Week In Review
I’ve added a few new sections to the blog to highlight abuse of authority by our government and various police groups.
Here are a few of the more disturbing cases from the past week:
70-Year Old Lady Arrested For Failure To Water Lawn
OREM, Utah - A 70-year-old woman arrested in a dispute over her brown lawn pleaded not guilty Tuesday, then stood by as a Los Angeles lawyer waved handcuffs for the cameras outside court.
“I ask the citizens of Orem: How many of you would like to have your great-grandmother taken from her home with bruises and blood and placed in handcuffs for failing to water her lawn?” attorney Gloria Allred said.
“Let’s bring sanity back to law enforcement,” she said.
Betty Perry is charged with resisting arrest and failing to maintain her landscaping, both misdemeanors. She was arrested July 6 after failing to give her name to a police officer who visited her home.
During a struggle, Perry fell and injured her nose. She spent more than an hour in a holding cell before police released her.
The mayor and City Council apologized, and the police department said the situation could have been handled differently. But the city attorney still is pressing charges, and Perry is due back in court next month.
A state investigation found that Officer James Flygare acted properly in arresting Perry after trying to get her to cooperate.
Perry’s water had been turned off for about nine months, at her request, although she was living at the house at the time of the arrest. Orem has a shut-off policy for people who are away for extended periods.
Woman In Wheelchair Dies After Being Shocked By Police Tasers 10-Times
A Clay County woman’s family said it’s seeking justice after their loved one died shortly after being shocked 10 times with Taser guns during a confrontation with police.
The family of 56-year-old Emily Delafield said it would take the Green Cove Springs Police Department to court, according to a WJXT-TV report.
Officers said they arrived to find Delafield in a wheelchair, armed with two knives and a hammer. Police said the woman was swinging the weapons at family members and police.
Within an hour of her call to 911, Delafield, a wheelchair-bound woman documented to have mental illness, was dead.
Family attorney Rick Alexander said Delafield’s death could have been prevented and that there are four things that jump out at him about the case.
“One, she’s in a wheelchair. Two, she’s schizophrenic. Three, they’re using a Taser on a person that’s in a wheelchair, and then four is that they tasered her 10 times for a period of like two minutes,” Alexander said.
A medical examiner found Delafield died from hypertensive heart disease and cited the Taser gun shock as a contributing factor, the report said. On her death certificate, the medical examiner ruled Delafield’s death a homicide.
College Student Attacked & Tasered For Asking Questions
Andrew Meyer, 21, was questioning John Kerry about his brotherhood with George Bush in the Skull and Bones society, when he was tasered, wrestled down by police and arrested Monday.
In more than 1,000 articles online now, there are many spins. The bottom line is this student was asking the questions that the Bush Administration, Kerry and the corporate powers do not want asked about the 2004 election and the relationship of Bush and Kerry to their secret society at Yale University and the powers that rule the world. In the 2004 election, there were two Bonesmen: Bush and Kerry.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Andrew Meyer, the University of Florida student from Weston who tested the limits of free speech during an address Monday by U.S. Sen. John Kerry, walked out of jail Tuesday and into cyberspace history — an instant, if likely fleeting, celebrity.
Video clips of his fracas with university police officers flashed around the world, viewed more than 400,000 times. Tens of thousands of people debated the issue on Web sites, including more than 700 people on MiamiHerald.com. The American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International USA rose to his support.
“Shocking someone who was seemingly little more than a nuisance? That belongs in the Ripley’s of poor policing,” said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA.
The degree to which Meyer, 21, was a nuisance or an opportunistic prankster — and the magnitude of the police response — stood at the center of the World Wide Web of discussion as he left jail, was hugged by his father and drove away in his lawyer’s sport-utility vehicle.
The charges: resisting an officer with violence and disturbing the peace by disrupting a school activity. His attorney said he would plead not guilty.
The bail: none — he was released on his own recognizance and made no public comment.
The response: immediate and wide, starting on campus and racing around the world.
UF President J. Bernard Machen described the event as “regretful” and said two officers involved in the incident were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“We’re absolutely committed to having a safe environment for our faculty and our students so that a free exchange of ideas can occur,” Machen said.
University police said in a news release that officers had been summoned by the forum’s sponsors to escort Meyer from the building, though organizers disputed that and said his microphone was cut off after he used a sexually explicit term.
Police added that Meyer was Tasered because he resisted when officers were attempting to place him in handcuffs. His lawyer, Robert Griscti, said it appeared Meyer was shocked after the cuffs were already on.
About 100 students gathered on campus Tuesday to plan protests, some wearing T-shirts denouncing police violence.
As the forum with Kerry came to a conclusion Monday, the Massachusetts Democrat agreed to answer a question from Meyer even though the Q&A period was supposed to be over.
Meyer launched into a lengthy, somewhat meandering series of questions that amounted to this:
Why did Kerry concede the 2004 presidential election? Why not impeach President Bush? Was Kerry a member of the same secretive society at Yale University as Bush?
Reminded he was to ask only one question, Meyer responded: “He’s talked for two hours. I think I can have two minutes.”
According to the official police report, Meyer was accompanied to the meeting by a woman who was there to film him and, as he took the microphone, he asked her: “Are you taping this? Do you have this? You ready?”
The report also said that, after the arrest, Meyer’s “demeanor completely changed once the cameras were not in sight. Meyer did ask, at one point, if the cameras were going to be at the jail.”
The Internet debate revolved around the relative balance between Meyer’s provocative behavior and the police response, with the majority of posters criticizing the officers.
“It was excessive force,” one person wrote on Facebook.com, the social networking site. “The Taser shouldn’t have been used.”
Others argued that Meyer’s actions were out of line and disruptive, and he got what he deserved.
“The kid was being obnoxious,” wrote another poster. “He had his chance to peacefully ask his question and not go into the tirade he went into.”
Kerry also came under criticism from people who thought he should have done more to take control of the situation and cool tensions.
During the encounter, as officers began grabbing Meyer’s arms, Kerry can be heard saying: “That’s all right; let me answer his question.” A little later, he offers again to answer Meyer’s “very important question.”
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