Would They Have Shot Him?
by digby
This just breaks my heart:
Patrick Johnson’s grandmother apparently had her hands full with the 19-year-old who family members say had the mental capacity of a 5-year-old; at least a dozen times this year she called 911 when he “acted up” and she couldn’t calm him down on her own, just as she did Thursday afternoon.
[…]
According to police, at around 12:30 Thursday afternoon, two 911 calls, one by Johnson himself, were made to report a “person with a weapon.” When police arrived they found an agitated Johnson pacing back and forth from the house into the front yard. Police say he was breaking things and grabbing sticks or tree branches, which he tried to set on fire by using the kitchen stove, according to CBS affiliate KYW. Michelle Rynkiewicz, Johnson’s cousin, told KYW that Johnson was “severely retarded” and may not have understood the gravity of the situation. “He apparently had a stick in his hand or something and he wouldn’t put it down but you have to remember he has the mind of a 5 year old.” Rynkiewicz said. Police said when officers arrived, Johnson confronted them with a stick and at one point tried to set it on fire. They say that officers trained in crisis-intervention were called to the scene but that Johnson failed to respond to repeated verbal requests to calm down, and that a Taser gun had to be used to subdue him. “It had no effect,” said Philadelphia police spokesman Frank Vanore. A second Taser shot was apparently fired and Johnson dropped to the ground. He died at Nazareth Hospital at 1:10 p.m. Thursday, KYW reported.
He had the mind of a five year old. They aren’t known for their comprehension abilities when they are agitated. If police didn’t have tasers would they have shot this kid if he “failed to respond to verbal requests to calm down?”
The true horror, of course, is that he was incapable of understanding what being tasered meant. All he felt was the excruciating pain. And then he died.
This police torture of the mentally disabled with electric shock is going to be seen as one of the low points in human history. That we are doing this in 2010 is almost incomprehensible to me.
h/t to JC