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

Ridiculous behaviour from the staff and the police.

Telling him to drop the knife is only useful if he's in a mental state to understand and follow instructions. We don't know if he understands what the words "drop" or "knife" mean.

An amputee without his wheelchair isn't going anywhere. So you keep everyone away from him, keep the environment calm, and take your time. If you wait, he will either let go of the knife, fall asleep or request something that you can put in his hand in place of the knife. (Provided he doesn't have contractures that prevent his hand from relaxing.)

I have advised families of people with dementia who live at home to call the police for help if they feel unsafe. But this isn't because we expect them to pepper spray or tase the person with dementia. We call police because people have an ingrained response to a uniform and a new face that helps them feel safe and calmer. On the whole, our local police service is wonderful in the way they support people with dementia, so the actions of the officers in this story are disappointing.

I can't imagine it does anything positive for the care home's reputation either. CQC won't be impressed.

I work with a woman who has been accepted into the police force and I hate to stereotype but you’re right. Insecure twat who is desperate to feel powerful. She isn’t qualified at all, she was surprised herself when was offered the job. It’s also very rare that they are held accountable when they get it wrong, I have zero faith in our police force.

Utterly shamful result.
No wonder historically respectful supporters of the police force of this country, are aghast now at what it has become.

I wouldn't dream of opening my car door to a police officer and have told my daughters likewise.
Too many bad eggs in the police to trust them anymore.

Very sad.

It doesn’t matter. There was still zero need to taser and pepper spray a confused old man who was an amputee. He was no threat to anyone and very likely could have been talked into dropping the knife with a little patience. 83 seconds they with him before tasering and pepper spraying him. I hope they get the sack despite the verdict. They should never be trusted with the public again.

I hope the bastards are sacked.
Could these two be trusted to treat people with respect and dignity? No! Therefore they have no place in the Police.

Unless the cops were blind, deaf, of way below average intelligence or had just been beamed down from the planet Zod, then I would have thought the threat posed by a 92 year old, wheelchair bound amputee armed with a specially adapted butter knife would have been pretty fucking obvious. Christ, I think a totally untrained teenager who just happened to be passing could have dealt with it better.

I have worked with patients with acute delirium and there is no way some of them would understand even simple commands like "give me the knife". Poor old fella didn't stand a chance.
What is equally worrying is that there are also lots of people in all communities who wouldn't understand commands, people with learning disabilities, ND, those who don't speak English.

All of these are things to be considered before using a taser.
I'm going to write to my MP about this and see if I can get my NHS colleagues to sign.

What absolute cnuts. There will be the usual vague apologies, they'll spend some time suspended on full pay and then return to unleash their God complexes on the public again.

Absolutely fantastic to see the plod taking equal opportunities seriously and showing they are equally ready to unleash unnecessary force on elderly white men as young black men and that they are capable of treating all ages groups and racial profiles with utter contempt.

I hope one day you are in exactly the same position as that man - old, weak, poorly and confused - and that you are treated in the same way. Genuinely.

The fact he didn’t drop the knife after having a full can of pepper spray aimed into his face tells you all you need to know, he didn’t understand what was being asked of him. The officer actually told someone to move at the beginning of the video so she could line up her Taser. How much of a pathetic piece of shit do you actually have to be to get your kicks out of doing shit like this.

How anyone can defend these brutes after watching the bodycam footage is beyond me. The meaty flat footer is already pumped up, and his sidekick becomes more aroused as mr meaty gets more shouty and aggressive. It’s brutal to watch and not what I would expect of the British police. They should be thoroughly ashamed of their behaviour. All Braun and no brain, never a good combination.
poor old boy, he was so clearly frightened, where was the compassion? The understanding he was fearful and confused. When he was walloped by the truncheon, the pain must have been extreme, to then be tasered was wholly inappropriate. It could have been de-escalated so quickly. I’ve worked with adults and children who have significant behavioural challenges, you need time (lots and lots of time sometimes), a gentle reassuring voice, the ability to read the situation, the body language, and a good understanding of human behaviour. What you don’t need is the human equivalent of two adrenaline fuelled xl American bullies.

Well, they ended up indirectly killing him, so I guess that's fine?

Here's the link. Unbelievable.
https://metro.co.uk/video/bodyworn-footage-shows-police-beating-tasing-elderly-man-care-home-3439085/. Poor guy could hardly move before the sprayed and tasted him. Care staff should have waited until he fell asleep. He wasn't going anywhere. Police were terrible but should never have been called.

The thread is about that particular gent. And I'm quite aware , I've worked in a dementia care unit before

Can't imagine that would've been a worse headline than the one we ended up with tbh.

Two people with a blanket held at each end could habe flanked him and effectively swaddled him so he could not move his arms to allow them to remove the knife and possibly sedate him.

So basically what this verdict is saying is if ever police are in a similar position again they've got complete free reign to taser the elderly person (and/or hit with their baton) because there will be zero consequences. Police are above the law and that's why they got off.

Well, it sounds like there will be serious professional consequences for them, but not criminal ones.

I feel like I'm in the minority, but I think that might well be the right outcome, and I'm not someone who is generally all that sympathetic to police officers.

@QuaintShaker why do you think it might be the right outcome? They caused the death of an elderly vulnerable person who was sitting in their chair no threat to anyone in that moment. As far as I'm concerned they murdered him and they and other cops have now got a free pass to do it again whenever they want to indulge their little power trip.

He had cutlery for eating with. He had neither the strength nor the mobility to cause anyone any injury. It’s quite normal for dementia patients to become irrational and careers are usually used to it. Telling the police he had a knife, as if he was carrying a weapon, was wholly inappropriate.

While the chain of events ended in the man's death, it was not as a direct result of the police's actions. He died from Covid.

It's a bit like if you were at fault in a car accident and the damage to the other persons car meant they had to take the bus home. If the bus was then involved in a serious accident, and the person died, that would not make you legally (or, I'd say, morally) responsible for their death.

I don't think the police were on a power trip, nor that they wanted to hurt the gentleman. They asked him to drop the knife many times, before using the pepper spray. The male officer didn't attempt to beat the gentleman with the baton, but tried to knock the knife out of his hand. When he still didn't let go (and started waving the knife), the female officer deployed her tazer (she explained that she has never done so before but, in the moment, she thought it was safer than allowing the baton/knife duel to continue).

I think the officers failed badly at their job, and allowed things to escalate far beyond what was needed, but I don't think they were thugs intent on giving the gentleman a beating.

This is so tragic...That poor man and his family. He looked so confused in the footage. I am sure I read that the spray was used within 90 seconds of them entering the room. That is not anyway near enough time to try and talk to someone who would be having delayed confused thought processes from.the UTI. What they did was barbaric.

So indirect manslaughter, he wouldn’t have been in hospital to catch covid if it wasn’t for this.
They didn’t try repeatedly to get him to drop the butter knive, they were raring to go from the moment they got in that room, the female officer from the get go was asking care staff to move so she could line up her taser, and the guy waited 67 seconds before spraying a full can of pepper spray into a man’s face who in that moment wasn’t a threat to anybody.
Did you know that once they left the room they were caught laughing with another officer about the amount of pepper spray.. Ho ho ho, did you do your usual hahaha.
But this is what happens in a country where you don’t even need a GCSE in basic maths to get a job in the police force. It’s a job riddled with scumbags going back decades and appeals to insecure bullies who are given to much power and not enough training.
If that knife was so dangerous why do we give them to toddlers in reception to learn to use cutlery, what if one of them throws a paddy one day and refuses to drop it, should the dinner lady call 999 and get the police to scream TASER TASER TASER before letting rip… Of course not but what happened in that video is just as disturbing as the scenario I’ve just give. I just pray that they lose their jobs but I’m not going to hold my breath on that one, they’re probably at home celebrating their victory in court, its disgraceful.

@QuaintShaker I mean you send any 92 year old to hospital and there's a good chance they might not come out. So even more reason to have a bit of common sense and humanity and do everything to avoid that outcome (which they easily could've). He died as a a direct result of their actions not just a bad luck event like in your example. You think I can go and push a 92 year old over and claim it's not my fault if they go on to die of Covid in hospital?

I agree with @SunComeBack if it was just something they had to do and they felt bad about it they wouldn't be laughing afterwards.