Chicago police Taser 82-year-old woman

Having worked in law enforcement for several years I can tell you that this is very very true. Let's not forget in the article it mention schizophrenia and demencia. I promise you that an elderly person with a mental condition can often be as violent as a 30 y/o man on steroids. We personally had a case where a 78 year old man with severe alzheimers and COPD beat his 42 y/o daughter to death one night after she went to take his dinner plate away after he refused to eat. She sustained repeated blows to the back, head and neck. She was in perfect physical health and strength and had defensive wounds from the attack. You never how violence can affect people especially mentally impared folks.
There are alot of details missing from this report, and it may sound henious that this occured, but I promise you that nothing can be taken for grantid. There were probably other methods that could have been used, but if she was an immediate threat I have no problem with a swift take down, especially non lethal force. Sometimes however it does become neccesary.

We are talking about a tazer here, no?
Mentally ill people can be superhumanly strong.
In order to use a tazer, an officer has to experience a tazer shock. They know what it feels like.
We are talking about immobilizing without attacking. A hammer swinging wildly in the hands of a psychotic person, no matter what their age, is sufficient cause, imo.
I have worked in nursing homes. And one was connected to the psyche ward, too. Some of our orderlies were "trained" to subdue. They LOVED it when the alarm went off, found it very exciting. Couple of creeps.
An elderly man once almost cleaned my clock for me. Nobody told me he had nightmares about the war. I heard him crying out and falling off the bed and thought he was having a stroke or heart attack. I ran in there calling for help and he almost decked me.
I have training in self-defense and in TKD, but I don't think I would have been able to fend him off. He is STRONG.
JMHO.

They also are known to tazer sleeping people.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07254/816402-153.stm
People sleeping on their own couches are incredibly deadly. They can kill you with a throw pillow.

Then when you wake up they tazer you a couple more times.

When you object to being tazered and roughed up and dragged from your own home they haul you to jail.

One would think after such brutality the "hero" officers would be fired, brought up on assault charges and sent to prison.

Nope. They are cleared of all wrongdoing.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07307/830907-56.stm

Too bad the homeowner just wouldn't have killed the thugs. Maybe when more of these types of scumbags end up in body bags things will change.

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Respect The Cactus!

Wow that is just pityfully sorryful stupid. Really now - what if his home really had been burglerized and he was a knocked out victim?

The "news" article I read about the 82 year old was what I would call an editorial. I would really question if it was truly reported as NEWS (ya know, present facts?). Let's see, if I have to subdue someone witha hammer and got hit in the process it could range from a bruise to lifelong injury to death,maybe to the one with the hammer, too. A tazer is supposed to temporarily incapaciate so NO one gets hurt. Hmm, not a tough choice in this case.
Now, if the officer had subdued her and in the process of cuffing her which is REQUIRED, she could have been hurt by her own stuggling i.e. broken wrist, dropped hammer causing her to be bruised cut etc., then people would have been saying OMG, she could have been tazed, it wouldn't have hurt her so much.....
Life shows me over and over how so many take editorials as news
and run with it. Even news articles can be selective and leave out key facts.

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tab

Ya'll think that nursing home caregivers should carry tazers too?

People are seriously injured and killed by tazers all the time when their body or head slams into stuff when going into instant seizure from being tazed. Consider what happens to folks who have heart problems especially those with Pacemakers if they get tazed. A person with a hammer could very well involuntarily sling that hammer and hit someone if they are tazed.

If you are too big of a wuss to take a hammer away and subdue an 82 year old, 5'1" 160 pound little old lady, and you don't really want injury to her or others, wouldn't OC be a better choice?

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Please wait until you see a man at his worst before you give him your heart, because once you do it will affect your judgment.

Yep, exactly!
LOL No kidding!

I would hate to have to deal with this kind of thing on a daily basis, you're danged if you do, danged if you don't. The perp could die from physical restraint or a taser. They could also die while sitting quietly in a cop car or a cell. I think the whole point of the taser was to limit physical contact (because there could be injuries on both parties) and to quickly cease physical assault. Of course the taser has bad points, too, but I guess you have to weigh the consequences. And I suppose each police force has its own regulations in terms of what they should turn to first.

Here it's generally if a weapon is involved, tasers are safer than physical restraint. I don't think age of the weapon-holder should even come into it.

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"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."

When dealing with these kinds of sad situations, there are often no "good" or "safe" choices. And supposing these cops also had a backlog of situations on their call list, and it required handling this situation and quickly and efficiently as possible, while still following protocol and safety procedures?

There is a lot to consider. I am thankful for the police. Imagine our society without law and order.