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

What a moronic comment. One of the worst I have read on here.

Have a think about what you have written, then think again.

So someone (perhaps even one of his own family) sits quietly with him until he forgers that he is even holding the knife, then gently takes it. To be honest in that video he doesn't even look aware of the knife, he doesn't look like he understands anything that's happening.

A police officer in Australia just got found Guilty of Manslaughter for doing the same thing. Hopefully this person will get charged.

@PluckyBamboosorry I didn’t see previous comment , I’m not arguing that he wasn’t a threat at all previous point and that they shouldn’t have called the police , but they had already removed others from risk of harm, it looked like they had in fact already left him in a room by himself . At that point there was no imminent damage to himself or anyone else , he looked very calm at that point . Time could have been taken to sort the situation, was my point .

With respect, all your approach will do is invite more violence. Consequences in this case should involve an appropriate punishment whether thats by way of job loss, judicial sentence or whatever it might be. There is also the fact that they have now been publicly shamed. People “getting what they deserve” doesn’t involve encouraging prisoners to mete out a kicking. What does of society do you want to live in?

I just watched this video and was really shocked , total over use of force .

It a shocking.

if I had a parent in that care home I would immediately give notice and find somewhere else.

Quote didnt work but agreeing with poster saying we dont know whole story.

Absolutely this. There have been a few occasions of residents being killed by other residents. We had a 5 feet female dementia resident go for a carer with a 9 kg red fire extinguisher. You are only seeing a snapshot of what happened. For them to call the police is an indication it isnt as harmless as people on here are suggesting.

They should have waited for more than 1.5 minutes, don't you think? They are trained to talk down much more violent people than this.

I struggle to understand why the care home didn't just leave someone to sit with him out of reach till he gave up and put it down.

I'm guessing they couldn't do that in case he harmed himself.

No one is saying they shouldn’t have called the police , absolutely we do not know the back story. The only people at fault here are the two police officers, we have clear video evidence of their actions which are inexcusable

In hospitals when someone is a risk to themselves or others we get a doctor to prescribed and administer a sedative under the mental capacity act in the patients best interest, I would have thought acute confusion should warrant an ambulance

I had a patient have a sepsis induced schizophrenic episode once and brandish a pen knife at me, he was given appropriate medication not a death sentence by pepper spray …

I've read that the amputee had a water infection, which can undoubtedly cause poor behaviour.

I certainly hope that Godwilling, when I'm a septuagenarian, I never have to live in one of these homes. Maybe I should start a separate thread on care homes.

Personally, I think The Police along with Care Home managers should have deescalated calmly, quietly and with as much patience as required.

Care Home staff aren't legally allowed to restrain someone e.g pinning their arms down/forcing their hands open but the police could have done that if more gentle options like 'would you like a biscuit from the biscuit tin' or 'shall we look through you family photo album' distraction techniques didn't work.

How exactly was he going to stab elderly people or knock them flying when there were none near him and he was immobile?

I wish I could unsee that video 😢

Or just leave him be.

Yes when dealing with someone who has limited or not capacity to made basic choices the best option it to wait ages.

Tell the staff to sit outside the door out of eyesight and tell him he is on his own untill he puts it back on the tray etc. The care home should have been able to manage that without police.

If the two officers could not manage to work out he posed little danger (as he would have to wheel himself into an attack position or lunge off the chair both being easy to avoid ) they should not have been let loose in uniform.

Waving a blunt metal object from a seated position is not a serious threat to anybody.

Gosh that footage is awful. I expected him at least to be on his feet and coming towards police or
something, but he was just sitting in a chair! Horrible.

You can't claim that all reasonable steps by the police had been taken, let alone failed, given that all this happened within around 90 seconds of their arrival.

Dear God, just how dangerous did they envisage this one legged 92 year old was going to be? This is shocking.

Didn't you read the report? They have been charged.

They both sounded impatient and annoyed like they were sick of working or wanted to show off and bolster their ego. Maybe because they’d been harassed by hardened criminals earlier on their shift or something. I’d be interested to hear what other calls they responded to that day.

It was a power move more than anything else, they were furious an old man was defying them and want to stamp down on his rebellion.

Furthermore he was old and disabled and no family around at that present moment, so they probably seen his life as worthless and beneath them. See also - police brutality against non-white and other people they deem below them.

Nothing new unfortunately except this poor man doesn’t look like their usual target.

To be clear it’s absolutely abhorrent behaviour.

@doodleschnoodle isn’t it just . I think some people commenting on here haven’t actually seen the footage. The actual story in words can’t convey how helpless he was at that point, and what little threat he posed.

I am a registered nurse and work in a care home. We have a few residents that can be tricky. First thing we do ,is to dipstick their wee,check sats and temperature.The carers and RNS just understand how to deal with these lovely residents.
Generally we can chat and alleviate the situation,by being calm ,talking about their family etc .

Well that’s ridiculous to begin with but the fact he has one leg! Officer should be fired and prosecuted.