Lawsuit Says 77-Year-Old Veteran Died After Police Tased Him

http://www.flatheadbeacon.com ^ | 05-01-13 | By Myers Reece

[redreno]

After wandering away from the Montana Veterans’ Home in Columbia Falls last June, a 77-year-old Korean War veteran suffering from severe Alzheimer’s disease was tased by police, fell face-first to the pavement where he struck his head and died later due to injuries from the fall, according to a lawsuit filed last month by a family member representing his estate.

Tamara Downen of Columbia Falls filed the lawsuit on April 5 in Helena’s Lewis and Clark County District Court, claiming that her grandfather, Stanley Downen, died as a result of negligence by the Montana Veterans’ Home, Columbia Falls Police Department and Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The lawsuit states that on May 31, 2012, Stanley Downen was admitted as a resident to the veterans’ home, described as a “nursing facility that includes a 15-bed Alzheimer’s unit.” Downen had a “history of behavioral issues and advanced dementia resulting from severe progressive Alzheimer’s disease.”

[uncommonsense]

"Stop using tasers for compliance. That is not why they were designed. They replace deadly force; that’s it."

What's so difficult about dealing with a 77 year old Alzheimer's patient? If a Cop can't deal with a 77 year old unarmed man, they should be booted off the force immediately.

I hope the police lose this lawsuit big-time so it sends a clear message. Yes, it'll hurt the taxpayers, but it's better sooner rather then later before the cops tase their grandpa to death...

[Carl from Marietta]

Who they are hiring are a bunch of kids from GDE level education who’ve been in the military. The very same we stupidly call “heroes”, when all they’ve done is join an increasingly mendacious military service branch.

These kids are the breading ground for Rambo wannabees who wear aviator sunglasses and shoot our dogs. The USA, after defeating two mighty foes in 3.5 years in the forties, cannot call itself a military superpower in the first decade of the 21st century while dithering our resources in Afganastan and Iraq for the past 10 years. We’ve bred these high tech warriors to do exactly what they’re doing...dropping out of high school, joining the military, being trained to kill with extreme prejudice, not allowing them to fight legitimate wars, and then hiring them in disproportionate numbers into local law enforcement organizations, where they trample on the rights of the public that they are sworn to serve, but have no knowledge of the rights that the public has.

“Thank you for serving your country”, my ass.

[uncommonsense]

"Its not the job of the police to accept getting hit or being subjected to the physical outbursts of a violent person, even if that person has Alzheimers."

The HELL IT's not! It IS their job to use appropriate measures to protect the public. If they can't handle a 77 year old patient, they need to find another job. How do you think health care workers handle these situations? They don't tase old people. This paramilitary crap needs to end.

[WayneS]

So some overreaction is acceptable to avoid having police get hurt.

No it isn't. There is no situation in which overreaction by the police is acceptable. Overreaction results from panic (or possibly evil). Panic is a sign of either poor training or cowardice.

[familyop]

"Who they are hiring are a bunch of kids from GDE level education who’ve been in the military."

I attended a police academy and did some patrolling as a reserve during the '90s. Saw the insides of several departments in various cities then. They weren't like police departments of the past. They didn't like veterans at all. The few who were hired were treated poorly (gossip, etc.). Not long ago, a neighbor cop, after hearing about my little bit of National Guard combat specialty service, asked me if I was like "Tim McVeigh."

It's highly doubtful that most police departments favor veterans any more--especially enlisted, non-officer veterans from combat specialties. [Whole lot of vanity and political correctness going around.] In the "us vs. them" games of politics today, veterans are one of the subgroups of "them."

[familyop]

Most police departments also require a bachelor’s degree, preferably in a related field (e.g., criminal justice). But I’m sure they’d be fine with a degree in women’s studies, social work or psychology.

[dsc]

“The deaths were the result of being handcuffed and left face down in a way that restricted the person’s airway.”

We’ve known about that problem for a long time now. You’d think the cops would catch on.

[Carl from Marietta]

The vast majority of new hire policemen are from the military.

This is just a fact. It wasn’t always that way as most returning veterans were drafted and wanted to get on with their lives as they envisioned them prior to being called up. We’ve turned a dangerous corner lately though, and recently returned veterans who’ve been discharged find their friendly local police organization the best place for a job.

The problem is that the police have become a quasi military organization, including the titular nomenclature.

I built a police academy in south Georgia and I am certain of what I am saying. Just north of Brunswick GA is the FLETCH of which I was the architect and general contractor.

LEO’s hire ex military in far disproportionate numbers as they are the easiest to train for the current purposes.

Can you even imagine the LEO’s doing a face down take down on the 50s, what’s going on is preposterous, and there’s no excuse. Give me another Irish immigration, where patrolman O’Malley gave us the hand on the shoulder.

[fireman15]

I think that they receive training but that it does not necessarily alter their behavior.

[Carl from Marietta]

I’m sorry but my wife just added that they are all shaved headed, Darth Vader dressed, Nazi pinheads.

She’s damed accurate.

[clintonh8r]

"To protect (our pensions) and to serve (our unions)."

...oh, yeah, and to make sure we get plenty of Rx for our 'roids.

[familyop]

"The vast majority of new hire policemen are from the military. This is just a fact...I built a police academy in south Georgia and I am certain of what I am saying. Just north of Brunswick GA is the FLETCH of which I was the architect and general contractor."

You designed a police academy building and had it funded. I don't see the relevance to your claim, although it appears that you might have some resources to further influence laws and policies. I see that you're in Georgia, though. My father saw some unpatriotic attitudes in business in that part of our country, when he was an infantry soldier during the early 1950s.

Anyway, go ahead. Meanwhile, I'll tell clean-cut, young men that the service might not be a good option for now. There have been too many negative assumptions about men of prior enlisted combat specialties from quite a few political constituencies and offices in politics. It might also be a good idea to keep more quiet about my prior service in business and political circles. Should have done so long ago.

Our nation is an immoral mess. We need new leadership in business, politics and academia. The opportunity will come soon after the other end of the current default process caused by political correctness and lack of manufacturing--generally, the feminization of our nation.

[familyop]

"Give me another Irish immigration,"

That was a big part of the problem, and I'm part Irish. Not any part Italian, though, so I guess other Irish folks wouldn't let me tell them how to think and live. I'm also descended from nearly 400 years of other Americans (Puritans, Norman Huguenots, Dutch, all...even some Sephardim). Maybe that larger part of my heritage was more of an influence.

[Little facetious humor mixed with a spec of sincerity there.]

[MEGoody]

PS....I spent several years as a primary caregiver

To violent Alzheimer's patients?

How much of a physical threat could he pose to couple of cops?

That's one of the things we don't know. But if the police (or facility staff) had wrestled with the guy trying to get him back to the facility, and he fell and hit his head and died, would you still consider it murder? If not, why not?

Neither physical restraint nor tazing is supposed to kill anyone, so how is one different from the other?

[sand88]

Its not the job of the police to accept getting hit or being subjected to the physical outbursts of a violent person, even if that person has Alzheimers. So some overreaction is acceptable to avoid having police get hurt.,

What an utterly disgusting and inhumane comment. There is absolutely no excuse for these sadistic cops using a tazer on this man.

I guranntee you that they got extremely "hot headed" because the poor guy would not listen and obey their commands.

Again, you have to have little humanity to even entertain the thoughts that these cops acted in the proper manner.

Our Republic is becoming more coarse by the day with those employed by government at all levels enjoying being cruel to other humans.

[SaraJohnson]

They knew the man they were executing was from the vetern’s nursing home.

Tackling and man handling an elderly person in this mental condition to capture him (to rescue him from getting lost or dying) is always risking the result of death from injury in the struggle.

However, using a taser on an elderly person like this, is manslaughter. They may as well have said to him - “Get back to the nursing home or we will kill you because it is too dangerous for you to be out wandering around and we don’t want you getting lost.”

The other thing is that the nursing home staff is trained to handle these patients. Why didn’t the police call them to recover their patient and raise cain with them for not protecting him from wandering off?

This is how “smart” in ethical decision making Americans are in these days of liberalism’s post cultural cleansing. We are devolving fast.

[Roccus]

To violent Alzheimer's patients?

That question alone exhibits your ignorance.

Have a nice day

[hosepipe]

So how do us normal people join Internal Affairs and help get rid of these dregs?

---

So you are deluded into thinking the american people are not corrupt..
Everyone in Washington D.C. was elected or hired by someone elected..
The american people DO NOT WANT it to change..

ELSE... it would.. It has been this way for at least 50 years I know personally about.. maybe far longer..

The Washington D.C. “BOIL” is coming to a head..
BUT it’s been in that city corrupt for much longer.
Thank the maggot Barry Half-White.. he brought the turtles head out..

Theres something very nasty in Washington D.C.
Corrupt poisonous and fouling all it touches..
ONLY Civil War has even a Hope of a Cure..

YOU up for it?.. it would MORE bloody than the first one.. much more..

[Carl from Marietta]

I don’t much disagree with you, I’m just damned disgusted with things generally.

I’m retired now and have a lot of time to watch the “wildest police video” genre shows and they almost always identify each officer as a former so and so military person.

You can’t go a day without some headline about someone’s dog being shot or someone’s grandma being tasered. We equip these whelps with the most expensive offensive weapons available and train them to a razors edge and wonder why they go off like grenades.

[Carl from Marietta]

I’m damned near full blooded Irish. My Grandmother was named kathura Geohagan. I’m on the debating side that contends that we had better police forces in this country when (in our larger urban areas), the cops were immigrants who were of a generation or two removed from parents who were searching for a free country.