Dept Says Cop Followed Procedure When He Mistook a 70-Yo Man’s Stroke for DUI and Beat Him

[Liberal_in_LA]

Police refuse to investigate an off-duty officer of using excessive force after mistaking an elderly stroke victim for a drunk driver. Immediately after throwing a 70-year-old man out of his truck, the cop restrained him on the ground by pressing his knee into a blocked artery on the side of the elderly man’s neck. Although he repeatedly informed the officer that he was suffering from a stroke, the enraged cop continued to manhandle him until other officers finally arrived.

While driving to Walmart around 6 p.m. on Sunday, 70-year-old James Miller began feeling dizzy and ill before veering off the road and accidentally hitting a house with his pick-up truck. Instead of correctly reading the situation, off-duty Columbia police Sgt. Scott Hedrick ran out of the house and immediately pulled Miller out of the vehicle. After slamming the elderly man to the ground, Hedrick pressed his knee into a blocked artery on the right side of Miller’s neck.

“He had my arm twisted behind my back. I said it was hurting and he said, ‘I’ll break your arm,’” Miller told FOX 4.


Although Miller repeatedly asked Sgt. Hedrick to remove his knee because Miller believed that he was having a stroke, the off-duty cop ignored his pleas and accused him of being drunk without even bothering to smell his breath. A Marshall police officer later arrived at the scene and found Hedrick restraining the compliant elderly man on the ground. After placing the 70-year-old in handcuffs, the officer gave Miller a sobriety test and verified he was sober.

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/dept-says-cop-followed-procedure-when-he-mistook-70-yo-mans-stroke-dui-and-beat-him

[msongs]

1. American ISIS protected by its union nt

[Ino]

2. I fear cops much more than criminals.

This poor man!

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. What is it about Missouri???? n/t

[jtuck004]

5. They just got theirs reported on. The occupying forces have terrorized much of the rest

of the citizenry into apparent quiet, hiding behind their backpacks and under desks.

[Jim__]

4. Police procedure is the problem.

If police procedure includes assaulting an elderly man having a stroke, then it's time to change police procedure.

[Ed Suspicious]

6. We need to change some fucking procedures.

[classykaren]

8. With all the commercials on TV regarding how to tell a stroke?

[Fumesucker]

9. I've never seen such a commercial or even heard of one

Bear in mind that not everyone is a big TV watcher.

Yes, procedures should change.

[Enthusiast]

7. The self righteous policeman was administering a little justice of his own

before due process was allowed to play out.

This is the problem with such cops. They have an exalted view of themselves. They believe they are the hero protecting society from these evils while administering a bit of punishment through harsh treatment. Judge, jury and executioner, if you will. This is where police training fails and fails utterly.

If nothing else the policeman should have considered the age of the suspect, drunk or not.

[bemildred]

10. So beating DUIs is the normal procedure? nt

[Monk06]

11. Cops have been given a license to kill and injure based on an unconstitutionally subjective standard

of fear of harm to themselves, which they determine and which cannot be questioned.

That is the opposite of the rule of law based on presumption of innocence.

In other words citizens can no longer expect protection from the police. The Police are a self contained and self interested criminal organization, no better than street gangs or the mob.

[bemildred]

12. They are venal gangs of thugs operating under color of law.

Fruits of the drug war and the terror war and the gutting of the 4th amendment. They view themselves as authority figures themselves, able to decide guilt and punishment on the spot, and to collect the "fines" immediately too.

And we babble on about other countries' corruption.

[Monk06]

13. Believe it or not we have the same problem in Canada. Not as pervasive but with similar results

We had two cops in Vancouver fired for body slamming a women who had muscular dystrophy and accidentally bumped into them.

On the other hand ten years ago a bunch of cops shot a guy to death in broad daylight because he had a knife and was waving it around. He was a schizophrenic patient off his meds and well known to police. He weighed less than 150 lbs and could have been restrained with a quick leg kick.

That brings me to a pet peeve. Cops claim that their jobs are dangerous but think they should be able to use their guns in order to dodge a punch or scuff their shoes. Hell now they think they should be able to shoot you for being rude to them.

Truth is without their guns anyone of average fitness could kick their cowardly asses. That's what they are really afraid of/

[bemildred]

14. I know, your current PM is a corporate tool.

But he still has a lot of work to do to make you as disfunctional as we are. My Dad was a Canadian war vet, from WWI, I used to go visit a lot, 35 years ago, and it was kind of awesome how well things were run up there, relatively speaking.

[Taitertots]

15. Then it's time for RICO charges against the entire department

Let's treat this type of organized crime the same way we treat other types of organized crime