Cop Tickets Man in Wheelchair for Not Crossing Street Fast Enough—After an SUV Ran Over Him

Denver, CO — A police officer in downtown Denver — who apparently has no idea what an officer’s discretion means — cited a man for not crossing the street fast enough in a wheelchair. The disabled man is now fighting back.

Kyle Wolfe was legally crossing 19th Street in downtown Denver last month when he says the light changed before he could make it across. Just five feet from the sidewalk, Wolfe was then run over by an SUV.

Wolfe — who was injured during the accident and whose wheelchair was now totaled — was then issued a citation by a Denver police officer for disobeying a traffic signal.

But Wolfe says he didn’t disobey anything, and he simply ran out of time.

“I was very shocked that a pedestrian that has the right of way got a ticket,” Wolfe said.

How, exactly, the driver of the SUV didn’t see a man in a wheelchair as they accelerated from the intersection, remains a mystery.

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As FOX 31 reported, Wolfe said it takes him more time to cross because he’s in a wheelchair. Plus, that day, he was carrying stuff in his lap and it kept slipping as he crossed the street.

“When you are moving, everything is falling. I need to pick it up. People don’t want to stop,” Wolfe said.

The city of Denver follows federal guidelines for timing crosswalks, which is 3.5 feet per second. The street that Wolfe was crossing only allotted the man 20 seconds to cross — a time, which he says, was not long enough.

“That is not fast enough for a handicapped person to get across a cross walk,” Wolfe said.

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When asked about the ticket by FOX 31, a Denver police spokesman said that Wolfe will have his opportunity to fight the ticket in court.

As Wolfe prepares to battle the Denver police in court, police across the country have been showing those in wheelchairs no mercy.

Earlier this year, the Free Thought Project reported that the police corporals of the Wilmington Police Department who fatally shot an already-wounded, wheelchair-bound African-American man, Jeremy McDole, in September 2015 will not be charged with any crime.

In spite of the killing being caught on video, none of the officers involved received any punishment.

As the Free Thought Project reported last month, police in Stayton, OR are under fire for what some have said is an insensitive and heartless arrest, after a video emerged showing their officers forcing a disabled man out of his car and aggressively shoving him face down on the ground.

In that instance, police claimed their officers were entirely justified when they attacked Robert Twede, who requires a wheelchair to move around.

Before Tweed, however, TFTP brought you the dramatic video of a Columbus cop allegedly dumping a woman out of her wheelchair, then turn around and walk away.

The incident reportedly happened at the Huntington Bank building at Senator Rob Portman’s office during a health care protest last month.

Approximately 15 people were arrested during the protests while many others were physically removed.

Several videos were posted to Facebook of police forcefully removing protesters from the office — many of whom were in wheelchairs. However, the video of the officer dumping the woman on the ground is by far the most disturbing.

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In the land of the free, being in a wheelchair is no defense from some cops, who seemingly couldn’t care less about individuals with special needs.

Burglars Tried To Rob Woman In Wheelchair. But She Had A Gun.

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Two burglars were no match for an elderly Cleveland woman in a wheelchair and her gun.

“I put the gun up to the window of the door and I yelled, ‘Get off my property,"” Melinda Vandal said she told the two men.

One man was trying to come into her door and the other was cutting the screen on a window of her garage on July 10, she said.

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One of the men apparently dropped a knife and they ran off when they saw Vandal toting the gun.

“It was last Monday morning around 10:30,” Vandal told Fox 8. “I looked at the door and there was a man, right there, right outside looking like he was going for my door.”

Police are looking into the incident but have made no arrests.

“It’s hard for me to relax or sleep because I keep seeing his face,” Vandal said.

She is now keeping her doors locked and her gun close.

“It never used to be like this around here,” Vandal said, noting she has lived in her home for more than 20 years. “I don’t want to ever hurt anyone, but I feel like I need to protect myself.”

What is your reaction? Share your thoughts in the section below:

Man In Wheelchair Shot Burglar. DA Considered Prosecuting Him.

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A district attorney considered prosecuting a disabled man in a wheelchair for shooting a burglar who allegedly tried to steal his prescription medications.

Disturbingly, 69-year-old Harvey Lembo had to wait almost two years to find out if he would face charges for shooting the burglar, Christopher Wildhaber.

“Mr. Lembo is disabled and uses a wheelchair,” District Attorney Johnathan Liberman said in a press release. “His home had been burglarized on several occasions, and he had purchased the firearm in question in response to these burglaries.

“This shooting occurred when Mr. Lembo interrupted a burglary of his home,” Liberman added. “The standard of proof in criminal cases is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and I do not believe that we could meet this burden given these factors.”

You Don’t Need A Firearms License For This Weapon!

Lembo bought an antique Russian army revolver in 2015 because he was frustrated with break-ins at his Rockland, Maine, home, The Portland Press Herald reported. Less than 24 hours later, Wildhaber broke into Lembo’s apartment and allegedly tried to steal his prescription drugs. That prompted the retired lobster fisherman to put a 7mm slug into Wildhaber’s shoulder.

He claims it was the fifth burglary at his apartment in six years.

“Mr. Lembo never felt he did anything wrong defending himself. He is grateful that District Attorney Liberman came to the same conclusion,” Attorney David Weyrens, who represented Lembo, told the newspaper.

Wildhaber pled guilty to the burglary and received a four-year sentence in 2016, The Press Herald reported. Despite the plea, then-District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau kept the possibility of charges against Lembo open; in May of this year he resigned to accept a district court judge’s seat.

Lembo’s landlord, Stanford Management LLC, tried to evict him for his taxpayer-subsidized apartment because he owned a gun, The Press Herald reported.

Lembo’s case prompted Maine’s state legislature to pass and the governor to sign a law that would prohibit landlords who receive public housing vouchers from kicking out tenants for owning guns.

What is your reaction? Would you have prosecuted Lembo? Share your thoughts in the section below:

Cops Kill Paralyzed Man in a Wheelchair On Video — No Charges

Wilmington, DE — (RT) Police corporals of the Wilmington Police Department who fatally shot an already-wounded, wheelchair-bound African-American man in September 2015 will not be charged with violating the man’s civil rights, federal prosecutors with the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware have announced.

On Friday, federal officials with the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, the FBI, and the US Justice Department’s civil rights division told the family of Jeremy McDole, the man killed by Wilmington police, that evidence does not indicate the officers willfully used excessive force in shooting McDole.

“The Justice Department announced today that there is insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against the Wilmington Police Department (WPD) Corporals involved in the fatal shooting of 28-year-old paraplegic Jeremy McDole on Sept. 23, 2015,” the US attorney’s office said in a release, according to the News Journal.

The encounter between police and McDole, 28, was caught on cellphone video by a witness, eliciting outrage in Wilmington and beyond. Police arrived on the scene after a 911 call claiming an African-American man in a wheelchair was suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In a lawsuit filed against the city of Wilmington, McDole’s family said that McDole was robbed of his wallet and then shot, and that the thief or an accomplice called police claiming a self-inflicted gunshot was to blame for McDole’s condition.

Three white police officers and one Hispanic officer — Senior Cpl. Joseph Dellose, Senior Cpl. Danny Silva, Cpl. Thomas Lynch and Cpl. James MacColl — approached McDole; one officer pointed a shotgun or rifle at him, yelling at McDole to “drop the gun” and to put his “hands up.” The video shows McDole rubbing his knees with both hands.

As McDole moved his hand toward his waist, Dellose shot him several times, as McDole fell sideways to the ground. Dellose had fired about two seconds after first calling on McDole to put his hands up, according to a report by the state attorney general, creating confusion among other officers.

The office of Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn eventually cleared the officers in the shooting, but said Dellose exhibited “extraordinarily poor police work” during the encounter with McDole. The office recommended Dellose should no longer be employed by Wilmington police in a role that requires carrying a firearm in public.

Federal prosecutors decided against filing a felony assault charge against Dellose, according to The News Journal, given state law allows law enforcement officers to use deadly force if they believe they are endangered in a given situation.

McDole, who had a lengthy criminal record and was paralyzed during a 2005 shooting, was found to have a .38 caliber revolver on him during the incident, according to the investigation, with his DNA on the gun and both spent casings and live rounds in his underwear. The investigation of the shooting found gunshot residue on McDole’s right hand and clothing, the US attorney’s office said Friday. No weapon is visible in the witness video.

Toxicology tests found evidence of PCP in McDole’s bloodstream, according to the state law enforcement’s investigation, which also determined that the gun found on McDole was reported stolen. The state attorney general’s report cited an unnamed person who said that on the morning of the shooting, he had wheeled McDole to a section of Wilmington where he could get a gun and cigarettes laced with PCP.

Last month, the city of Wilmington agreed to settle the family’s lawsuit for $1.5 million. A federal judge is scheduled to decide whether to approve the settlement next week, according to reports. The settlement would demand the Wilmington Police Department reconsider its use-of-force policies and to train its officer in deescalation tactics, especially when confronting physically or mentally disabled persons, the News Journal reported.

McDole’s family had argued that the officers never identified themselves, nor did they attempt to use non-lethal means on McDole.

“They said they left no stone unturned…. There simply wasn’t enough evidence there to sustain a criminal charge,” said family attorney Thomas Neuberger, according to AP. He added that the family is “very disappointed” by the decision.

In March, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that federal prosecutors chose not to bring charges against officers alleged to have committed civil rights violations in 96 percent of cases form 1995 to 2015, mostly based on reasons that included weak or insufficient evidence, a lack of clear intent to infringe on another person’s civil rights, and discouragement from the Department of Justice.