There is a disturbing report out of Chicago where police were called when 95-year-old world War II veteran John Wrana refused to go to a hospital for a urinary tract infection. Called by paramedics to assist in getting Wrana into an ambulance, the Park Forest police showed up in riot gear and proceeded to shoot Wrana first with a stun gun and then with a bead bag fired from a shotgun. He no longer needed treatment for the urinary tract problem. He died from internal bleeding and blunt force trauma. He was about to celebrate his 96th birthday.
Wrana was reportedly frail and had difficulty walking. We have previously discussed other cases involving the killing of a bedridden elderly woman and an unarmed suicide case. The cases raise serious questions of the rapid escalation of such cases in the level of force used by police as well as the increasing use of “non-lethal devices” as a first response to threats.
Wrana was living in an assisted-living facility. Paramedics told police that he was threatening them with a metal shoehorn and a knife. Some reports indicate that Wrana had decided that he did not want to go through an operation. That may have been the reason why he was resisting. He said that he understood that not having the operation could kill him but decided against it. It is not clear whether he was declared incompetent before the attempt to force him to go to the hospital.
The family contests the claim of the knife. Even if he had a knife, it is hard to see why police could not stand back (particularly since they had riot shields) and avoid using such force on an individual who clearly would be a risk with either a stun gun or bean bag round. Even if the blunt trauma did not finish him off, the shock could easily trigger a heart attack in a near 96 year old man. Some reports indicate that multiple rounds of bean bags may have been used.
Wrana was U.S. Air Corps veteran who served in Burma and India during World War II. Sergeant Wrana survived the hellish fighting in Burma but would later die in the United States just short of this 96 birthday in a confrontation with police. Truly bizarre.
Just for the record. These bean bag rounds are often thought of as harmless, almost toy-like devices. The bean bags fired form a shotgun will initially travel at around 300-400 feet a second (though they have a range of 70 feet). They have been shown to break ribs and even push broken ribs into the heart. Internal bleeding is a well-known risk.
Internal affairs will say they did nothing wrong. They always do. Police here in Portland have gotten away with murder several times.
Elderly people often become completely disoriented when they have a UTI. The fact that the nursing home personnel didn’t realize this and inform the police makes them culpable as well. This is disturbing on so many levels. We are becoming more violent as a society daily, it seems.
When the police get overly ambitious in their job, Maybe it is because the Gov had told them to get more forceful and the masses will be more afraid of them. The bottom line is that we are now UNDER THEIR CONTROL and we will now obey and not respond to their wishes.
I looked on the Chitown news sources and found nothing to indicate that anyone has tased the cops or the police chief in retaliation yet. Since tasers are not lethal, everyone ought to have one and everyone ought to get to use one in a case like this where retribution is needed.
yankeefarmer,
If you have more than two links in a comment, the spam filter will snag it. I went ahead and pulled it out for you, but if you keep it to a limit of two links in a single comment, it will not block the comment. On the other hand, the spam filter is quirky lately and catches some comments for no apparent reason.
The “Need to wrap this up people!” is what drives this sort of “rapid response” forward.
That, and a whole lot of authoritarianism.
This situation, where “less lethal” often isn’t? Nothing new:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Victoria_Snelgrove
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4670448
http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2005/may/weapons/coles_full.jpg
…and the jackboots will be sent on vacation with pay, until their friends think it’s blown over enough that they can come back…. to shoot someone else. Makes me sick. These people should be held to the laws that they are supposed to enforce. That elderly man’s life was worth 10 of those pigs.
RobinH45 Said: “lol leave it to Darren to come up with a reason for shooting a 95 year old man. well darren….”
No. It wasn’t Darren. It was me, coming up with a reason for shooting/tasing the 95 year old. As Darren pointed out earlier, we don’t have all the facts of the incident. This article doesn’t state how many times they told the 95 year old to either drop the knife and/or calm down? We also will have to wait until the autopsy report comes back to see what the immediate cause of death was?. But what do you do if he is not calming down, and won’t put down the knife (if he had one on him)? Darren and OS came up with pretty good ideas.
If I was one of the first officers on the scene, I would have done a Steven Segal move on him……
” I would have done a Steven Segal move on him…”
I find it just about inconceivable that with a frail elder of limited mobility that it was not possible to clear the area of civilians, set up a perimeter, and isolate the elder till he calmed down or fell asleep.
With peers like me the EMTs and LE could find themselves facing charges of elder abuse and felony murder – in some parallel universe, of course.
BTW, RobinH45, good work, but next time feel fully justified to use a gun.
This is horrible… As someone commented about the police showing up for a call in riot gear for something not at all earth shattering. What in the world is going on? I know of something that happened recently to a friend of mine. It was over speeding tickets and failure to appear for a hearing he knew nothing about as he didn’t receive anything in the mail. The three constables just walked right in his house while he was sleeping, came upstairs and one of them backhanded him across the face while another held a taser in his face. Then they badgered him about who else was in the house with him and told them that they couldn’t find this person in the house when that person was up in the attic in his bed sleeping too. The only thing I can think is that they could smell his girlfriends cologne because she left for work a short time before they showed up. They wouldn’t let him take his wallet or cell phone to the jail so he had to call from there. Then processing at the jail wanted $200. He said the other inmates had their phones with them. It’s not like this person was ever in much trouble. Who or what did these constables think they were taking in? It looked to me like some sort of bad communications. Please comment on either story. Tell me what’s going on.
One of the reasons the Founders were opposed to standing armies is the frequency with which rulers deployed soldiers against their fellow citizens. The gradual militarization of local police forces has the effect of psychologically isolating them from the communities they serve. In my view, they are becoming something akin to occupying forces, so that every 911 call provokes a response similar to an assault against rebellious groups opposed to the occupation. This trend is intensifying and it is far more dangerous than most of us are prepared to admit.
“Couldn’t they just wait until he fell asleep?! I mean dayum, 95? GTFOH.”
The most logical comment here.
**Blouise 1, September 19, 2013 at 11:50 pm
If these T-party posters weren’t so lazy, they could have a real field day … and no, I’m not going to give it away to the lazy buggers.
**
Sorry Blouise, did you say something? 🙂
We’ve a bit of tunnel vision over here.
Seems that Death Star full of traitors, Wallst/City of London Banks/Insur Co’s is now within range, ready to be brought to justice.
Stay focused & use the Force!
If that was my dad, I would want both of those shooters dead.
RWL,
Don’t EVEN go there. Gene is the expert. Neither one of us wants to be compared to that overweight blowhard wannabe deputy for Joe Arpaio.
I agree with Tim, 3 comments above, and hope that the family fights for him. Which is why God made rifles. Retribution is just another form of justice and perhaps more just.
I work as a medication tech. in a nursing home behavioral unit. I find it ironic that staff (and I’m assuming, the family) wanted him treated for the UTI because they loved and cared for him. So, they call the police when he gets combative? He did have the right to refuse care, that is the FIRST thing I learned years ago when training for my job.
The next thing I learned, you don’t escalate the confrontation. You walk away and come back later. I fault the staff for calling the authorities in the first place. Even IF he did have a knife, remove the wife from his room and leave the area until he calms down.
So sad that what was an attempt at trying to get him the care he needed to stay alive resulted in his death. The facility AND the cops should be sued. This man’s rights were violated by facility and the police.
OS said: “Maybe it is just me, but I …….”
I knew it! OS is Steven Segal! LOL!
Someone needs to alert Sarah Palin…
… Local police are the new death panels.
If these T-party posters weren’t so lazy, they could have a real field day … and no, I’m not going to give it away to the lazy buggers.
RobinH45,
Gordon Duff is a well known conspiracy theorist. His credibility is somewhere between nil and none. He makes wild claims, many of them blatantly anti-Semitic, but does not back them up with actual facts or sourcing.
Here is a bit more on Gordon Duff. There is more where this came from.
http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=17087
Gordon Duff has even made the SPLC HateWatch list:
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/01/06/buyer-beware-veterans-today-and-its-anti-israel-agenda/