Cop Shows Elderly Lady Who Is Boss
A 75 year-old lady distraught after not finding her sick friend is hit with 50,000 volts of electricity when an officer apparently became frightened that the mean old lady would beat her up. OK, the last part is my analysis, but does it not seem absurd that something like this could happen? If an officer is supposedly trained to take down real threatening individuals, is there any rationality to bringing out the Taser on an elderly lady?
According to a report, "[Officer] Macon was called to the nursing home after Margaret Kimbrell refused to leave. Kimbrell has said she was distraught after the staff would not disclose the location of her sick friend, and she became concerned the friend had died." If anyone has spent any time in most nursing homes, one can understand the concern of this lady. The level of care is generally below what should be basic standards of living and care (at least in the majority of nursing homes in which I have spent time).
Could this whole thing not have been avoided if the nursing home had just provided a little information to an obviously concerned lady? Maybe I'm missing something here, but at the point the nursing home staff realized this lady was legitimately upset enough that they felt calling the police was in order, is it not time to simply tell her the condition of her friend and defuse the situation before it elevated to that point?
The encounter resulted in the officer being required to attend a "Taser retraining course" while the lady who got zapped was charged (no pun intended) with trespassing and resisting arrest. In my opinion, that is absurd. The kind of action brought against the woman should have resulted in assault on the part of the cop instead of simply enrolling her in a retraining class.
I am all for police defending themselves, especially when it can be done using non-lethal means. However, if a police officer cannot handle a situation involving a 75 year-old woman in a nursing home, it raises serious concerns about the qualifications of the officer in question.
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According to a report, "[Officer] Macon was called to the nursing home after Margaret Kimbrell refused to leave. Kimbrell has said she was distraught after the staff would not disclose the location of her sick friend, and she became concerned the friend had died." If anyone has spent any time in most nursing homes, one can understand the concern of this lady. The level of care is generally below what should be basic standards of living and care (at least in the majority of nursing homes in which I have spent time).
Could this whole thing not have been avoided if the nursing home had just provided a little information to an obviously concerned lady? Maybe I'm missing something here, but at the point the nursing home staff realized this lady was legitimately upset enough that they felt calling the police was in order, is it not time to simply tell her the condition of her friend and defuse the situation before it elevated to that point?
The encounter resulted in the officer being required to attend a "Taser retraining course" while the lady who got zapped was charged (no pun intended) with trespassing and resisting arrest. In my opinion, that is absurd. The kind of action brought against the woman should have resulted in assault on the part of the cop instead of simply enrolling her in a retraining class.
I am all for police defending themselves, especially when it can be done using non-lethal means. However, if a police officer cannot handle a situation involving a 75 year-old woman in a nursing home, it raises serious concerns about the qualifications of the officer in question.
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Labels: David C. Price
posted by DAVID C. PRICE at 1/29/2005 10:45:00 AM
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