On 3/28/24 10:38, Biased Journalism wrote:
>
> <http://usnews.com>
> Vulnerable Veteran With Dementia Dies After Body Slam by Birmingham
> Officer
> Elliott Davis Jr.May 2, 2023
>
> Carl Grant, a Vietnam veteran with dementia, drove off from his Georgia
> home intending to shop for groceries
>

Dementia is so sad.

> In this image from Birmingham Police Department body-camera video, Carl
> Grant sits on the porch of a stranger's home in Birmingham, Ala., after
> police were called there on Feb. 2, 2020. Grant, a Vietnam War veteran
> with dementia, went out to shop for groceries near his suburban Atlanta
> home but became disoriented and ended up driving over two hours away.
> Police were called when he tried to get inside houses in Birmingham that
> he thought were his. (Birmingham Police Department via AP)
>
> When Carl Grant awoke from emergency surgery and couldn't move, he
> apologized to family gathered around his hospital bed.
>
> In the fog of dementia, the U.S. Marine Corps veteran thought he'd been
> paralyzed in the Vietnam War. The truth: It was February 2020, he was 68,
> and a police officer had wrecked the spinal cord in his neck by slamming
> him onto an emergency room floor.
>
> Grant's family decided not to correct him. He was already confused enough.
>
> "We left it like that, we didn't know how he'd react," his sister, Kathy
> Jenkins, recalled.
>
> The story of how Grant ended up paralyzed began that Super Bowl Sunday,
> when Grant drove off from his Georgia home to shop for groceries.
>
> It was to be a quick trip, so he left his cellphone at home and the heater
> on. Along the way, Grant became disoriented and turned his Kia Optima onto
> Interstate 20, driving west into the fading light.
>
> More than two hours later, he was in Birmingham, Alabama, using his keys
> in the dark to try to unlock the door to a stranger's house. It was a one
> story brick home, just like his.
>
> The owner called 911. Grant assured responding officers that this was
> home. They handcuffed Grant, but realized he wasn't a burglar - he truly
> thought he lived there. One officer recognized signs of dementia. Back at
> the precinct, a sergeant would tell officers they should have called
> medics for an evaluation and notified a supervisor. Instead, police told
> Grant to move along.
>
> He did and, about an hour later and less than half a mile away, officers
> responding to a burglary call found Grant sitting in a porch chair. Again
> Grant insisted he was home, and could prove it with paperwork inside.
>
> Grant stood up and turned toward the front door. Body-camera video shows
> Officer Vincent Larry tell Grant he couldn't enter and then shove him man
> down the porch steps.
>
> Grant was facedown on the ground as Larry and other officers struggled to
> handcuff him. As they did, Grant cried out, "Call the police!"
>
> These officers also began to recognize signs of confusion - Grant couldn't
> tell them the day of the week or year. A sergeant asked Larry if they
> should take Grant into protective custody. Larry continued with the
> arrest, saying Grant assaulted him. Larry would write in his report Grant
> struck him with a closed fist, though he later told internal police
> investigators the shove caused Grant to turn and punch as he fell.
>
> Larry went with Grant to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital
> to be treated for a forehead gash from the fall.
>
> That took a few hours. Now it was 3 a.m. Grant stepped out of an exam
> room, the officer wrote in his report, and told Larry he was going to
> charge his cellphone – the one his mind didn't grasp was nearly 200 miles
> away. Larry wrote that he told Grant to stay because they would soon be
> discharged, but Grant refused.
>
> Hospital surveillance video shows Larry reach for Grant's arm and flip him
> over in what the police investigation described as a "hip toss" not taught
> at the academy. Grant landed on his back. A nurse estimated his head
> bounced four inches off the floor. His body was limp.
>
> Larry rolled Grant over to his stomach and handcuffed him. It was the
> third time he had been restrained in six hours.
>
> Grant died almost six months later. The death certificate worksheet lists
> his paralysis as the cause, attributing it to "physical assault with body
> slam."
>
> Grant had been a proud Marine who enlisted at 18 in 1969, following the
> example of a favored uncle.
>
> He settled in California after nearly a decade of active duty, continued
> to serve as a reservist, opened a trucking business, and met Ronda
> Hernandez, who would become his partner of 30 years.
>
> By his early 60s, the more tired Grant got, the more confused he became.
> Doctors diagnosed him with early-onset dementia. He also had
> post-traumatic stress disorder and health issues from Agent Orange
> exposure during combat in Vietnam.
>
> After the dementia diagnosis, Grant moved from California to Conyers,
> Georgia, to be near his brother and sister.
>
> Hernandez watched Grant's mind begin to falter. By 2019, he would
> sometimes get lost running errands or forget to turn off the television -
> but he still remembered family.
>
> Grant and Hernandez used to sit outside their house for hours, stargazing
> and talking.
>
> "Whether he remembered anything or remembered me, we'd still be right here
> next to each other. We'd be sitting on the porch. He'd be smoking his
> pipe," she said. "I could still tuck him into bed, give him a kiss, say 'I
> love you.' I can't do that now."
>
> More than 20 of those who died in these encounters, which also included
> weapons such as Tasers, were 65 or older. Many others were, like Grant,
> vulnerable due to a crisis brought on by their physical or mental health,
> or due to drug use.
>
> The Birmingham Police Department's investigation concluded Officer Larry
> used excessive force at the hospital. The punishment: a 15-day suspension
> and retraining.
>
> A civil lawsuit filed by Grant's brother in 2022 focuses on the need for
> better training for first responders on how to recognize and respond to
> vulnerable people. Birmingham attorneys Richard Rice and Johnathan Austin
> are representing Grant's brother, William Jenkins.
>
> "If you can't stand up and say that what happened to Carl Grant was wrong,
> it just shows how much ground we have to cover to be able to really have a
> conversation about police accountability," Rice said.
>
> A judge dismissed the case without addressing the allegations of excessive
> force. The city and the officer had argued they were not given notice that
> a lawsuit would be filed before a legal deadline. Jenkins' lawyers are
> appealing and the appeals court has ordered the parties to mediate.
>
> Larry was no longer employed by the city as of September, the mayor's
> office said. He's now working as a part-time police officer in the suburbs
> outside Birmingham. Graysville Police Chief McKinsley Marbury said his
> department opted to give Larry a second chance and he's doing great.
>
> "You always keep what someone does in the back of your head," Marbury
> said. He added: "There are so many things that we ask the Lord to forgive
> us for, that we probably are not worthy of forgiveness for. But He does.
> And if He can do it for us, we, as people, should be able to do it for
> someone else."
>
> In court paperwork, Larry denied he committed an unprovoked assault on
> Grant at the hospital. His attorney declined to make him available for an
> interview.
>
> Grant was Black. Larry is too. They were in a city central to the Civil
> Rights Movement.
>
> Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and Police Chief Scott Thurmond have
> spoken out about police brutality elsewhere. Neither agreed to talk about
> this case.
>
> ___
>
> Editor's note: This story is based on a 103-page report from the
> Birmingham Police Department; court files from the civil lawsuit filed by
> Grant's brother; Grant's military and medical records; police body-camera
> footage; hospital surveillance video; and interviews with Grant's partner,
> siblings, the lawyers for his estate and the Graysville, Alabama police
> chief.
>
> ___
>
> McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island. Associated Press writers
> Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Mississippi,
> contributed to this report.
>
> ___
>
> This story is part of an ongoing investigation led by The Associated Press
> in collaboration with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
> programs and FRONTLINE (PBS). The investigation includes the Lethal
> Restraint interactive story, database and the documentary, "Documenting
> Police Use Of Force," premiering April 30 on PBS.
>
> ___
>
> The Associated Press receives support from the Public Welfare Foundation
> for reporting focused on criminal justice. This story also was supported
> by Columbia University's Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and
> Human Rights in conjunction with Arnold Ventures. The AP is solely
> responsible for all content.

On Thu, 28 Mar 2024 11:23:53 -0700, a425couple <a425couple@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>> home intending to shop for groceries
>
>Dementia is so sad.

Yeah, I had a buddy go to the grocery store in Oregon. He got confused
and drove into the Oregon forest on a dirt road. He ran out of gas and
died of exposure.

>On 3/28/24 10:38, Biased Journalism wrote:
>>
>> <http://usnews.com>
>> Vulnerable Veteran With Dementia Dies After Body Slam by Birmingham
>> Officer
>> Elliott Davis Jr.May 2, 2023
>>
>> Carl Grant, a Vietnam veteran with dementia, drove off from his Georgia
>> home intending to shop for groceries
>>
>
>Dementia is so sad.

True. Watching Trump makes me want to weep.