As police arrest more seniors, those with dementia face deadly consequences

[Jilly_in_VA]

One night in October 2021, Armando Navejas wandered away from his home in El Paso, Texas. The 70-year-old had Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and his family said he could barely speak. Scared for his safety, his wife, Josephine, called 911 for help tracking him down.

By 2 a.m., Navejas was back in front of his house, shirtless and ambling around. According to a video from a neighbor’s home security camera, an officer approached, shining a flashlight in Navejas’ face. Navejas appeared agitated, picking up a string of wooden blocks and walking toward the cop, who retreated behind a parked car. Navejas threw the wood limply toward the officer; it landed on the windshield.

When Navejas turned away, the officer walked around the vehicle and fired a stun gun at Navejas’ back. His body went rigid. He fell face-first onto the sidewalk.

Navejas arrived in the emergency room that night with multiple facial fractures and bleeding around his brain, medical records show. He never came home. He died in a rehabilitation facility in March of unrelated natural causes, according to a death certificate.

The El Paso Police Department found the use of force was “reasonable and necessary,” a spokesperson said in an email. But Navejas’ daughter, Debbie Navejas Aguilar, is suing two officers and the city for the “extreme physical and psychological injury” to her father.

“They acted like he had a gun,” she said in an interview. “This is a 70-year-old man who is lost in his own head. I just don’t understand it.”

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2022/11/22/police-arrests-elderly-unique-risks-dementia-alzheimers/10455567002/

A string of blocks =/= a gun. WTF is wrong with cops these days when everything is a gun?

[3Hotdogs]

1. He probably resisted and reached for his waist band. Those are the usual excuses cops use for

killing somebody.


Also, when. cops are on patrol or called to a situation, are they told by dispatch that there is a person with mental issues? Or are they just told to go and respond to a complaint?

[inthewind21]

6. The

cops didn't kill him at all. The incident was in October, the man dies in March. It's right there in the article.

"One night in October 2021, Armando Navejas wandered away from his home in El Paso, Texas."

"He died in a rehabilitation facility in March of unrelated natural causes, according to a death certificate."

[onecaliberal]

2. When you're a hammer every problem looks like a nail.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Unreformable. Abolish it all.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

4. Fundamentally in my mind issue is the general premise cops operate under

Which is "I am The Police ... You are not. Ergo, my life is worth more than yours'.

It feels very much systemic, like it's not actually necessarily the current system, as a concept, it's more like a societal premise. Cops health and safety matter more than anyone else's, and that's what they're trained to believe, and that's how they act, in the vast majority of these tragedies and instances of brutality.

The problem is ... the kind of people who want to be cops ... want the job for precisely that reason. Nobody would take the job if the general premise was 'everyone out there has just as right to remain alive ... as you do, as a cop'.

I don't know what the answer is, it feels a bit intractable to me

[catchnrelease]

7. 'the kind of people who want to be cops'

Here's an example for you.... Just this morning I was getting my hair cut. The stylist and I were talking about the 6yr old that shot the teacher. He tells me this story about his daughter who was a middle school teacher---She was pregnant and one of the 6th grade boys says to her 'If you name your kid (blank), I'm going to stab you in your stomach.' So, the school authorities get involved and the kid's mother says 'I hope we can keep this off his record, he wants to be a policeman' !!! I said, well there you go, that's the kind of bully that wants to be a cop! Disgusting.



(His daughter ended up transferring to another grade and later to another school with the principal that wanted her skills in his new place)

[Phoenix61]

5. They get very, very little training in deescalation techniques.

The emphasis is on controlling people. That creates a feed back loop where people who like to control people are drawn to the profession. If they had to complete a year of deescalation training before they were issued a gun that type wouldn’t even apply.

[Rebl2]

8. I would

hope the police start to realize they are going to start having more of these incidents with so many baby boomers getting older and many more with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Some can be quite combative. My Mom could be this way, but she’s calmed down over the years.

[milestogo]

9. Diabetic ketoacidosis can make someone smell like they are drunk.

Throw them in a jail cell to dry out and they'll die.

Cops should know this. But sometimes their training doesn't stick.

[icymist]

10. Tasers are making the police soft.

Instead of attempting to physically restrain the elderly gentleman they use the 'go to' device first. Bet the officer didn't even work up a sweat. All my years of working as a caregiver makes me wonder why we call this action professional.

[GGoss]

11. Thank You For This