This story seems a bit over the top, even for the police.
86-year-old Lona Varner, a disabled woman, was lying in bed connected to her breathing machine when El Reno (Oklahoma) police officers tasered her for taking “a more aggressive posture in her bed,” according to the police report. When only one wire struck her in the first attempt, Varner was tasered again.
Varner’s grandson had used 911 to call for an EMT for his mother. In response as many as ten El Reno police officers arrived and, when they were told by the elderly woman that they were not welcome, the adrenaline of the high-pressure situation apparently began pumping and the cops began acting like… cops.
Lona Varner was also placed in a psychiatric ward at the direction of the El Reno police and was held there for six days. Yeah, as if she was the crazy one.
Ms. Varner is suing the El Reno Police Department. From the complaint, “As a result of the wrongful arrest and detention, the plaintiff Lona M. Varner suffered the unlawful restraint of her freedom, bodily injury, assault, battery, the trashing of her apartment, humiliation, loss of personal dignity, infliction of emotional distress and medical bills.”
I happen to agree with sidecarsally.com’s observation that “there is no legitimate reason to taser a bedridden 86-year-old woman. Ever. Unless you are just doing it for fun.”
Doing it for fun.
Thanks for the shout-out. I checked out your site and like it a lot — you have an elegant way with words! Cheers!
AMERICAN POLICE ARE ATTACKING AND MURDERING UNARMED AMERICAN SENIOR CITIZEN
It was one year ago this week that narcotics officers in Atlanta, Georgia broke into the home of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston.
They had earlier arrested a man with a long rap sheet on drug charges. That man told the police officers that they’d find a large stash of cocaine in Johnston’s home. When police forced their way into Johnston’s home, she met them holding a rusty old revolver, fearing she was about to be robbed. The police opened fire, and killed her.
Shortly after the shooting, the police alleged that they had paid an informant to buy drugs from Ms. Johnston’s home. They said she fired at them first, and wounded two officers. And they alleged they found marijuana in her home.
We now know that these were all lies. In fact, everything about the Kathryn Johnston murder was corrupt. The initial arrest of the ex-con came via trumped-up charges. The police then invented an informant for the search warrant, and lied about overseeing a drug buy from Johnston’s home.
Ms. Johnston didn’t actually wound any of the officers. They were wounded by fragments of ricochet from their own storm of bullets. And there was no marijuana. Once they realized their mistake, the officers handcuffed Ms. Johnston and left her to bleed and die on the floor of her own home while they planted marijuana in her basement.
We now know that it was routine for Atlanta’s narcotics officers to lie on drug warrants. We know that judges in the city rather systematically approved those warrants with no scrutiny at all (the judge in the Johnston case literally rubber-stamped the warrant), abrogating their oaths as guardians of the Fourth Amendment.
Two months before the Johnston raid police officers nearly killed another elderly woman in the same neighborhood after forcing their way into her home in a mistaken raid. A year earlier, they had mistakenly raided the home next door to Johnston’s. And just days before, Atlanta police had conducted another forced-entry raid that turned up all of two marijuana cigarettes.
We now know that once the officers in the Johnston case knew they were in trouble, they pressured one of their actual drug informants to lie for them, and vouch for the fabricated account of the controlled buy.
That informant–Alex White–refused, and bravely came forward to tell the media what had happened. Had he given in to the pressure put on him by APD narcotics officers, the world would still likely believe Kathryn Johnston was a drug dealer, and her killing was justified.
In fact, subsequent investigations showed that the corruption at the Atlanta Police Department was so pervasive, Police Chief Richard Pennington eventually had to replace the entire narcotics division.
Atlanta is still in a state of self-examination since the Kathryn Johnston case. To its credit, the city is considering real reform in the way it conducts its drug policing. Politicians at the municipal, state and federal level may guide that process, as may a lawsuit from Ms. Johnston’s family.
But beyond Atlanta, the beat goes on. All across the country, narcotics units and SWAT teams are still kicking down doors in the middle of the night and still deploying flash grenades and using aggressive, paramilitary tactics–and they’re still doing all of this to apprehend people suspected of nonviolent crimes. And they’re still making mistakes.
In February of this year, 16-year-old Daniel Castillo, Jr. was killed in a police raid on his family’s home in Texas. Castillo had no criminal record. A SWAT officer broke open the door to the bedroom as Castillo, his sister, and her infant son were sleeping. When Castillo rose from the bed after being awoken to his sister’s screams, the SWAT officer shot him in the face.
In March, police in Spring Lake, Minn., acting on an informant’s tip, raided the home of Brad and Nicole Thompson. The couple was forced on the ground at gun point and warned by an officer, “If you move, I’ll shoot you in the f___ing head.” Police had the wrong house.
In June, a 72-year-old woman on oxygen was thrown to the ground at gunpoint in a mistaken drug raid near Durnago, Colo. Sharia Law is highly criticize by American Muslim are under attack by Rep. Peter King. But nothing is done to stop and or prevent American police brutality. Or white racist police brutality or to just protect children and senior citizen from being murder by white racist ignorant criminal police officers in America! American police are one in the same with Sharia Law!