Cops - Justified force or Gestapo

[Country Boy]

Cut and Paste

Is there more to the story? The writer is definitely slanting this against police, that much is evident.

IF, this is how things actually happened, what should be down to the police involved?

Is there more to the story?

~Country Boy
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Even blind old ladies terrify the cops
Sunday, April 25, 2004
S he was 71 years old.

She was blind.

She needed her 94-year-old mother to come to her rescue.

And in the middle of the dogfight -- in which Eunice Crowder was pepper-sprayed, Tasered and knocked to the ground by Portland's courageous men in blue -- the poor woman's fake right eye popped out of its socket and was bouncing around in the dirt.

How vicious and ugly can the Portland police get? Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a winner. This 2003 case is so blatant, the use of force so excessive, the threat of liability so intimidating that the city just approved a $145,000 settlement.

But all those gung-ho fans of the cops can relax. Nothing has changed. Nothing will upset the status quo.

The cops aren't apologizing.

The cops aren't embarrassed.

The cops haven't been disciplined.

And the cops are still insisting, to the bitter end, that they "reasonably believed" this blind ol' bat was a threat to their safety and macho culture.

Eunice Crowder, you see, didn't follow orders. Eunice was uncooperative. Worried a city employee was hauling away a family heirloom, a 90-year-old red toy wagon, she had the nerve to feel her way toward the trailer in which her yard debris was being tossed.

Enter the police. Eunice, who is hard of hearing, ignored the calls of Officers Robert Miller and Eric Zajac to leave the trailer. When she tried, unsuccessfully, to bite the hands that were laid on her, she was knocked to the ground.

When she kicked out at the cops, she was pepper-sprayed in the face with such force that her prosthetic marble eye was dislodged. As she lay on her stomach, she was Tased four times with Zajac's electric stun gun.

And when Nellie Scott, Eunice's 94-year-old mother, tried to rinse out her daughter's eye with water from a two-quart Tupperware bowl, what does Miller do? According to Ernie Warren Jr., Eunice's lawyer, the cop pushed Nellie up against a fence and accused her of planning to use the water as a weapon.

Paranoia runs deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid . . .

Afraid and belligerent. "Cops have changed," Warren said. "When I grew up, they weren't people who huddled together and their only friends were the cops. You had access to them all the time. You weren't afraid of them."

What did Police Chief Derrick Foxworth have to say about the case? "This did not turn out the way we wanted it to turn out," Foxworth said Friday. "Looking back, and I know the officers feel this as well, they may have done something differently. We would have wanted the minimal amount of force to have been used. But I feel we need to recognize Ms. Crowder has some responsibility. She contributed to the situation."

Granted. But Eunice was 71. She was blind. That probably explains why a judge threw out all charges against her and why the city, in a stone-cold panic, settled ASAP.

"This was like fighting Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder," Warren said. "It wasn't a fair fight."

No, but it was another excuse to haul out the usual code words about the cops' "reasonable" belief that they were justified to use a "reasonable amount of force to defend themselves."

If you have a different definition of "reasonable," you just don't understand the Portland police. You need to remember the words of Robert King, head of the police union, defending Officer Jason Sery in the March shooting of James Jahar Perez:

"What sets us apart from people like most of you is that you'll never face a situation in your job where -- in less than 10 seconds -- the routine can turn to truly life-threatening," King wrote. "When that happens to us, when we have to make that ultimate split-second decision, we don't just ask for your understanding, we ask for your support."

She was 71 years old. She was blind. She was lucky, I guess, that these cops -- set apart from people like most of us -- didn't make the usual split-second decision and draw their guns.

Steve Duin: 503-221-8597; Steveduin@aol.com; 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201

[BenGarrett]

Justified force? I think so. Perhaps they didn't know she was blind? From this extremely biased story, I gather that the woman was fighting back, trying to bite, kicking. So they used pepper spray. They could've beaten the crap out of her, that would've been unjustified force. Sounds like, though, that they were going by the book. And being pepper sprayed with such force that someone's fake eyeball popped out?? Please. It might have popped out when she hit the ground, but I spent some time as a corrections officer and had to use pepper spray a few times and I can assure you that there isn't that much force behind a stream of pepper spray.

I find it amusing that so many people want to try to fight back against the police and then turn around and cry foul when they come out on the losing end.

[stork]

IF, this is how things actually happened, what should be down to the police involved?

They should be in prison.

But what ever happened to the wagon? That is probly worth a few bucks!

[Charlie P]

Tazer gun on a 71 yr. old woman?

Here is another account of the incident.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The city of Portland has agreed to pay $145,000 to an elderly blind woman after police pepper-sprayed and shocked her with a stun gun.

The altercation began as an attempt to remove shrubs and appliances from 71-year-old Eunice Crowder's yard, and ended with police citing her for harassment and disobeying an order.

This week, the city agreed to settle her excessive force lawsuit out of federal court, a month after a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge dismissed the violations against her.

"This case goes to show that police misconduct and excessive force can happen to anybody outside the mainstream," said Ernest Warren Jr., Crowder's lawyer. "It does not have to be an African American; it can be someone who is elderly and white."

The Portland City Council approved the settlement, based on a review by the city's risk management division that indicated "there is risk the City may be found liable."

The June 9, 2003, incident began when Ed Marihart, a city employee, showed up at Crowder's home. He served her with an administrative search warrant to remove an accumulation of trash and debris.

According to Crowder and her lawyer, the woman told him she was blind and hard of hearing, and asked him to read the entire warrant to her, but he refused. She said he placed it in her hands, walked outside and ordered others to start removing items from her yard.

The city denies that the woman asked Marihart to read the warrant and maintains that Marihart explained to her why he was there.

The woman followed the city employee outside. She was concerned that he and his co-workers had removed a family heirloom, a 90-year-old red toy wagon with rhododendrons in it. She asked to enter a trailer, where items from her yard were being placed, to feel around for the wagon.

Marihart told her she couldn't enter the trailer and said the wagon was not inside. He then called police.

When Portland Officers Robert Miller and Eric Zajac arrived at the house, Crowder acknowledged she had one foot on the curb and one foot on the bumper of the trailer. She felt someone step on her foot and asked, "Who are you?"

Moments later, she felt someone strike her in the head, which dislodged her prosthetic right eye from its socket, and was knocked to the ground, she claimed in her lawsuit.

Officers said Crowder ignored their commands not to climb into the trailer and tried to bite Miller's hand.

They acknowledged she was "pushed onto the dirt next to the sidewalk," according to the city's legal brief filed in court.

While on the ground, Crowder asked the officer what he thought he was doing and kicked Miller. She said the officer kicked her back, then pepper-sprayed her in her eyes.

"While she's still on the ground, on her stomach, they tased her in the back and in the breast," her lawyer said.

Police said they pepper-sprayed Crowder after she refused to stop kicking them. They admit that Crowder's prosthetic eye fell out at some point, and that Zajac stunned Crowder with a Taser, an electric stun gun, twice in the lower back and once in the upper back after ordering her to stop fighting and resisting.

Warren said the city's argument is bogus. He said, "To kick the crap out of old folks seems a little bit much to me in the name of law enforcement."

[etothepii]

I think cops hate resistance. Many, it seems from news articles, take it personally. So when someone...anyone... exhibits a resisting behavior which the cops' training has characterized as dangerous, regardless of other circumstances, the cops seem to react with "shock and awe."

I can hear a trainer now, "If the perp kicks, swings, bights...use pepper spray to ensure compliance..." It doesn't seem to matter who the "perp" is.

Now, don't take this as a broad characterization of all cops. I think and hope that most cops apply common sence in most situations. It just seems to fit the ones who beat old blind women, smash 15 year old kids' heads in, etc.

[JagMagMan]

It sounds like there is a lots of biased spin on this story! If it happened as reported, then they did use excessive force and need to be punished for their actions.
I will say that if someone is kicking and biting, some use of force or restraint is justified.

I do think that there are some bad apples in law enforcement, however, considering the job that they are called to do, it is not very wise to point anything at an officer, threaten them, or make any moves that might be considered evasive or threatening!
That goes whether you are black, white, young, or old! If there is a mistake, hopefully it can be corrected, but you will be better off in the long run, than if you resist and get the crap beat out of you, or worse, get yourself shot!