87 Year Old Women Tasered

[pastafreak]

...and yes, it's in the U.S.
She had a knife, and was picking dandelion leaves...so someone called the cops.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/us/woman-taser-georgia-cops.html?module=WatchingPortal&region=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=16&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2018%2F08%2F17%2Fus%2Fwoman-taser-georgia-cops.html&eventName=Watching-article-click

[Gizmonster]

//// ...and yes, it's in the U.S. ////

.... to be honest, I wouldn't have expected it to be anywhere else!!!!

Yes she had a knife, so could be seen as a potential threat; but she was 87 years old, 5 feet tall and spoke very little English.
The mind boggles ........

[kvalidir]

I'm going to Georgia on Monday- oh joy :/

[Sqad]

What has age got to do with it?
If one decides the situation needs help from a taser......then so be it.

[kvalidir]

think your average 5 feet tall 87 year old lady even with a knife is reasonably easy to disarm Sqad, I think this was an error of judgement.

[rowanwitch]

Have to say I have met one or two old ladies a taser probably wouldn't have stopped. But in this case it seems like police stupidity in the US yet again

[Sqad]

What has height got to do with it?.......she had a knife.

[-Talbot-]

If he needed a taser against an 87-year-old woman, he needs to find a more suitable job.

[-Talbot-]

Luckily, if the old lady had managed to wrestle the taser from cop-1...cop-2 was on hand to shoot her.

[aelmpvw]

he could have called in a swat team for back up

[pastafreak]

3 officers..most likely big, burly men. And one tiny woman... literally half their size. Maybe a bit of common sense was in order. Was she resisting? No...she just didn't comprehend what was going on. She had a gun pointed at her. And then she was arrested. The mind boggles.

[Gizmonster]

//// Luckily, if the old lady had managed to wrestle the taser from cop-1...cop-2 was on hand to shoot her. ////

I think a 3rd officer should have been there just in case .....
You never know, if she'd got that taser from cop 1, she might have tasered cop 2 .... so cop 3 would then have to shoot her. Might as well play it safe and make it a head shot as well .... it is the US after all :P

[anneasquith]

Look on the bright side, she could have been shot .

[pastafreak]

Giz...there *was* a third officer.
According to another report, she has dementia. The initial call to the police indicated she was not exhibiting threatening behaviour...so why the over reaction by the officers?

[Gizmonster]

//// Giz...there *was* a third officer. ////
Yea I realised after I'd posted :(

Just as well there was a 3rd officer ..... just in case eh ??

[Old_Geezer]

Knives don't kill dandelions, little old ladies with knives kill dandelions !

Clearly the only alternative would have been to shoot her and stop this weed genocide.

[tamborine]

Kval pls head a street protest for this lady so she gets huge compo.

enjoy georgia

[LadyCG]

If she'd been in the US for decades, as is stated in the article, how come she spoke such limited English?

I personally think there's a lot more to this than meets the eye.

[Mamyalynne]

I found the way the call went rather interesting, I have to wonder what the Officers who were sent were told.

//"There's a lady walking on the bike trails, she has a knife and she won't leave," the caller told a dispatcher. "She told me she doesn't speak English, and she's walking up the trail with a knife towards me."
"It looks like she's walking around looking for something, vegetation to cut down or something. She has a bag too," the caller said.
The Boys and Girls Club employee told the dispatcher that the woman did not seem to be a threat. "But she came at you with a knife, though, right?" the dispatcher asked. "No, she just brought the knife onto the property in her hand, she didn't try and attack anybody or anything," the caller said.//

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/16/us/georgia-police-taser-woman-dandelions-knife/index.html

[jackthehat]

///The daughter-in-law also said Al-Bishara has dementia and speaks Arabic.///

This would certainly add to the confusion and I believe that the police officers were heavy-handed in their approach.

[vulcan42]

Personally,I think the last paragraph in the link sums it up, stated by an ex policeman.

"It was a ridiculous turn of events,” he told The Daily Citizen-News. “If three police officers couldn’t handle an 87-year-old woman, you might want to reconsider hanging up your badge.”