Tazing Granny

[Iason Ouabache]

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/06/24/28330.htm

Police Tasered an 86-year-old disabled grandma in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she couldn't breathe, after her grandson called 911 seeking medical assistance, the woman and her grandson claim in Oklahoma City Federal Court. Though the grandson said, "Don't Taze my granny!" an El Reno police officer told another cop to "Taser her!" and wrote in his police report that he did so because the old woman "took a more aggressive posture in her bed," according to the complaint.

    Lonnie Tinsley claims that he called 911 after he went to check on his grandmother, whom he found in her bed, "connected to a portable oxygen concentrator with a long hose." She is "in marginal health, [and] takes several prescribed medications daily," and "was unable to tell him exactly when she had taken her meds," so, Tinsley says, he called 911 "to ask for an emergency medical technician to come to her apartment to evaluate her."

    In response, "as many as ten El Reno police" officers "pushed their way through the door," according to the complaint.

    The grandma, Lona Varner, "told them to get out of her apartment."

    The remarkable complaint continues: "Instead, the apparent leader of the police [defendant Thomas Duran] instructed another policeman to 'Taser her!' He stated in his report that the 86 year-old plaintiff 'took a more aggressive posture in her bed,' and that he was fearful for his safety and the safety of others.

    "Lonnie Tinsley told them, 'Don't taze my Granny!' to which they responded that they would Taser him; instead, they pulled him out of her apartment, took him down to the floor, handcuffed him and placed him in the back of a police car.

    "The police then proceeded to approach Ms. Varner in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation.

    "The police then fired a Taser at her and only one wire struck her, in the left arm; the police then fired a second Taser, striking her to the right and left of the midline of her upper chest and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain and to pass out.

    "The police then grabbed Ms. Varner by her forearms and jerked hands together, causing her soft flesh to tear and bleed on her bed; they then handcuffed her.

    "The police freed Lonnie Tinsley from his incarceration in the back of the police car and permitted him to accompany the ambulance with his grandmother."

    Tinsley says the cops capped it all off by having his grandmother "placed in the psychiatric ward at the direction of the El Reno police; she was held there for six days and released."

[Doktor Howl]

This country has become a self parody.   

[Cramulus]

Not only do cops love tazing people

they also show the video footage at parties


no doubt this one was very popular

[Nast]

Just another wacky American Moment!

[Cain]

"I tasered a bed-bound granny in El Reno, just to watch her grandson cry"

[Nast]

"I tasered a bed-bound granny in El Reno, just to watch her grandson cry"

And all I got was this lousy t-shirt!

[Richter]

"Shock to the heart, for pills she hadn't ate.
Gran gave Parkinsons a bad name."

[Doktor Howl]

"Shock to the heart, for pills she hadn't ate.
Gran gave Parkinsons a bad name."

[Bruno]

Moar info +comments

http://newsok.com/article/3471297#disqus_thread

http://www.newsok.com/article/3471619?searched=Lonnie%20Tinsley&custom_click=search

[Cramulus]

I am still entirely disgusted with this incident.

It is of the most high and holy horrormirth that the police were called to prevent her from committing suicide.

She did make one big mistake though, which is (allegedly) threatening the cops' lives. If there's anything I've learned from having my best buddy become a cop, it's that the cops are salivating for the moment you give them the excuse to use maximum force. It don't matter if you're 8, 18, or 80, blind, crippled, or crazy. You don't even have to be breathing!

Duran reported Varner had looked him in the eyes after he arrived at the apartment and said to him, "If you try and get the knife I will stab you and kill you. I killed four Japs in World War II and I would not bat an eye killing you."

Duran also reported, Varner talked of killing police again after being taken to Parkview Hospital in El Reno. "Varner told me she was going to kill every officer that was in her apartment when she got out. Varner told me she was going to snap my neck like a twig just like she did during World War II."

Varner's attorney, Dell, said both Varner and the grandson said she told police to leave her apartment but they deny she threatened to kill officers. They also denied that she talked in the apartment of killing Japanese.

The grandson "said she didn't say anything like that at all at the apartment," the attorney said.

The grandson recalled she did say things at the hospital about having killed Japanese but "there was never any threats to the cops," the attorney said.

The horrormirth is strong in this line:

Asked if the Taser hurt, she said, "Well, that's for me to know and you to find out."

also,

El Reno police last faced controversy over using a Taser in November 2008 when an uncooperative driver was shocked after a crash. The police chief said later officers had no way of knowing the driver was in diabetic shock. A video of the 2008 incident was widely circulated on the Internet.

and that, friends and neighbors, is what's so great about the internet

[Doktor Howl]

I am still entirely disgusted with this incident.

So am I.  But what can you do?  The American public has been demanding this shit since 1980.  Shit, since the end of WWII.

Now they have it.

[Vene]

I find it interesting how the source in the OP leaves out things like how she had a knife and threatened to kill the cops.

"If you come any closer, you're getting the knife."

"If you try and get the knife I will stab you and kill you. I killed four Japs in World War II, and I would not bat an eye killing you."

http://www.newsok.com/oklahoma-grandmother-gets-shocked-by-taser-sues-el-reno-police/article/3471619?custom_click=pod_headline_crime

I just wonder what the cops were supposed to do, whether it's misplaced ideology or not, they had a responsibility to prevent her from committing suicide. She was also armed with a weapon and threatening them. So, they needed to remove the weapon from her. Should they have tried to wrestle it away from her, beat her to submission with billy clubs, sprayed her down with pepper spray, shot her? I'm open to suggestions, but in the context of their duties, I'm not sure what else they could have reasonably done. To some extent, this sounds like an attempted suicide by cop.

[Cain]

The problem I have with this "death threat" argument is that it relies on the testimony of cops who tasered an 86 year old woman, from a department which apparently has many issues when it comes to using tasers.

Of course, the police would never lie to justify their actions, especially when they start to look like real shitheads in the press.  They're too honourable.

[Doktor Howl]

What a load of crap.  10 cops couldn't handle an octogenarian lady, knife or no knife?

[Dysnomia]

I love this country.