Posted on 04/02/2014 8:31:34 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Kass exclusive: Suburban officer charged in 95-year-old's death
Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass discusses charges filed in the death of 95-year-old John Wrana. John Kass
April 2, 2014
An officer was charged this morning in the police killing of 95-year-old John Wrana, the World War II veteran who was fatally shot with beanbag rounds in his apartment at a south suburban senior facility last year.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s office said patrolman Craig Taylor, 43, was charged with one count of reckless conduct, a Class 4 felony. Taylor has been with the Park Forest Police Department since January, 2004.
Taylor is expected to appear before a judge later today at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building. The case is being handled by the special prosecutions unit.
Wrana, who had served with the U.S. Army Air Corps in Burma during World War II, was just weeks shy of his 96th birthday when the confrontation occurred with police at the Victory Centre assisted-living center in July 2013.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Girl: The only game I ever played was beanbag.
WC Fields: Beanbag? Ah, very good; it becomes very exciting at times. I saw the championship played in Paris. Many people were killed.
is that part of obamacare?
How Police Became a Standing Army
Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces, Radley Balko, PublicAffairs, 400 pages
By John Payne • January 2, 2014
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-police-became-a-standing-army/
I don’t know. Looks more like felony murder to me.
The cop will get off with a slap on the wrist; they always do.
The charge carries probation to three years according to the article.
Probation to three years?
Ouch!
All they needed to do was to leave the old boy alone and everything would have worked out. At 95 years of age, if the man decided not to take his medicine he should have been left alone - period. In a case where the officer fired at the man 5 times with LTL beanbags from 5-8 feet, the officer should be charged with 2nd (or 3rd depending upon state definition) degree murder. Minimum distance with LTL beanbags is 15 feet.
Maybe Officer Craig Taylor was educating students four years ago on how to shoot senior citizens with a shotgun...
25 May 2009
School District 162 Education Trip
Officers Julius Moore and Craig Taylor escorted students from School District 162 for an overnight outdoor education trip at Northern Illinois University. They acted as both chaperones and mentors to the young students.
And all the cop is charged with is reckless conduct, sort of like forgetting to completely put out a campfire.
Oh wait. The cops said the old man brandished a cane, a knife, and a 2-foot-long metal shoehorn that they initially thought was a machete.
Maybe the old man hobbled towards them with a cane in one hand and the shoehorn in the other. And maybe he had the knife in his teeth, like a pirate.
So certainly there was no need to try to de-escalate the situation and just wait the old vet out.
Some residents there can be belligerent and the nurses tell me of a few who can hit sometimes, but all are frail and fragile, not one of sound mind nor body.
I can't imagine needing to use, let alone doing, that sort of violence to people in that condition.
How fearful and heartless. It's no wonder that type shoots dogs while doing the job they have no business doing.
I want to see this cop held to the same standard that anyone one else would be judged by.
The training works!
Don’t try this at home.
The poor, WWII 95 year-old veteran never stood a chance.
See the violent effect of a .12 ga bean bag round on a big fat cop wearing soft body armor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idXlzfPuyZM
Charges should be enhanced with the additional ‘Under color of Authority’. Police need to be held at a higher standard considering their training and status-—having privileges/responsibilities not afforded the ordinary citizen.
exactly! that is what my parents' doctor told us about our 90-year old father and 88-year old mother... both are pretty darn healthy... and stubborn!
The level of belligerence from cops lately is staggering. The “us” vs. “them” mentality is a plague upon most departments—especially in the cities and suburban counties.
We’re all suspects in their eyes these days.
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