You’re Never In More Danger Than When The Police Are Around
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago
Via WiscoDave, this disturbing report.
Four seconds.
That’s all the time it took for the two police officers assigned to check on Plack to decide to use lethal force against her (both cops opened fire on the woman), rather than using non-lethal options (one cop had a Taser, which he made no attempt to use) or attempting to de-escalate the situation.
The police chief defended his officers’ actions, claiming they had “no other option” but to shoot the 5 foot 4 inch “woman with carpal tunnel syndrome who had to quit her job at a framing shop because her hand was too weak to use the machine that cut the mats.”
This is what happens when you empower the police to act as judge, jury and executioner.
This is what happens when you indoctrinate the police into believing that their lives and their safety are paramount to anyone else’s.
Suddenly, everyone and everything else is a threat that must be neutralized or eliminated.
In light of the government’s latest efforts to predict who might pose a threat to public safety based on mental health sensor data (tracked by wearable data such as FitBits and Apple Watches and monitored by government agencies such as HARPA, the “Health Advanced Research Projects Agency”), encounters with the police could get even more deadly, especially if those involved have a mental illness or disability.
Indeed, disabled individuals make up a third to half of all people killed by law enforcement officers.
That’s according to a study by the Ruderman Family Foundation, which reports that “disabled individuals make up the majority of those killed in use-of-force cases that attract widespread attention. This is true both for cases deemed illegal or against policy and for those in which officers are ultimately fully exonerated… Many more disabled civilians experience non-lethal violence and abuse at the hands of law enforcement officers.”
Then at the expense of sickening the readers, the author goes on to list these awful incidents.
For instance, Nancy Schrock called 911 for help after her husband, Tom, who suffered with mental health issues, started stalking around the backyard, upending chairs and screaming about demons. Several times before, police had transported Tom to the hospital, where he was medicated and sent home after 72 hours. This time, Tom was tasered twice. He collapsed, lost consciousness and died.
In South Carolina, police tasered an 86-year-old grandfather reportedly in the early stages of dementia, while he was jogging backwards away from them. Now this happened after Albert Chatfield led police on a car chase, running red lights and turning randomly. However, at the point that police chose to shock the old man with electric charges, he was out of the car, on his feet, and outnumbered by police officers much younger than him.
In Georgia, campus police shot and killed a 21-year-old student who was suffering a mental health crisis. Scout Schultz was shot through the heart by campus police when he approached four of them late one night while holding a pocketknife, shouting “Shoot me!” Although police may have feared for their lives, the blade was still in its closed position.
In Oklahoma, police shot and killed a 35-year-old deaf man seen holding a two-foot metal pipe on his front porch (he used the pipe to fend off stray dogs while walking). Despite the fact that witnesses warned police that Magdiel Sanchez couldn’t hear—and thus comply—with their shouted orders to drop the pipe and get on the ground, police shot the man when he was about 15 feet away from them.
In Maryland, police (moonlighting as security guards) used extreme force to eject a 26-year-old man with Downs Syndrome and a low IQ from a movie theater after the man insisted on sitting through a second screening of a film. Autopsy results indicate that Ethan Saylor died of complications arising from asphyxiation, likely caused by a chokehold.
In Florida, police armed with assault rifles fired three shots at a 27-year-old nonverbal, autistic man who was sitting on the ground, playing with a toy truck. Police missed the autistic man and instead shot his behavioral therapist, Charles Kinsey, who had been trying to get him back to his group home. The therapist, bleeding from a gunshot wound, was then handcuffed and left lying face down on the ground for 20 minutes.
In Texas, police handcuffed, tasered and then used a baton to subdue a 7-year-old student who has severe ADHD and a mood disorder. With school counselors otherwise occupied, school officials called police and the child’s mother to assist after Yosio Lopez started banging his head on a wall. The police arrived first.
In New Mexico, police tasered, then opened fire on a 38-year-old homeless man who suffered from schizophrenia, all in an attempt to get James Boyd to leave a makeshift campsite. Boyd’s death provoked a wave of protests over heavy-handed law enforcement tactics.
In Ohio, police forcefully subdued a 37-year-old bipolar woman wearing only a nightgown in near-freezing temperatures who was neither armed, violent, intoxicated, nor suspected of criminal activity. After being slammed onto the sidewalk, handcuffed and left unconscious on the street, Tanisha Anderson died as a result of being restrained in a prone position.
And in North Carolina, a state trooper shot and killed a 29-year-old deaf motorist after he failed to pull over during a traffic stop. Daniel K. Harris was shot after exiting his car, allegedly because the trooper feared he might be reaching for a weapon.
Good Lord. Am I going to have to write something to the cops about how to communicate with people and how not to be terrified of everybody they see, sort of like I did for cops and animals?
I said if their daddy had raised them without ever teaching them about how to raise dogs, handle horses and livestock and doctor animals, his daddy was a failure and that problem should be ameliorated immediately by volunteering at a farm or ranch.
Now look where we are. We’re going to have to make cops volunteer in kindergarten classrooms and assisted living centers to learn the nature of people.
On second thought, we don’t want any negligent discharges to kill people, and we don’t want the morgue to be filled with children and the infirmed. So hold that idea in abatement. I’ll have to come up with something more clever.
And still not get paid a single penny for it as a police consultant.
On September 27, 2019 at 8:47 am, Fred said:
Come on Herschel, haven’t you read in your bible where at every turn Jesus would call the Roman Guard to fix the halt, the lame, the sick, and those with devils, and the Guard would come and hack these poor souls to death? And His disciples would all watch and say how good it was that the Roman Soldiers went home safe after their shift?
You know what, I blame the people as much as the police. Not knowing who to call, how to get help, being made to believe dependence upon the State will save them is their own fault. Seriously, why would you call the State if somebody is running around screaming about demons? They worship the wrong god and will have their god good and hard.
Yes, the police shouldn’t be doing what they are doing but in many of these cases somebody called Law Enforcement, and what did they think would happen when more than a million lines of codes were brought down upon the poor soul by somebody with a marginally triple digit IQ?
Why do they call the State? Because the schools and TV told them to, every day, all day, for years and years. If you still watch TV, throw it in a dumpster TODAY! Don’t let this life happen to you. Then go find Christians, make friends, handle your own problems within your families and group. Seriously, it’s wickedness top to bottom.
Remember similar phrases as; ‘Round here, we handle our own.’ Do that!
On September 27, 2019 at 9:08 am, Okanogan Offgrid said:
I think I know one of the reasons I’m having a hard time sleeping lately. Awake at 1 and up at 3.
For at least 15 years I had recurring nightmares. Different situations, but basically, my life was in imminent mortal danger and I had no way to defend myself.
My neighbor just lived that nightmare with at least two deputies in sniper positions aiming rifles at her and I was a witness to part of the event. A direct witness after following it on FB and figuring out who it was they were talking about. At one point someone said an ambulance had gone by and I was sure they had shot her. By the grace of God she didn’t get shot and, at least physically, she is OK.
I don’t know how many deputies were there at the peak, but at least 7 black SUVs with multiple black clad deputies in some.
When I talked to her yesterday, she told me she still gets scared just walking out the door. Those brave Okanogan County Sheriff’s deputies terrorized that harmless old woman so badly that 6 days after the event she’s afraid to go outside.
It’s further by road, but Google Earth says that in a straight line this occurred less than a half mile from me.
On September 27, 2019 at 2:42 pm, Scott in Phx said:
Disarm the police. It is the only way.
A lot of innocent people will live, a lot more petty criminals will leave, and a whole boatload of family pets will live.
I’d rather take my chances with a honest crook rather than a psychopath with a badge.
On September 27, 2019 at 3:01 pm, George said:
I have always thought that many of these types of incidents are brought on by cowardice. Cowardice and lower IQs explain a lot of these things I think. Of course when judges let outrages like these stand then no one has any reason to change the status quo.
In the first incident the Chief of Police saying there was “no other option” is absurd. One man could have restrained her at least enough to not be hit by the ax until his partner got to him and no one will ever convince me otherwise. They went to guns way too quick. This is not Fallujah.
On September 27, 2019 at 11:14 pm, Matt said:
“If you are dealing with a bad situation, don’t make it worse. If you are dealing with someone who is having a mental health issue, slow down. And then don’t make it worse.” Something said to me in a conversation with the crusty old lawman up the road from me.
On September 27, 2019 at 11:26 pm, Herschel Smith said:
There are no more crusty old lawmen. Or Constables, as we should know them. Who track criminals down with a posse.
There is only Mr. Tacticool.
On September 28, 2019 at 4:43 am, Dan said:
LEO do NOT exist to ‘protect and serve’. They exist to keep the tax sheep IN LINE and obedient. Thus those in charge at ALL levels REFUSE to hold cops accountable under the law. You do NOT punish your hired muscle for using that muscle and expect them to support you when things get dicey.
Thus since there is NO ACCOUNTABILITY under the law for cops that means the ONLY accountability left will be EXTRAJUDICIAL. Paging Paul Kersey…..Mr. Paul Kersey to the white courtesy phone. Your services are
needed.
On September 28, 2019 at 5:51 am, Jaque said:
What i take from this is a disabled or mentally ill or elderly person with dementia or hearing loss is more likely to be killed at the hands of police than by criminals.
Whew.
On September 28, 2019 at 6:14 am, Okanogan Offgrid said:
I have nerve damage that limits the use of my arms. Basically, the Deltoid muscles in my shoulders no longer work. I can raise my hands to about shoulder level but no higher.
How long will it be before some brave, heroic, CLEO (civilian law enforcement officer) shoots me because I don’t (can’t) “obey” his command to raise my hands.
On September 28, 2019 at 6:15 am, Okanogan Offgrid said:
And yes, I don’t call them LEO’s. Leo is a lion. A cop is a CLEO.
On September 28, 2019 at 9:50 am, tz said:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/us/training-officers-to-shoot-first-and-he-will-answer-questions-later.html
Officers today are trained to be paranoid and assume everyone is going to try to kill them and if they hesitate for a second they will die. The urban ninja with the knife within 25 feet can kill them before they can draw their gun type thing. Complete with gory pictures.
On September 28, 2019 at 10:29 am, DWEEZIL THE WEASEL said:
Okanogan Offgrid: How about shaved-head, tatted-up, ‘roided-out, Orcs and Orcettes with badges? That pretty much covers it. The whole pension thing will be the key. One only has to look at the socialist septic tank of Venezuela to see who is still in charge and who is keeping their fellow citizens in squalor and repression. Hang onto your firearms. Things will not end well in the FSSA.
On September 28, 2019 at 11:32 am, Steady Steve said:
As I’ve said before, I see this only ending up one way. With police being killed at random and their families being put out on the street while their homes are burned down. This kind of careless, lawless behavior by police will only beget the same.
On September 28, 2019 at 12:41 pm, Chris Mallory said:
A $150 riot shield in the trunk of every patrol car would cut these shootings of people armed with non firearm weapons to almost 0.
Woman with an ax hiding in bathroom. Cop backs out of house gets shield out of car. Talks to woman while standing behind shield until situation is deescalated. If cop has to, he stands and talks peacefully until woman falls asleep. We are paying the cop if he is talking down a citizen or if he is sleeping in his patrol car in an alley.
If the cop doesn’t feel “safe” doing this, fire him and hire someone who isn’t a little bitch.
Yes, sometimes a cop might have to go hands on. But at one time in my life I worked with a population of developmentally disabled adults. We were trained to take them down to the floor both by our selves and with a partner by using simple control techniques. No pain compliance. No strikes to their body. Just simple physics. These were for the most case grown men with the minds of children. Sometimes they would get violent and have to be restrained. But we never had to shoot or punch them.
On September 28, 2019 at 2:40 pm, Okanogan Offgrid said:
If you think cops seem stupid, it’s not just your imagination.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836
On September 29, 2019 at 1:37 am, Hank said:
People in uniforms. Easy to blame for what “ails” you (Kind of like singling out Black people). Lot of talk here about murdering those that have not done anything to deserve it, you know, like the gun confiscation crowd blames innocent gun owners for the rampage murderers using those evil black “weapons of war” AR-15’s. Rushing to judgement and thinking emotionally over logically are the usual purview of leftists. To hear this kind of talk here displays to me an entire new level of the concept known as “irony”…
Guess he “deserved it” too, eh’?…
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/28/us/texas-sikh-deputy-shot-saturday/index.html
On September 29, 2019 at 8:59 am, Herschel Smith said:
Is that was this is about, Hank? What “ails you?” You like sending wannabe soldier-boy cops to terrorize innocent people? Does that get you off?
Does that comport with what the founders said about standing armies? Armies of occupation? Or is this about something else? Maybe … hmm .. let me see … opening the border to criminals, teaching children there is no difference between right and wrong, disarming the public, and watching people suffer from your bad social engineering decisions while we leave cops protected from it all because “officer safety” and “community heroes?”
Do you see these folks as heroes, Hank?
On September 29, 2019 at 1:53 pm, Rollory said:
These are not “disabled”. With the exceptions of the two deaf ones (who really ought to have given some thought to how to react when dealing with cops), they’re all head cases – crazy people. None of them should have been on the streets in the first place.
If you want to blame someone for this, blame the left for emptying the mental institutions. Until they get rebuilt and refilled, I’m not going to agonize over a Spartiate cleanup of crazies.
There’s plenty of other VALID reasons to dislike and distrust cops, don’t try to use fake pretexts like this for it.
On September 29, 2019 at 7:56 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Rollory,
You must be new here. We don’t believe in “crazy” here. That’s a modernist myth. Witchcraft. Hocus pocus. Community witchdoctor bullshit.
There is no Biblical provision for taking people off the streets for no good reason. Biblical law requires that people guilty of murder, rape or kidnapping be stoned to death. It requires that for theft, the guilty party become a slave to the offended party until the debt is paid.
I assure you that no one here, not me, and not any readers, thinks there’s anything “fake” about this.
On September 29, 2019 at 9:20 pm, Fred said:
@Hank,
Please quote any item, any post, any comment, from any time on TCJ that calls for “murdering” please. Just one example, any example, any thing?
On September 29, 2019 at 9:27 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Fred,
He’s just a troll. Reacting emotionally.
On October 20, 2019 at 9:25 pm, BRVTVS said:
Regarding the disabled victims of police force: Thomas Edison, who was deaf, nearly became a victim of a trigger happy cop when he didn’t hear or respond to a command. The only reason he lived is that the cop was such a bad shot.
Source: https://archive.org/details/thomasaedison00coop/page/54