops, the last thing you do is act belligerent or swing something at them. I don’t care who you are, how old you are or whether you have a handicap. Did the cop overreact? Maybe. But most times they should get the benefit of the doubt in crisis situations like physical confrontations. If someone swings at a cop — even a fist — they should not be surprised if they get shot.

[SEMPER GAUDETE]

There are good cops bad cops, just like good priests and bad priests. I remember back in the 80s when entire departments across the US were juicing (not carrots, but using steroids!) These monsters used to patrol my neck of the woods and one of them tore muscles in my shoulder when he was cuffing me for a crime of which I was falsely accused. On the one hand you want to spout off and put them in their place but on the other you tremble at the power they have and too often abuse.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Assult with a deadly pen = death penalty

[Altariel]

First they came for the wheelchair bound double amputees, but I did not object because I was not a wheelchair bound double amputee.

Than they came for the frightened 83 year old ladies, but I did not object because I was not a frightened 83 year old lady.

Funeral set for 83-year-old woman shot and killed by Altavista police officer