In a Walmart in Danville, Kentucky, 66 year old John Hardwick (who had been diagnosed with dementia) was mistreated by Walmart employees while on a grocery shopping trip with his wife. They callously mistook John’s confusion (due to his dementia) for attempted shoplifting, and then called the police. But the police were worse. Officer TJ Godbey punched this vulnerable man 6 times, which was caught on video. And then he, along with Danville Police Officer Ben Ray, arrested John. A lawsuit was filed, which I covered about a year ago. That case has now been settled, with the government claiming the high road. But there’s something they’re not telling you, and they can’t be allowed to cover it up, and escape accountability.
A 63 year old diabetic who was apparently suffering a low blood sugar episode, being confused, went into a gas station and believing himself to be the owner of the store, grabbed beer and milk, then went outside and began to drink them. The actual store owner called police, seeking help for the man, who he believed was suffering a mental emergency. But when the police arrived, they immediately went hands-on, trying to grab the man’s beer, and then body slammed this elderly diabetic man onto the concrete ground, while taunting him.
After realizing the man is diabetic, they called paramedics and their supervisor. The paramedics said the man needed to go immediately to the hospital, but the cops said no. So the paramedics left without the elderly man who was suffering an apparent medical emergency. Then when the supervisor got there, the cops said nothing about the medical emergency, and then lied about the man throwing his beer on him, which is easily disproven by the video footage. So instead of medical help, this man got violence instead, and then a bunch of criminal charges. Now, in just a few days, the man is facing a trial, for which he may be looking at years in prison.
81 year-old Olen Lane had a stroke 5 years ago and suffers from memory issues. Last month he got pulled over by Deputy Jason Johnson with the Hempstead (Arkansas) Sheriff’s Office for speeding. He either missed, or ignored, all the obvious signs that this elderly man was suffering from dementia. Instead of doing what he should have done to protect the man, he did exactly the opposite. Deputy Johnson did get fired, but without your help, he’s likely about to pop up in your little town next. In this video, I list the obvious signs of dementia that police officers should always be looking for, as well as what they should do when they see them.
66 year-old John Hardwick is a dementia patient who loves to shop with his wife at the Walmart in Danville, Kentucky. As they were shopping, he became separated from his wife. He ended up getting violently arrested by officers with the Danville Police Department. They ended up at the hospital, claiming that Mr. Hardwick was intoxicated, rather than suffering from severe dementia. New footage reveals the shocking events that occurred in between, when the Boyle County jail refused to admit Mr. Hardwick. The real reason isn’t what the cops told people at the hospital, nor what they put in their report.
Here’s the jail’s “denial of admission” form from Mr. Hardwick’s visit there:
Here’s where the Chief of Police gaslit the public:
Here’s where the arresting officers lied in their report about the jail refusal:
Here’s where the prosecutor was attempting to gaslight a judge, asking for this elderly dementia patient to plead guilty to being intoxicated, when he wasn’t intoxicated:
George Henderson spent 29 years serving in the military with 6 overseas deployments. He retired in 2018 after his head injuries and PTSD began to worsen. He was then diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which led to him going missing on December 6. The State of Tennessee issued a Silver Alert. Mr. Henderson was located a day later, 10 miles away, in nearby Guthrie, Kentucky. Unfortunately, when that happened, a Guthrie police officer punched him unconscious. They have circled their law enforcement wagons, claim no wrongdoing, and apparently continue to prosecute this American hero.
Earlier this year, deputies with the Warren County Sheriff’s Department in Virginia attempted a traffic stop on a 77 year old man named Ralph Ennis, who was apparently suffering from dementia. He didn’t stop, but instead drove to a gas station. An officer from a different agency, the Front Royal Police Department, captured what happened on his body cam.
The footage shows a deputy slamming the elderly man’s head against a truck while pinning his arms behind his back. A second deputy then tackles the man to the ground, hitting the man’s head on the concrete.
“Please let me up!” the man cried out, with two officers on top of him. “Let me go!” Just prior to all the violence, the video shows that all the man did was to get out of his car and walk towards the deputies with his keys in his hand.
The Front Royal officer was clearly shaken by what he saw and said so while his body cam was still recording, as he left the scene. USA Today reported on the aftermath. The elderly man was apparently then hospitalized with a brain bleed. He would never get out of the hospital. He died about two weeks later.
Let me repeat what I just said a few videos ago: there are two kinds of people in this world; those who support the “he deserved it defense,” and those who support the Constitution unconditionally. Those who are willing to allow police officers to bend the rules, so long as the victim deserved it, in their eyes, haven’t fully thought things through.
Case in point: Your usual Fourth Amendment Fudd, who is the same guy that thinks the Second Amendment protects his bolt action .30-06, but not your AR-15, is okay with the police beating someone unnecessarily who chose to lead the cops on a pursuit. The same Fourth Amendment Fudd who is okay allowing police officers the discretion to mete out their version of justice with no due process, however is NOT okay with the cops beating his elderly father with dementia who had no idea what was actually happening. If you allow one, then you have chosen to allow the other. By definition. You either protect all constitutional rights, or you protect none.
This is just one of many recent incidents involving police officers and elderly people with dementia. Police officers have been enabled to fly-off the handle at the slightest perceived threat to their authority. They have been enabled to fly-off the handle on the basis of perceived threats to officer safety. They have been authorized to act like robots; to attack at the slightest provocation, without compassion for those they’re entrusted to serve and protect.
The law assumes that police officers will make mistakes; that they will have bad information, or misunderstand the situation. The law judges them objectively – not based on what they actually thought or intended, but based on how a reasonable officer would act in the same circumstances.
And here’s the problem. Most of us would look at those circumstances, including good police officers, such as the guy wearing the body cam in this footage, and say, “hell no.” We are not robots. We are supposed to be able to adapt; to deal with different types of people in different scenarios. What would happen if a confused old man walked into a bank, holding his keys in his hand. Would he be immediately tackled and handcuffed by security? Or would any competent person recognize that they’re dealing with an elderly man who might be confused? Does it ever cross the mind of a reasonable police officer that a vehicle may not be stopping because it’s an elderly driver who is confused or suffering from dementia? I would argue that a reasonable officer should be concerned first with protecting and serving an elderly man.
As the U.S. population ages and more people develop dementia, older people are increasingly running into problems with the police. There’s no national count of how many people with dementia are arrested each year. But an analysis of U.S. crime data by The Marshall Project shows that the number of arrests of people over 65 grew by nearly 30% between 2000 and 2020 – at the same time that overall arrests fell by nearly 40%. The number of elder arrests is growing faster than the population is aging. National data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also estimates that from 2010 to 2020, more than 12,000 people 65 and older ended up in a hospital emergency room for injuries caused by police or private security.
Unfortunately, police officers are not taught to think about the citizen. They are taught to only think about officer safety. It’s drilled into them. Citizen safety is last. That’s our problem. But “officer safety” is not mentioned anywhere in our Constitution. Where it exists is in police officer training. Instead, police officers should be trained in how to help people. They are the ones who wanted to be in a public service job. That’s what it’s about. It’s not about them being scared. If they’re scared, go find another job.
