92 year old tasered, hit and pepper sprayed

[whompingwillo]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8dv60dygro.amp

Because of a piece of cutlery? The mind boggles and it made me feel really sad. People in care homes become confused all the time due to multiple reasons. Seems highly unlikely anyone was in danger enough to warrant this force. He subsequently died 3 weeks later

I thought the exact same OP in that I just felt very sad and it hurt my heart. The poor man needed kindness.

Christ. That poor fellow, how awful.

Imagine the pain of his poor family :(

That is one of the most shocking things I’ve ever seen and I’m not exaggerating

This is one reason i don't trust the police.

Time was they were competent and trained to be sensible and de-escalate.

These days? they just want to go for low-hanging fruit. I hope he has lost his job.

You wonder what training they had that within a minute and a half of arriving they had pepper sprayed, hit and tasered him. Having seen MIL with a UTI I can easily believe that he was not of sound mind and needed care/medication. So sad.

Wow it does seem excessive doesn't it

She. It was a woman who tasered Mr Burgess

Ex copper here. I was trained in the 90's and there were one or two people on my course that I thought really shouldn't have been there. It attracts some who have literally no common sense and a desire for power.

Fast forward a few decades and it's got worse instead of better.

I despair.

im Surprised there is so little comment on this. Having seen the video on the news , it’s beyond appalling.it was a butter knife modified as cutlery for dementia patients, not a knife knife. He clearly had no idea what they were asking , a bit of kindness or bribery would probably have got the knife from him. They gave him a minute, shouting at him, then pepper sprayed him then whacked his arm so hard with a baton, before the taser. A 93 year old with one leg, sitting looking dazed in a wheelchair. They should both go to prison for that, absolutely no excuse for their behaviour.

I can’t believe this! How on earth did it escalate to that? Surely the carers have had to manage this sort of thing before. Even if they thought he was a danger to himself and that’s why they called the Police, the Police used total
overkill. And I am generally pro Police.

Care home staff were unsuccessful in getting the knife off him, he refused to drop it when asked repeatedly by the police, should they have waited around for potentially ages for him to drop it or try to get it off him risking injury to officers, himself and/or carers? He'd already "poked" a staff member with it.

Force was necessary to ensure everyone's safety.

I think you’ve nailed it there. You will of course know. I think they’re prob also a bit thick. There’s always someone totally unsuitable in every profession (I’m a trained Nurse)

LilacFlowerBed
I really doubt anyone there was in danger from a 93 year old amputee

This is awful!

How was he a risk to anyone. A 93 year old amputee with a fucking butter knife. Jeez

I think a firm grip of the wrist and removal of the implement whilst wearing a protective glove would have resolved that.

Don’t be so fucking stupid 🙄

Genuinely disgusting and I hope they go to prison.

Im sure some of the other prisoners will have elderly family and be pleased to meet them.

The staff just leaving and closing his door would have resulted in him eventually putting the knife down. If there was no audience he'd eventually have let go of it.

But the police actions were inexcusable.

Have you ever actually seen or used a butter knife before? You’d be hard pushed to stab soft butter.

Absolutely inexcusable.

Yes, let’s deal with violence by inflicting some more violence shall we? Please, stop and think about what you are saying.

"Force was necessary to ensure everyone's safety."

The only force necessary- if they weren't capable of gently coaxing him to hand it over (coming in shouting repeatedly at a nonagenarian with a UTI was never gonna work) was to walk up to him, take hold of the blade of the butter knife and give it a firm yank. If you can't do that to a 92 year old amputee in a wheelchair you probably aren't physically fit, strong and brave enough to be a cop anyway. Would love to see those chocolate teapots on the riots in Belfast. They'd shit their pants the minute a small kid lobbed a coke bottle at them.

Just watched the video. Ridiculous over-reaction by the cops! It's hardly as if the man was going to charge at anyone with his butter knife, he's just sitting there looking mildly irritated.

I know some old people, no matter their age, can be dangerously aggressive. This one was stuck in his chair with an item of table cutlery, not rampaging around with a carving knife! The police were giving him orders like a disobedient dog.

Appalling behaviour, and I'm sorry Mr Burgess died from this unjustified multiple assault by police officers.