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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Outcry as Australian police Taser 95-year-old care home resident

    WTAF!?

    An elderly Australian woman with dementia is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after being Tasered by police at a care home.

    Officers were called to Yallambee Lodge in Cooma, New South Wales (NSW), after reports that 95-year-old Clare Nowland was carrying a knife.

    The early morning incident has sparked outcry, over what advocates say was a disproportionate response.

    The New South Wales police chief has said an investigation is under way.

    Ms Nowland was found "armed" with a steak knife at the care home - which is in the town of Cooma about 114km (71 miles) south of Canberra - in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Cotter told media on Friday.

    Two officers and care home staff tried to de-escalate the situation, before she began approaching police - "it is fair to say at a slow pace" - and was Tasered.

    "She had a walking frame. But she had a knife," he said.

    Family friend Andrew Thaler claimed Ms Nowland was struck twice - in the chest and the back - before she fell, suffering a fractured skull and a serious brain bleed.

    Her family are already grieving as they do not expect her to survive, he told BBC News.

    "The family are shocked, they're confused... and the community is outraged."

    "How can this happen? How do you explain this level of force? It's absurd."

    Mr Thaler described Ms Nowland as being "a great service to the community and her church, very fondly regarded by a lot of people".

    She appeared on TV in 2008 to mark her 80th birthday by skydiving over Canberra.

    Community groups, including the NSW Council for Civil Liberties and People with Disability Australia (PwD), have criticised the police response.

    "She's either one hell of an agile, fit, fast and intimidating 95-year-old woman, or there's a very poor lack of judgement [from] those police officers," PwD President Nicole Lee told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

    "She needed somebody to... handle her with compassion and time, not Tasers."

    NSW Police has launched a critical incident investigation, which Commissioner Karen Webb said is being treated with "the utmost seriousness".

    "I understand and share the community concerns," she said.

    The officer involved, who is reported to have 12 years' experience, has not been suspended but has been taken off active duty.

    He will be interviewed as part of the investigation, which will include the homicide squad.

    "No officer, not one of us, is above the law," Mr Cotter said.

    "All our actions will be scrutinised robustly from a criminal perspective as well."

    The care home, which is run by the Snowy Monaro Regional Council, has defended its response. The staff followed procedures and did what was needed in the circumstances, the council's chief operating officer Jeff Morgan told local media.

    Yallambee Lodge opened in 1995 and looks after residents with "higher needs", according to its website.

    Ms Nowland has lived at the home for more than five years, the ABC reported.
    Outcry as Australian police Taser 95-year-old care home resident - BBC News

  2. #2
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    Troy's Avatar
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    Threatened by a knife wielding gran in a zimmer frame...

    Guess she'd have been shot in the states...

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Troy View Post
    Guess she'd have been shot in the states...
    only after she'd gunned down the majority of her fellow residents with her Uzi

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by malmomike77 View Post
    only after she'd gunned down the majority of her fellow residents with her Uzi
    Or is she'd been black and unarmed.

  5. #5
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
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    That walking frame could have been packed with explosives. No wonder the coppers were scared for their lives

  6. #6
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    Shocking.

    Arrest, prosecute and imprison the guilty trigger-happy tazer twat. Pay the family millions directly from the police pension fund. Sack the head of the regional/state police.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat DrWilly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bettyboo View Post
    Shocking.

    Arrest, prosecute and imprison the guilty trigger-happy tazer twat. Pay the family millions directly from the police pension fund. Sack the head of the regional/state police.

    Wrong country.

  8. #8
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    Why could they not just throw a blanket over her.

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
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    Staff at the aged care facility called authorities to the address after finding Ms Nowland holding a steak knife and standing with her walking frame at 4am.
    So why the fcuk didn't the staff at the care home disarm her when she was first caught carrying the knife????

  10. #10
    Thailand Expat prawnograph's Avatar
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    95-year-old Clare Nowland tasered by NSW police dies
    AP
    24 May, 2023
    A 95-year-old woman who was tasered by an Australian police officer has died.

    Nowland, who had dementia, received palliative care in a hospital in Cooma, New South Wales. She fractured her skull in a fall on Wednesday last week after Constable Kristian White discharged a taser in her retirement home.

    The violence against an elderly and incapacitated woman has sparked national debate about the police use of tasers in such circumstances and the competence of aged care staff. Police are allowed to use tasers when lives are in danger.

    White was ordered on Wednesday to appear in court on July 5 on charges of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault, a police statement said.

    The charges are likely to upgraded

  11. #11
    5 4 Knoll
    david44's Avatar
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    Bloody Hell's granny



    What a dummy should have sprayed a burst from a helicopter and got clean away like an American

    Footage: U.S. Soldiers Fire on Iraqi Civilians

    I expect the long suffering Ozzie taxpayer will fund an enquiry
    Quote Originally Posted by Latindancer View Post
    I just want the chance to use a bigger porridge bowl.

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by prawnograph View Post
    The charges are likely to upgraded
    Keep the violence-related charges and add manslaughter.

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    Crazy. Police think a 95 year old woman walking slowly towards them with a walking frame is such a threat that she needs to be tasered.

  14. #14
    last farang standing
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pragmatic View Post
    So why the fcuk didn't the staff at the care home disarm her when she was first caught carrying the knife????
    they all mustve been scared shitless by a knife wielding zimmer frame Granny. And they were new south wales police. Better known for breaking the law than upholding it.

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