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Stein
Stranger
Registered: 07/02/03
Posts: 35,129
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I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking insane.
#2603659 - 04/26/04 03:15 AM (19 years, 11 months ago) |
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Source
Quote:
Steve Duin
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
I hate to fuel the cop hating hippy fire, but man this incident went way too far.
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Ekstaza
stranger than most
Registered: 04/10/03
Posts: 4,324
Loc: Around the corner
Last seen: 11 months, 21 days
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking insane. [Re: Stein]
#2605089 - 04/26/04 02:46 PM (19 years, 11 months ago) |
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What Jackasses!!! Those two piss ants should be flogged.
-------------------- YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH ANY GIVEN DRUG ISN'T THE DEFINITIVE MEASURE OF THE DRUGS EFFECTS.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 34,184
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 9 hours, 48 minutes
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking ins [Re: Stein]
#2605245 - 04/26/04 03:28 PM (19 years, 11 months ago) |
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God I wish someone had caught that on tape.
-------------------- -------------------------------- Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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d33p
Welcome to Violence
Registered: 07/12/03
Posts: 5,381
Loc: the shores of Tripoli
Last seen: 10 years, 10 months
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking ins [Re: Learyfan]
#2605255 - 04/26/04 03:30 PM (19 years, 11 months ago) |
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Still shes a dumb ass for biting and kicking back. Shes blind and 71 did she expect to fight them off. If they were criminals they would have killed the bitch. She lucked out.
-------------------- I'm a nihilist. Lets be friends. bang bang
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 34,184
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 9 hours, 48 minutes
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking ins [Re: d33p]
#2605307 - 04/26/04 03:44 PM (19 years, 11 months ago) |
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You condone these actions by the police.
-------------------- -------------------------------- Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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germin8tionn8ion
enthusiast
Registered: 04/14/04
Posts: 399
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking ins [Re: Learyfan]
#2605339 - 04/26/04 03:51 PM (19 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Learyfan said: You condone these actions by the police.
Quote:
This like many other issues, isn't one that you are automatically on the "wrong side" for offering a contradicting opinion. The cops over-reacted. However, on their side, they were dealing with a person who wasn't answering them, and who bit one of them. Now, does that necessitate a 'take down' involving tasers and pepper spray? Most likely not. But defending the cops or in this case, not making them sound like depraved scum who get their kicks from beating old ladies, doesn't mean that you support their actions. I don't think that they did the wrong thing, necessarily, given what information they had.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 34,184
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 9 hours, 48 minutes
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking ins [Re: germin8tionn8ion]
#2605447 - 04/26/04 04:15 PM (19 years, 11 months ago) |
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IT'S A 91 YEAR OLD LADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-------------------- -------------------------------- Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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Divided_Sky
Ten ThousandThings
Registered: 11/02/03
Posts: 3,171
Loc: The Shining Void
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking ins [Re: germin8tionn8ion]
#2605481 - 04/26/04 04:20 PM (19 years, 11 months ago) |
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That is pretty messed up. Seems like cops have no sense of responsiblity or competency. To them it is more important that ten innocent people goe to jail than one guilty one is free. Seems their strategy is to assualt arrest anyone even potentially threatening and let the legal system sort it out. Not long ago I got thrown in jail for DWI while completely sober because the cops thought my eyes were funny and i was talking too slowly. I'm surprised that the Portland police did this because Portland has a reputation for being a pretty tolerant city were the cops aren't a problem. I guess even places like that have some fucked up officers. And yet, that lady seems pretty damn retarded. What would you do if an old lady starting biting your hand? I almost don't have sympathy for her but sometimes old people can't help being that stupid.
-------------------- 1. "After an hour I wasn't feeling anything so I decided to take another..." 2. "We were feeling pretty good so we decided to smoke a few bowls..." 3. "I had to be real quiet because my parents were asleep upstairs..."
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phi1618
old hand
Registered: 02/14/04
Posts: 4,102
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking ins [Re: Stein]
#2606146 - 04/27/04 11:35 AM (19 years, 10 months ago) |
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bump
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Baby_Hitler
Errorist
Registered: 03/06/02
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Loc: To the limit!
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking ins [Re: Divided_Sky]
#2606203 - 04/27/04 11:56 AM (19 years, 10 months ago) |
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It's my guess that she probably wasn't entirely in her right mind (senility/alzheimers).
-------------------- "America: Fuck yeah!" -- Alexthegreat “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.” -- Thomas Jefferson The greatest sin of mankind is ignorance. The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. --Salena Zeto (9/23/16)
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MOTH
Wild Woman
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 23,431
Loc: In the jungle
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking insane. [Re: Stein]
#2606690 - 04/27/04 01:47 PM (19 years, 10 months ago) |
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Poor lady.
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BleaK
paradox
Registered: 06/23/02
Posts: 1,583
Last seen: 10 years, 3 months
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking insane. [Re: MOTH]
#2607197 - 04/27/04 03:51 PM (19 years, 10 months ago) |
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power doesnt corrupt, those that are corrupt, seek power, fucking pigs.
-------------------- "You cannot trust in law, unless you can trust in people. If you can trust in people, you don't need law." -J. Mumma
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d33p
Welcome to Violence
Registered: 07/12/03
Posts: 5,381
Loc: the shores of Tripoli
Last seen: 10 years, 10 months
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Re: I don't mind cops and all, but this story is fucking insane. [Re: BleaK]
#2607334 - 04/27/04 04:30 PM (19 years, 10 months ago) |
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Regaurdless the author is overly biased and im thinking a portion of it is a hyperbole.
Such as how it claims the pepper spray was fired with such force it knocked out her false eye. Now pepper spray, sprays a mist so thats wrong. Some do shoot streams but they fire forward leaving me wondering how it then falls out forward if its being pushed forward.
Also the article portrayed it as if it all happened in a short crazed frenzy with the cops failing their arms. If you've ever seen cops operate they go slow and ask you nicely to calm down. If someone starts to bite they pose a very serious threat and pepper spray works very well. Although they did obviously get out of hand.
Heck i hate cops as much as the next guy but someone must play the devil's advocate.
-------------------- I'm a nihilist. Lets be friends. bang bang
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