imported post
I’m going to chime in on this one since it hits close to home. My grandfather died of Alzheimer's, and I also had another experience with someone who had the disease, and caused an auto accident that totaled my car. My grandfather was a kind, gentle man who was known for his reverence and love of his wife, and family. Never would one have thought of him as violent. However, Alzheimer's patients can be violent, and angry, and it can happen at any given moment with no warning. It’s sad, but it is what it is.
That this happened to any 84 year old woman is shocking. I certainly wouldn’t have liked something like this to happen to my grandfather, but then again, it wouldn’t have since we didn’t EVER leave him unattended. That this woman’s daughter left her mother alone in a car just doesn’t sit well with me as one who lost a loved one to the disease. Furthermore, the fact that she was old and frail isn’t as important as some seem to think. I suspect their judgment is biased by their contempt of incidents of apparent police misbehavior (some justified, some not).
I find it interesting that chiefjason asks for suggestions on how to better handle the incident, and in some cases gets nothing of the sort. That hints at cop bashing. One person did state,
“a person could have walked up to her and disarmed her by hand very easily.”
Well, the officer did just that, and the lady struggled with the officer. I watched the video, and the officer first talked, then tried to pry the knife from the woman’s hands (this is at .43 in the video). The woman’s struggle with the officer prevents the officer from gaining control of the weapon, and at .45 I can see the officer’s footwork moving for the take down. The video is very poor, so it’s possible that the officer may have tried to gain control of the weapon sooner than .43, but it’s clearly obvious that the officer started the takedown at .45. On further scrutiny, it looks like the officer may have even tried for control of the weapon as soon as .41 or .42 (again it’s hard to tell because the camera work is poor at that time in the clip), but even if that isn’t the case, two seconds is a loooong time for something like that. Based on that (as well as the way they treated her on the ground), it certainly looks like the officers exercised restraint and good judgment. It really was a bad situation for the officer. She can’t just let a woman (who appears to not be in her right mind) walk around brandishing a knife. Like it or not, this woman was an Alzheimer's patient walking around with a lethal weapon. That makes her a danger to herself or others. She did need to be dealt with, and the officer tried to resolve the situation each time before escalating the use of force (even when the woman was on the ground they had a hard time getting the knife out of her hand probably due to them trying to not harm her.)
I’m looking at this from a perspective of it being my grandfather, and I honestly don’t think I could fault the officers involved. Maybe inexperience in the officer’s skills of physical conflict, but her decision process was IMHO very professional.
This statement is totally uncalled for:
"I'm pissed off that there wasn't a riot or an equal show of violence from the onlookers," Edwards said in an e-mail. "The elderly lady to me represents my grandmother and the oldest person of my community that has been historically targeted for abuse by police."
Sorry, but if your going to treat your grandmother like that woman’s daughter did when she left her grandmother in the car, then your part of the problem. That poor woman should have never been left unattended in a public parking lot like that. That is way too dangerous, and suggesting mob violence because you failed to act responsibility (thereby endangering your grandmother) is repugnant.
I’m no cop apologist, and I certainly criticize their actions when warranted (often time sooner than many others who are more willing to give up their rights), but I also perceive a certain amount of hatred toward LEO’s in general in this thread, and it is a bad image to project on these boards that will only further polarize the relationship between private citizen, and LEO.
There is something else I’ve discovered/learned over the years:
Many people (most people) have little understanding of violence, or even physical confrontation and use of force. Lots of guys grow up wrestling around with their buddies in the back yard, yet they have no idea how physical it is with someone who actually trains. Because of that, when they see someone who is trained, act decisively, they believe they witness an over reaction. It is telling that only one person on this board came up with a suggestion on how the situation should have been handled, and that person suggested exactly what the officer did. That officer did exercise restraing, and looked to treat that woman as if she were the officer's own grandmother whom she loved, cherished, and respected. That some people don't see that doesn't mean that the officer was abusive, it just means that they don't see it. Maybe it's inexperience, maybe it's hatred and contempt, but I viewed that video very carefully, and that officer appears to have handled the situation as best as anyone could have given the circumstances.
