Police were caught on surveillance camera dragging an elderly, disabled man from his home and then beating him with a baton, taunting him, and covering his face with pepper spray.
The post Video Catches Cops Drag Innocent Disabled Man From Home, Torture Him in His Front Yard appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
One might think the police would never manhandle, handcuff, and cite a 91-year-old man for anything—but that would be a fairy tale. In the real world, policing for profit, as some have called it, will stop at nothing to bring in revenue, even when it comes from citing a 91-year-old man for walking with a walking stick.
Otha Thurmond, 91, of Memphis, Tennessee, will finally find his way to criminal court after spending his whole life as a law-abiding citizen. According to Thurmond, he has never been in jail a day in his life. Neighbors agree. And they are up in arms with the treatment they witnessed Thurmond receive when he encountered police on his Memphis sidewalk.
Police say they felt threatened by the elderly man when they claim he waved a stick at them. They also say he tried to intervene in a separate domestic dispute. But neighbors disagree. Niesha Lowe WREG News that Thurmond responded when asked by police why he had a stick, saying, “I’m old. I need this stick.”
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Lowe said police “grabbed him, slammed him on the car (police), put his arm way all the way up here to the back of his back” indicating the arm bar into which they placed the 91-year-old. The arm bar alone could have easily dislocated his shoulder, broken his presumably brittle bones, or caused him to fall and break his hip—an injury which can be terminal to the elderly.
Carl Randolph concurred with Lowe. “He never raised his stick, though, in a threatening manner,” he told WREG. He said the police officer, “roughed him (Thurmond) up, and threw him on the car as if he was some young thug.” A third witness, Barbara Denton, agreed with both Randolph and Lowe. She said they had Thurmond bent over the car, in handcuffs.
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While it is true that nearly anyone from a child to a 100-year-old can pull a trigger, it is incredulous to us at TFTP that a Memphis police officer is so afraid of a frail 91-year-old that he has to detain the man in handcuffs. Worse still are the reports he gave no consideration to the man’s health or potential injuries he could sustain from simple routine police techniques.
The Memphis Police Department said they will not release the body cam footage until their own internal investigation takes place. As is typical, departments will investigate themselves and, more often than not, arrive at the conclusion that everything which took place was according to departmental policy. With respect to Thurmond’s case, there were more than three witnesses who saw what the unnamed officer did, and they’ are enraged, as they should be. Shame should be the likely result for a department which treats its elderly the exact same way they do a common street thug.
As TFTP has reported on numerous occasions, many times policemen are on a quota system requiring them to have a certain amount of contacts with the public—write a set number of citations—all in an effort to boost the revenue at the department. We cannot presume to know if the interaction with Thurmond was just such an example of policing for profit or not. What we can tell you is that Mr. Thurmond not only declared he’s “never been in jail” but that he’s “never paid a traffic citation” either.
Now, Thurmond has to go to court over charges of “misdemeanor disorderly conduct.” We hope he takes his stick with him.
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White Plains, NY – Critics are saying police have reached a new behavioral low with the way they dealt with a 72-year-old man who is now suing the White Plains Police Department for unnecessary and excessive force, and has the injuries to prove it.
Charles Pateman was trying to intervene in a domestic dispute between his fiance’ and her daughter. The residential surveillance camera shows the elderly man attempting to get into the elevator to go up to his apartment when police grabbed the well-known businessman and developer, slamming him into the wall and then the floor. After several moments of rough handling, they then placed him in handcuffs.
The officers involved demanded Pateman “stand up or we’ll drag you out,” a command which arguably could be difficult for a person over the age of 70 to comply with.
After he got to his feet, and was taken to the squad car, Mr. Pateman asked the arresting officer to loosen his handcuffs. The reasonable request was answered rather sarcastically as the officer replied, “they’re not built for comfort, sir.”
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Even though Pateman politely asked repeatedly for the officers to loosen his cuffs, they refused. The mild-mannered businessman was reportedly respectful throughout the arrest but even asking nicely wasn’t enough to get the officers to release the compression on the cuffs.
As a result, the elderly man’s wrists began to bleed, saturating his clothes with blood, his lawyer said recounting the arrest. Randolph McLaughlin Esq. of Newman Ferrara LLP is representing Pateman in a federal civil rights lawsuit against the police department and the city. He addressed reporters saying:
“The officers viciously and brutally slammed him against the wall and then handcuffed him in such a tight fashion that when you see the video, you’ll see pools of blood dripping around his hands. His clothes were filled with blood.”
McLaughlin criticized the officers’ handling of his client. “They were cavalier. They were brutal and they were indifferent to this man’s medical needs,” he charged.
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“Twelve times throughout the incident, I asked them to loosen the cuffs,” Pateman said. “I could feel the blood running down my hands. It was unbelievable to me.”
Pateman also said he had to wait several hours before receiving medical attention, and he defended his actions on that fateful night. He said:
“I’m 72, two officers with guns? I’m a threat to them? Please! You know…just unbelievable…I’m a very respectful man, have been my entire life…I’ve been a supporter of police my entire life and never had any problems whatsoever…Born and raised in Westchester County.”
Pateman said he fears that if he doesn’t speak up and speak out the police will continue hurting the elderly. “If this could happen to me it could happen to anyone and obviously the White Plains police are not trained appropriately or this would not happen,” he said.
The well-known real estate developer described how traumatic his rough handling and injuries have been to his emotional state of mind. “This has been a very traumatic event in my life, something I could not believe could happen,” he said.
As The Free Thought Project has reported, interactions with the elderly must be taken very seriously. Senior citizens are even more susceptible to suffering from both fractures and broken bones—injuries that could greatly impact their quality of life.
A California woman suffered a broken hip when a police officer ignored her demands for a search warrant before forcibly entering her home and knocking the woman to the floor. The injury led to her physical demise. Even though she won a nearly million-dollar lawsuit—paid for by taxpayers—she died before she was ever able to spend a dime.
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Predictably, the White Plains leadership, instead of issuing an apology, vowed to vehemently defend the charges of police brutality. Karen Pasquale, Senior Advisor to the White Plains Mayor, issued the following statement:
“In matters of litigation it is our policy to not comment while litigation is pending. We have not yet received the papers in the lawsuit, but we are aware of the case and intend to vigorously defend it in court.”
An apology could possibly avoid litigation and a costly settlement with the city that will potentially cost taxpayers millions. But that will probably never happen, leaving many scratching their heads in disbelief as it remains to be seen whether the officers who arrested Charles Pateman will be held accountable for their actions.
Modesto, CA — He could have called a female officer to speak with the elderly woman. He could have asked to speak with her over a cup of coffee. He could even have taken a walk to think about his next move. But, instead, Modesto officer John C. Lee pushed 67-year-old Patricia Mugraue to the floor, breaking her hip.
The incident happened in January of 2015 when police were called to Mugraue’s home by a tenant who said her landlord would not let her into the home to retrieve her belongings.
The elderly Mugraue, who spent her working years in the Hershey chocolate factory, suffered from osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis. She told Lee she was “sick” when he asked her how she was doing.
Mugruaue proceeded to explain to Lee why she wouldn’t let the woman into her home. She said she felt like the right thing to do would be for the officer to go to the man’s place of work, just around the corner, and ask him to come home, so he could be there while the woman retrieved her belongings from the room they were renting together.
Lee insisted, even though he isn’t a lawyer, the woman had the legal right to enter the home and retrieve her belongings. But lawyers who spoke with the Sacramento Bee disagree. The SACBEE wrote:
In this instance, Mugrauer’s property rights were greater than the young woman’s, said Raquel Aldana, a professor and associate dean for faculty scholarship at the McGeorge School of Law. “This is a close case, but the entry is likely illegal,” she said in an email. “… The issue is not whether the tenant has a right to her property but under what circumstances she can have access.
Seems reasonable enough right? Get the man, let the woman in, wait while she gets her things, and then let the man go back to his place of work. After all, it was Mugraue’s home, a fact which she conveyed to Lee, and insisted he should have a warrant before he or the woman be allowed to enter.
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Not getting anywhere with the elderly woman, Lee then seemed to snap, threw open the door with his left arm, and pushed down the frail, elderly woman with his right arm, her head slamming to the ground.
The fall took its toll on Mugraue, who had to be hospitalized, undergone several surgeries, and eventually decided to sue. She won her case in January of this year, settling with the City of Modesto for $750,000, but she never saw a penny of the funds. Patricia Mugraue died a week after the settlement at the age of 69.
Her sister LeAnne Stoops says being pushed by Lee, a fall which broke her hip, was what sent her on the steep hill of decline to her death. “She never fully recovered,” Stoops said. “I think this is what helped her pass. It was like a domino effect when she got injured from the officer.”
Stoops relayed her grief saying, “I’m brokenhearted…I’m sick to my stomach because she was getting her food from the food banks. She was getting her clothes from the clothes closet. She was so excited, (saying) ‘I think I’m going to get some money.’ The first thing she was going to do was buy some new clothes. And she never had a chance. It’s incredibly sad.”
Mugraue was not at fault, according to lawyers who spoke with SACBEE. The newspaper wrote:
UC Davis School of Law professor Floyd Feeney – who reviewed the body camera footage at The Bee’s request – said the officers should not have entered the home unless they had a warrant or there was an emergency. He said Patricia Mugrauer was calm and reasonable and simply setting the circumstances under which the young woman could retrieve her belongings. But it would not have mattered if she had been rude and slammed the door on the officers.
Officer Lee is still on the Modesto police force, and was not arrested for assaulting the elderly woman. In fact, not only did Lee push a woman down, causing her to break her hip, an injury her family says ultimately led to her death, he arrested her son, Wade Mugraue, even putting a gun/taser to his head during the arrest.
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Wade Mugraue has not settled with Modesto and is still pursuing a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and Lee for illegally arresting him, and violating his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights in the process. As one headline put it, “One Push, One Million Dollar Settlement”. But it should probably read, “Cop’s Actions Leads To Elderly Woman’s Death.”
