cops with toys

From: Belmore South Public School

"The string of events that night sounds prosaic, a who-cares accumulation of little mistakes and misapprehensions. Cumulatively, though, it is like tumbling down the stairs. Somehow the uncle, Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., a former Marine who had heart problems and wheezed if he walked more than 40 feet, triggered his Life Alert pendant. The Life Alert operator came on the loudspeaker in his one-bedroom apartment, asking: 'Mr. Chamberlain, are you O.K.?' All of this is recorded.
     Mr. Chamberlain didn’t respond. So the operator signaled for an ambulance. Police patrol cars fell in behind — standard operating procedure in towns across America. Except an hour later, even as Mr. Chamberlain insisted he was in good health, the police had snapped the locks on the apartment door.
     They fired electric charges from Tasers, and beanbags from shotguns. Then they said they saw Mr. Chamberlain grab a knife, and an officer fired his handgun."
— Michael Powell, The New York Times
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"When Yajira Quezada copped an attitude, police put her in cuffs.
An Adams County, Colo. Sheriff's Office incident report obtained by KUSA says the Shaw Heights Middle School 11-year-old was handcuffed and taken to a holding facility because she was, 'argumentative and extremely rude' to an assistant principal.
     'Why would they handcuff me?' Quezada asked KUSA. 'I'm not the type of girl to get arrested.'
     The Sheriff's office said it was just following normal procedure."
— Huffington Post
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