You guys are missing the point. (well AmbulanceDriver I don't think is actually missing it, but his post has some stuff I'd like to respond to)
There are certainly some times that a LE presance is needed for an attempted suicide. And if C&SD talks in person like he types, a vest might be a good idea when he visits. (
Little levity there, don't take it too serious) There is a vast array of possible scenarios in the world, and we couldn't possibly war-game all of them. I'm hinting at a "D" word here that I'll get back to in a moment.
I'm not talking about C&SD's suicudal folks in VA, or "some suicide calls" I'm talking about this one right here. The one in El Reno where they Tased the old lady in bed.
Daddy said:
in fact they coulda probably shot her over the knife if that was what they were all about.
And he's right. Just go over to THR and ask, a knife is a lethal weapon, bang, DRT. But they didn't. So they at least have an inkling of what discretion means. (Yeah I used the "D" word) So, knowing that they weren't going straight to max force, WTF were they thinking using that weapon. I'm not going to presume to know what they were thinking, although I have a few educated guesses.
The (first) Problem here is that these officers utterly failed to use their discretion properly. They acted all out of porportion to the threat. Some of the follow up problems are that folks tend to one or more of the following stupid reactions: Defend the officers; "You don't know what happened/what it's like", Remove all discretion, attempt to crucify the officers, seek a lawsuit lottery, blame the department, and any of a number of other self-serving or stupid things.
I said earlier:
However if you can't dis-arm a 90 year old woman, without weapons or injury to either party, you have no buisness being a police officer.
And I stand by that. I don't actually think these guys
couldn't have solved this without a taser, I think they
chose not to. They made a bad choice and hurt someone, and need to bear the consequences of that. Not, probably*, being drummed out of the force, and feeling self-righteous as the city pays for their mistake, but somewher in between. A couple weeks unpaid time off, and retraining on decision making and risk assesment are, again probably*, where I think it should go.
Also:
Granny was hurt, and deserves some recompse for it. That being said a tase and a couple days in the hospital are not worh millions of dollors. The city should pick up her medical bills (including PTSD treatment if needed, although with as many Japs as she has under her belt she should be fine), any damage that was done to her house in the running around, and a public apology. I'm against Punitive damages in cases like this, because unless the officers pay it themselves who is being punished?
* On those probably's; the Police force needs to take a long hard look at
why their officers discretion failed so utterly. If it's bad training or policies due to over-lawyering of society, the need to adjust that. If it was laziness, they need to adress that. If it was part of a pattern of JBThuggery, they absolutly need to adress that. And they need to do it in a way that the public can see they are trying to fix it. Everyone (semi-reasonable) understands that you can't please everyone, and I think society can take some small amount of police oafishness, but there needs to be public and positive response to limit that oafishness. And even then this was pretty far beyond the pale.
Finally, police agencies, and their apologists, everywhere would be better served to pay closer attention to their public image. They can't really afford for too much of the public to actually believe that unaccountable thin blue line stuff, or they will be unable to function. I don't know what percentage of the public not having tryst is going to be "critical mass" but I'm pretty sure it'll be uglier then Manchester after a losing soccer match to find it by experiment.
