• octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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    30 days ago

    Mr Hatfield said White’s use of the taser in his role as a police officer was unnecessary and excessive, given Mrs Nowland’s advanced age, her reliance on a walker, her demented state, her fall risk, and that the officers present were able to move away from her.

    Ya think?

    An exchange lasted for about three minutes where officers attempted to get Mrs Nowland to drop the knife and stop moving, before White said “bugger it” and deployed his taser.

    They devoted three minutes of thought to getting the knife away from this woman before tazing a 95 year old with a walker. Same shit in so many US cases. It’s not that there was no safe way to stop the threat, it’s that the cops don’t seem capable of going “Maybe we can call for backup” or “maybe we can just wait for the 95 year old woman to get tired.” Nope, you are making them feel impatient/stupid/disrespected or you’ve had the audacity to make them run. Time for brutality or death.