Posted on 01/15/2015 10:35:31 AM PST by Chi-townChief
Police Officer Craig Taylor shouldn’t be sitting in a Markham courtroom.
Taylor should be out protecting the citizens of Park Forest like he’s done since 2004.
Taylor was performing his sworn duty to serve and protect when he was summoned to the Victory Centre in Park Forest on July 26, 2013, to quell a disturbance.
He ended up firing beanbag cartridges at 95-year-old John Wrana, a resident of the facility.
Taylor, an African-American, was one of five officers who responded to a call from staff that the elderly man was threatening them with a knife, a shoehorn and a cane.
Yet, he was the only person criminally charged in connection with Wrana’s death.
The officers repeatedly asked the elderly man to drop the knife, according to Taylor’s attorney, Terry Ekl.
An officer tried unsuccessfully to use a Taser on the agitated man before launching the beanbags.
“He threatened to slice the throats of the residents and staff,” Ekl said in his opening statements at Taylor’s trial.
Wrana died of his injuries after refusing to undergo an operation to stop internal bleeding.
Had Wrana been an unruly elderly black man who had come at white police officers brandishing so much as a stick, he likely would have been shot. And I seriously doubt that any of the officers would have ended up facing criminal charges.
After all, there have been several incidents in different parts of the country where white police officers used deadly force against unarmed black teens and grand juries refused to indict the officers.
After a grand jury failed to rule that the police-involved shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., warranted criminal charges, protests erupted into riots that destroyed local businesses.
The overwhelming belief seems to be — at least on the part of officers and their supporters — that the officers acted with deadly force because they thought their lives were in danger.
But in the Wrana case, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office accused Taylor of “overreacting” and charged him with felony reckless conduct.
If convicted, Taylor could go to prison for up to three years.
Taylor is the only police officer who has been charged with felony reckless conduct in an on-duty capacity under Cook County State’s Attorney Antia Alvarez’s administration.
“This was not a decision made lightly. The case was brought in good faith,” said state’s attorney spokeswoman Sally Daly, pointing out that Alvarez has prosecuted about 30 police officers for misconduct.
But given the pattern we’ve seen in these controversial police-involved fatalities, why wasn’t Taylor given the benefit of the doubt?
Even though Wrana was allegedly armed with a knife, Taylor refrained from discharging his weapon and apparently followed a superior’s instructions about how to handle the tense situation.
But Wrana — who served in the military and was well into the years when one is allowed to be belligerent — was a heroic figure.
His social status was supposed to have insulated him from the kind of treatment that, say, a homeless person on the street could expect in a similar situation.
Obviously, a lot of people were outraged that the elderly man died at the hands of a police officer because he refused to follow orders.
But many of those same people would argue vehemently that the unarmed black teens who have been killed by police would be alive today if they had only followed police orders.
Apparently, Wrana’s status in life demanded that authorities punish someone for his death.
After all, white men — young and old — aren’t usually killed because a police officer overreacted, or mistook a cellphone for a loaded weapon.
While African-American protesters are still asking if “black lives matter,” this case clearly says white lives definitely do.
Of course. The left wants the old guy dead for two reasons.
1. he’s old.
2. he’s White.
Tried to find a comments section and was unable to. I would really like to see what most of the readers thought of this article.
Mary Mitchell is perpetually race-obsessed, she just doesn’t have enough talent to translate that into a national career like Sharpton and others have.
"Allegedly"? There were 5 cops and other witnesses it's allegedly?
#OldWhiteMenDontMatter
I don’t get it. If the old guy was waving a knife at the cops, too bad. He got what he deserved, old or not.
You’ve got to be crazy to serve as a police officer in a county with a liberal DA. He’ll put you in prison to please the thug voters.
Five cops couldn’t disarm a 95 year old man?
of the few 90 year olds I know - most are getting hazy in thought and physically weary...my FIL is 90 & 6'2" ..perfect health except alzhiemers...ANYONE could wrest a knife from him
...the most important thing is the officer went home to his family (sarcasm)
we are thankful he didn't have a dog
how close was he when he popped him - was he the suggested distance?
Five cops couldn’t disarm a 95 year old man?
??????????????????????????????????
Why you say that? It seems that yes, they did in fact disarm him. Imagine if they had rushed the old fool. They would have likely knocked him down, broken his hip, and been sued and fired for police brutality.
The fact that he died is his own fault.
This statement right here should have excused the officer from all criminal liability (whether black or white green purple yellow or fuscia pink, heck I don’t care the color of the officer is or was. I didn’t even know until after I read this statement)
“Wrana died of his injuries after refusing to undergo an operation to stop internal bleeding.”
The idiot wanted to die. This should be deemed suicide by cop and the cop should be left off the hook.
I suspect 5 cops didn't want to engage him for just this very reason.
5 cops with broomsticks herding him into a broom closet and then let him cool down or fall asleep...
And yes, the comical comparison crosses over the line into absurdity.
If he was in his right mind the patient had every right to refuse treatment. If he had someone with power of attorney for medical issues who made the call for treatment, different story. Still why would you shoot a bean bag shotgun round at a 95 year old geezer?
Only one officer had a tazer? If he had been tazed odds are he falls and breaks a hip anyway and dies. Had the nursing home staff and police had walking around sense they would have left him alone until he went off to sleep and then restrained him, the big idiots.
According to the article: "An officer tried unsuccessfully to use a Taser on the agitated man before launching the beanbags."
As far as I’m concerned, if you wave a knife or gun at a cop, you deserve a bullet in the gut. I don’t care if you are old, crazy, or drunk. Too bad.
Some cops are corrupt and brutal and deserve prison, but that is not the case, here.
have at it
If convicted, Taylor could go to prison for up to three years.
Not nearly long enough, I would ask for LIFE in General Population. Which would be substantially less than 3 years.
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