http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xW_-bSxTyI&feature=grec_index

Was it really needed? Are trained police officers not able to subdue an 87 year old lady with Alzheimers in any other way?

What is the world coming to?

The real question is why was this old ass lady out of the kitchen? I bet she can make a mean sammich!

Definitely out of line.

stfu, the officers did nothing wrong!!

http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2009/aug/03/expert_police_handled_knife-wielding_grandma_corre-ar-15643/

WHITEHALL, Ohio -- An elderly woman with a weapon was taken to the ground by a Whitehall officer, and witnesses questioned the force used.

NBC 4’s Mike Bowersock got right to the point with a balanced report.

Virginia Dotson was wandering the Walmart parking lot at 3657 E. Main St. Saturday evening with a steak knife. She was telling strangers she would cut them and already had cut herself.

Whitehall officers were called to the scene, but some witnesses said officers used too much force in subduing the woman.

Dotson’s daughter said Dotson found a steak knife in the vehicle, cut herself out of her seat belt and took the knife with her while searching for her daughter.

“There was some kids out there talking to this old lady, and they said something about the old lady hitting them or something,” Stan Brown said.

Brown shot the incident on his cell phone.

Another witness called 911.

Whitehall officer Tammy Scott was the first out of the cruiser.

“She didn't even ask her to drop the knife. The woman told her when the cop came charging at her. She said, ‘I'm not going to cut you. I'm not going to cut you. She was just calling her daughter's name out,’ ” witness Tomya Beatty said.

The video told a different story, though: “Ma'am: Can you put the knife down? Put the knife down for me,” Scott said.

A crowd started to gather, and the two officers called for backup.

“There was about to be a riot in front of Walmart yesterday,” Beatty said.

“I believe it could have been taken care of a lot easier than that. I kind of think that was too much force with her being that old," Brown said.

“It's not pretty, but when we're looking at what could ultimately happen in that situation, the age can't really be a big factor. It's a public relations nightmare in some ways, but the officer did what she had to do,” Dr. Richard Weinblatt said.

Weinblatt is the director of the Institute for Public Safety at the Central Ohio Technical College in Licking County and often is quoted on police-force affairs.

He said with what the officers knew at that second, they had to do something.

Dotson, who is believed to be 84 years old, was treated and released from Mount Carmel Medical Center for the head injuries she received when she was taken to the ground.

Dotson’s daughter said her mother needed stitches to close the wounds and her hand may have been broken.

Dotson's daughter said she left her mother in the vehicle while she ran into Walmart for a purchase necessary in the move she was making with her mother. She said she was not concerned because she wouldn't be gone long and her mother doesn't know how to open seat belts.

Dotson has not been charged with any crime.

Click here to watch Brown's video on YouTube. It does contain profanity.

imex99;463470 wrote:stfo, the officers did nothing wrong!!

http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2009/aug/03/expert_police_handled_knife-wielding_grandma_corre-ar-15643/

WHITEHALL, Ohio -- An elderly woman with a weapon was taken to the ground by a Whitehall officer, and witnesses questioned the force used.

NBC 4’s Mike Bowersock got right to the point with a balanced report.

Virginia Dotson was wandering the Walmart parking lot at 3657 E. Main St. Saturday evening with a steak knife. She was telling strangers she would cut them and already had cut herself.

Whitehall officers were called to the scene, but some witnesses said officers used too much force in subduing the woman.

Dotson’s daughter said Dotson found a steak knife in the vehicle, cut herself out of her seat belt and took the knife with her while searching for her daughter.

“There was some kids out there talking to this old lady, and they said something about the old lady hitting them or something,” Stan Brown said.

Brown shot the incident on his cell phone.

Another witness called 911.

Whitehall officer Tammy Scott was the first out of the cruiser.

“She didn't even ask her to drop the knife. The woman told her when the cop came charging at her. She said, ‘I'm not going to cut you. I'm not going to cut you. She was just calling her daughter's name out,’ ” witness Tomya Beatty said.

The video told a different story, though: “Ma'am: Can you put the knife down? Put the knife down for me,” Scott said.

A crowd started to gather, and the two officers called for backup.

“There was about to be a riot in front of Walmart yesterday,” Beatty said.

“I believe it could have been taken care of a lot easier than that. I kind of think that was too much force with her being that old," Brown said.

“It's not pretty, but when we're looking at what could ultimately happen in that situation, the age can't really be a big factor. It's a public relations nightmare in some ways, but the officer did what she had to do,” Dr. Richard Weinblatt said.

Weinblatt is the director of the Institute for Public Safety at the Central Ohio Technical College in Licking County and often is quoted on police-force affairs.

He said with what the officers knew at that second, they had to do something.

Dotson, who is believed to be 84 years old, was treated and released from Mount Carmel Medical Center for the head injuries she received when she was taken to the ground.

Dotson’s daughter said her mother needed stitches to close the wounds and her hand may have been broken.

Dotson's daughter said she left her mother in the vehicle while she ran into Walmart for a purchase necessary in the move she was making with her mother. She said she was not concerned because she wouldn't be gone long and her mother doesn't know how to open seat belts.

Dotson has not been charged with any crime.

Click here to watch Brown's video on YouTube. It does contain profanity.

100% agree! Let me ask you cop haters this; just because the lady is old does that make her not able to harm or kill someone with that knife? The officer repeatedly asked her to drop the knife she didn't so the officer made sure she did. Then like typical thugs who want to slam the police they all start to rush in escalating the situation far beyond needed!!

regardless of age, if a policeman asks you to put down your weapon, you do it or face the consequences.

This is definitely in a grey area for me though, assuming she really had alzheimers and wasn't 100% mentally sound.

not excessive at all.. and i thought the female officer did a great job once the old lady was down attending to her... the move she used to put her on the ground was use with very little force and was "soft" as compared to what it can be... i just love how people that were around say that the police didn't "She didn't even ask her to drop the knife." when the video clearly shows the cop did... people are stupid...

The OP is a cop hater. I remember his vile from other posts and possibly the other site.

People like him crack me up because he would also be one of the first to complain if that 87 year old would have shot some innocent bystander.

The officers did absolutely nothing wrong. Good for them.

OMG THOSE COPS ARE SUCH BUTTHEADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cop did nothing wrong in this situation. This is coming from someone who has been dropped on their face by the cops for no reason so I'm not one to generally defend cops.

Torn on this one. Lady should definitely not be left in vehicals alone if she is in the later stages of alzheimers for one.

Secondly, while I recognize that a knife in an elderly woman's hand can still cut and harm someone I doubt she was a real threat to anything that could move. I would have rather seen the officer(s) simply knock the knife out of her hand than throw her to the ground. However perhaps they felt that it was the best option in the situation.

Bad situation all around. This is a case where I think perhaps it could have been dealt with better by the cops (but I wasn't there and we'll never know so...) but there wasn't any malice that I saw.

As far as the people goes, if they saw the whole thing then they should have just gone on their way. However, I can see how it would seem like a horrible injustice if you started looking just as the officer slammed an old lady on the pavement.

j_crazy;463503 wrote:regardless of age, if a policeman asks you to put down your weapon, you do it or face the consequences.

This is definitely in a grey area for me though, assuming she really had alzheimers and wasn't 100% mentally sound.

I agree with that last statement to an extent. But at that moment, the officer had no idea that the woman had alzheimers. She had to simply react to a person with a knife that wasn't listening when told to put it down.

I don't always stick up for cops. But I'm on their side with this one.

Cops are Idiots..

That easily could have and should have been handled with much less force, but I think the big point that needs to be made is why in the hell was an 84 woman with full blown dementia left alone in a car with a knife???

The fact that she isn't mentally sound and has a knife on top of it? I would have thrown the crazy ass lady down harder than that. And the people in the video annoyed the living shit out of me. I'm more upset about the dropping IQ level in Columbus. Christ it was like a Tyler Perry movie in real life.

Being old doesn't give you the right to carry a knife around a parking lot lol. The people who blindly hate authority figures are amusing. I hope an old ass lady stabs you someday.

The people who blindly defend authority figures are just as bad or worse as the people that blindly hate them. And you're worse for hoping people get stabbed.

However the cops were fine in this situation.

Cops should have also arrested the thugs talking shit for interfering with an investigation. Inciting a riot yelling 'slam me like that' over and over in a cop's face. Filing a false report for the racist liar bitch claiming the cop never asked the woman to put the knife down. How did the narrator already know she was 87 ? He already knew her ? Why didn't he help instead of turning on his camera for what might happen, then the cops pull up. Like Dr. Weinblatt said, the cops are 'damned if you do, damned if you don't.'

Fuck the police. Seriously.

But that was bad at all. Crazy lady with a weapon.

Good to see them busting actual crime for a change.

Little Danny, you are full of complete shit. Im not a cop hater at all. Stop making shit up.

That situation couldve been handled much better than that. If you need to resort to that much force to subdue an 87 year old lady with Alzheimers than I have to question the training cops are given.

No one is defending the old lady, but if she had Alzheimers SHE didnt even know what she was doing.

Bottom line is that the situation couldve been handled differently. Im sure trained cops can subdue an old ass lady without slamming her on the ground.

Get real people.

There is nothing wrong with what the cops did there. The lady had a knife, was asked to drop it. She didn't. The cops job is to disarm the individual while minimizing the risk for harm to the cop and other bystanders... I say mission accomplished.

Everyone keeps saying she was an old lady with a knife, who was she going to hurt... It doesn't take much to hurt someone with a knife.

Kudos to the cops.

This is a poor attempt for the race card by the person shooting the video and the person saying slam me to the ground like that. Seriously, she had a knife who cares how old she was. 100% on the cops side here.

This is a situation where I chalk it up to "shit happens"

There was an old lady where she didn't know what she was doing but the cop obviously had to make a decision. There are things in society you can and can't do and walking around threatening people with a knife is one of them. It was just an unfortunate situation all around but I think the cop made the right decision. The only reason the crowd in Whitehall was so pissed is because, odds are they have probably been arrested before.

Where was race brought up? I dont recall. But either way thats irrelvant.

No one is saying the cops shouldve just let her go on her way wielding a knife, people are are upset at the excessive force used.

I really am amazed at some of the things I see posted on this site sometimes.