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20-05-2023
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report
SYDNEY/ MELBOURNE: Once again, not only the incompetency, non-professionalism, brutal attitude, inhuman behavior, worst performance, discriminatory conduct and biased practices of Australian Police but also other connecting LEAs have exposed as the PMI has been exposing since a long, sources revealed.
According to media reports, 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.”
Thaler described 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 criticized 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.
