Err.. the police blogs and message boards are in a tizzy that people actually criticized officers for tasering an 82 year old woman with a hammer.
It is certainly true that one could use a taser when attacked with a hammer. However, a 5’1″ 82 year old? There’s a bit of commonsense that says you might be able to disarm her without a weapon. In or out of use of force guidelines, if you feel horribly threatened by an old woman with a hammer to the point you do not think you can take it away from her, you might have worked with the landlord to get a hold of the family first.
Just a thought.
Tasers were introduced to law enforcement as a non-lethal alternative to fire arms. As such, they should only be used in situations that would merit the use of a fire arm. Unfortunately, they have become a violent substitute for every level of conflict between “Hey knock it off” and shooting someone.
And don’t forget, the police forced their way into this old woman’s home. It may have been a lawful entry, but it was a forced entry.
— SCAM
Try to contact the family…. I am sure if she managed to bop herself in the noggin with the hammer while they were waiting for someone to show up would have gone over real well with the family.
I am open to hear how you disarm her without putting officers (or her) at real risk.
— Tackle Her? at her age you would have likely broken some bones. Also a risk of her hitting the officer with the hammer.
— Use a broom stick to disarm her. Interesting idea but having fenced in college (with swords, not selling stolen goods) I would have to say that would have been a bit of a challenge, again also a risk of really hurting her.
— Just waited for her to tire her self out, again a real risk she hurts herself.
I think the reason the police blogs are atwitter about this
is because it is easy to say ‘Why tase grandma’ and no one seems to offer realistic other options.
OneMan
She’s 82 and 5’1″. How about take the hammer out of her hand and restrain her. She’s 5’1″ and 82 years old. It’s not like she would have the power or the speed to make it hard to do. It’s commonsense. Trying to make it complicated is only an effort by officers to complain about how no one understands the danger of their job. By an notion of reasonable, there was no danger to them.
They were entering her house against her will. It appears that was a reasonable choice to make, but if the choice was to taser her upon getting in there, yeah, walking away would have been the way to handle it since that would have likely lead to the woman calming down.
This isn’t some complicated tactical situation–it’s a human situation of an old, frail woman who is mentally impaired.
So if it was a kitchen knife would it be
She is 82 years old and 5 ft tall just take the knife out of her hand.
Is it her age or size that says you should set up to someone swinging a hammer wildly?
It’s a combination and an 82 year old with a knife isn’t much different. You wouldn’t taser a kid swinging a hammer either and I know a lot of people who deal with troubled kids who are about the same size, but better condition and face these kind of situations fairly frequently. You restrain them. It’s just commonsense–are you telling me that a police officer cannot safely disarm and restrain an 82 year old woman who is 5’1″? Falling back on use of force guidelines as a justification misses the point that there was no real danger here unless you stand still and let her hit you.