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Police pepper-sprayed and Tasered 93-year-old disabled man, court hears
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 19 May 2025
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Instant escalation!
A 93 year old man with one leg holding a fucking cutlery knife!
They could probably just have taken the knife from him without issue.
At 93 years people are not very strong.
So they had plenty option to stand back and talk to him too! But instead decided to go on a powertrip and escalate the situation immediately!
That's a decidedly an unnecessary violent attack, and a breach of their position. So this should be punished doubly. The idea that officers should be protected by the badge when acting like criminal bullies is insane.
What a sad way to end a life of 93 years. Maybe the officers can't be blamed for him catching COVID, but essentially his life ended the day those officers entered his room and attacked him.
I am also not sure the quality of the home is very good, calling the police on behavior that sounds like dementia?!
If you put someone in the hospital where they then contract a contagious disease and die, then yes, they can absolutely be blamed. Dude could've been sitting on his couch watching antiques roadshow right now if they hadn't assaulted him.
I actually agree on that morally, But I think legally they probably can't be blamed.
So I changed it to "maybe".
There is such a thing as felony murder, where if someone dies as a result of you committing a felony, you are charged with their murder. These being cops, however, my money is on paid vacation and a transfer to a new department.
Seems fair to be at least somewhat responsible for the wider consequences of your actions.
Yes this is probably the same everywhere, but IMO it's turning things on their head when police is granted extreme leniency for criminal actions.
If police get into a shootout with someone and police gunfire 100% without a doubt hits an innocent bystander, in some states at least the cops can legally pin that injury or death on the suspect, for the same logic.
Ok, I understand the officers likely used excessive force and this guy maybe had dementia or something but ...
Sorry, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for this old man.
Are you being sarcastic? Do you know what a cutlery knife is?
He was poking her with it, but nothing happened, because such a place a cutlery knife is obviously completely rounded and not sharp. He might as well have been poking her with a drinking straw.
Guy may have been an asshole, May not. We don't know why he poked her with it. I've been in plenty of nursing homes where I've seen staff that deserved to be hit in the stomach with a sharp and pointy knife due to how they denigrate and disrespect the residents.
Regardless, it does not entitle him to being brutalized by cops with fucking bludgeons, tasers, and chemical weapons.
Fully agree the cops went too far with how they treated him, definitely didn't deserve to die.
A cutlery knife is not a butter knife, most are sharp and definitely capable of killing someone. Again doesn't justify the cops acting in such disproportionate manner, but ... definitely not the same as a straw.
Obviously not in a nursery home, where people with for instance dementia can turn aggressive for no reason.
It also very noticeably is not part of the story that the nurse being poked with it suffered any damage.
I used the example drinking straw, I probably should have used a spoon as example instead.
A cutlery knife is a table knife, and those are very rarely pointy, and in mostly any kind of institution they are NEVER pointy. Unless it's run by mad management.
Also they aren't really sharp, so they can't cut through your skin.
A butter knife is typically wider, to make it easier to apply butter. But we are with 99.99% chance talking about a cutlery knife that has similar cutting ability to a butter knife.