Police Not Guilty of assault of elderly care home resident

[Nanny0gg]

The police that tasered the 92 year-old amputee in the nursing home have been found not guilty of assault!

What on earth? What does constitute assault then?

I'm appalled by this judgement

[citation needed]

The care staff were out of their depth and the police just waded in. The level of force they used wasn't necessary.

No, he had threatened to stab. He didn't stab anyone. He also had a lack of mobility and a blunt knife designed for spreading a soft substance, so is not likely to have managed to injure anyone.

No one is saying that all old people are nice, but that he posed virtually no threat to anyone and that compassion would have led to better outcomes.

How so? Less than two minutes interaction with an amputee in a wheelchair and you think they saw enough to decide to pepper spray and taser him? Please explain.

Pp saying blunt knife

you can injure with a blunt knife

in this situation, why not try to get him to drop it first before using pepper spray and a taser? Keep in mind he was alone in his room when police arrived. As well as being an amputee in a wheelchair.

I agree with this.

Disproportionate. He was not able to walk and he had dementia.

I absolutely agree! He couldn't get to anyone to hurt them and didn't need to be approached until he calmed down, unless he was hurting himself. I have worked with exactly the kind of staff I imagine called the police. Kind words, cups of tea, distraction, patience, common sense and keeping a sensible distance would have probably been enough to soothe this frightened, frustrated, unsafe, confused and unwell man. I'll bet he had a uti. The police behaved inhumanely.

Have you seen the video though ? He was clearly not capable of causing any harm with it. They acted with a lot of force when there would have been other ways to calm the situation.

A jury who heard all the evidence found the two not guilty.

I don't understand why, but I (like most if not all on here) didn't hear all the evidence. I read what was reported, but that's not all the evidence.

You choose to rely on a jury's verdict or you dont. If you dont, which some on here seem not to, then you posit a different way to decide on innocence and guilt. Personally, relying on what has been chosen to report by msm, wouldn't be my preferred method. Id prefer to rely on a jury that heard all the evidence, not just relied on "what it looked like".

@GasPanic you say they weren't to know how much of a threat he posed

He was an amputee in a wheelchair

So it is possible to make some assessment of how much threat he posed

Yes, I'd like to read the court reports

A knife that he failed to drop, even when his wrist had been hit with a baton. He was repeatedly told to drop the knife. He refused. They started at the lowest level of the conflict resolution model and worked their way up. That’s why they’ve not been prosecuted. It’s not like they didn’t give him multiple opportunities to comply.

Yes, this is my feeling, having watched the videos and read the report. Hopefully professional standards investigations will bring the police officers to account - they can suspend, order re-training, etc.

Thing is, though - we in the court of MN are too quick to judge here.

There is simply not enough money going into the care (non-NHS) sector, and this has consequences for staffing levels, funding, leadership, quality, etc. Likewise for policing.

I'm not saying this excuses poor behaviour. However, if you want higher standards and better trained/equipped/support care staff and police officers, well, we going to have to stomach higher taxes.

It's such a shame that non of our political leaders have the backbone to admit this, and a shame that many members of the public feel that pouring money into the NHS, and not social care, is sustainable.

It's quite possible the care staff were not qualified or experienced enough to know how to de escalate the situation. Still no excuse for the police who should also be trained in this area. Did you actually see the video? Did you notice he's an amputee who wouldn't even be able to get up and walk?

Many times I dealt with aggressive elderly confused demented patients, I recognised it was part of their illness. I never felt the need to respond with aggression!

In 2 minutes?

^ I agree. Experienced staff would probably have been able to de-escalate this. I've done a similar job, so speak from experience.

Throwing more money at this problem is not the solution. Basic human decency would dictate that you do not taser somebody in a wheelchair brandishing a butter knife. Most normal human beings understand that In or out of uniform.

@ExpressCheckout i'm not sure these two officers would respond to different training or more training

This was an extraordinary escalation of behaviour in under two minutes.

Ridiculous overreaction by the staff and the police. I can’t say I am surprised by how the police and staff acted.They like a lot of people nowadays are totally lacking in common sense and rational thinking. Do the police exert this level of force to actually arrest real criminals? I suppose criminals might fight back and also are well aware of their rights. Poor old fella RIP.

I don't want to disagree with you ... but, I do disagree!

When people work in institutions - police, social care, NHS - the environment can make otherwise reasonable and rational people do crazy things. I've seen it happen.

Good recruitment, training, oversight and, moreover, good leadership cost money.

So, I don't disagree entirely - this shouldn't happen - but it does, and history tells us that the most moral, humane people can do all sorts of awful things when in the wrong environment with the wrong leaders.

If anyone read the news he had delirium from a Uti so was not in his right state of mind.
He was ill and should have been treated as a sick patient not a criminal.

Nonsense. They could've left the room and the old man would've eventually dropped the knoife

Anyone can be violent, even kids, does that give the police free rein to pepper spray and taser them too if they're sat holding a butter knife?

He was nearly 100, in a wheelchair and in a room away from anyone else. It was very obvious how strong he was.