Originally posted by Jadette
Well they didn't seem to have any trouble grabbing her arm in order to throw her to the ground. Seems to me that they could have simply taken the
knife from her hand instead.
Assuming anyone is helpless and feeble is a bad idea; simply grabbing her arm could have led to a struggle over the knife and someone getting
hurt. Putting her on the ground took away any leverage the old woman had. That's why the police are trained to get a suspect on the ground.
OR, talked her out of the knife. I didn't see any effort to use persuasion, and I'm certain that that is supposed to be the first tactic used by
policy before resorting to the physical.
She's an Alzhiemer's patient walking around a parking lot holding a steak knife. It's not very likely she was coherent enough for that; and
the officer likely asked her to put the knife down at LEAST once as she was walking up to her, you can even see the officer pointing, so she's
clearly issuing instructions. Resorting to the physical takedown only happens when its obvious the woman is not going to drop the knife.
But here's the problem. We can't here what either the officer or the woman are saying and there's no footage prior to the incident. It's all out
of context.
[edit on 8/13/2009 by eNumbra]