This is pathetic. If an 84-Yr-Old woman doesn’t comply to your commands…it is probably because of her age, jackass! Muskogeephoenix.com : An attorney representing Muskogee said the pepper-spraying of an 84-year-old woman was a reasonable use of force. Attorney Scott Wood said the breach of a home, electrical stunning of a suspect and pepper-spraying of the home’s resident, Geneva Smith, was reasonable “given the totality of the circumstances.” Muskogee police officers followed Arthur Paul Blackmon, 56, at about 2:45 a.m. Aug. 7, attempting to pull him over after he allegedly ran a stop sign at Elgin and South Junction streets. The two officers, Michelle Casady and Jared Forbes, followed Blackmon to the 2400 block of Denver Street, where Smith lives. City officials released late Friday the body and dash camera video — 20 files in all. The video shows Blackmon, ignoring the commands of officers, exit the vehicle he was driving and enter the residence. “It starts off as a traffic stop — that’s a low misdemeanor — but based on the other evidence gathered in those three minutes … it could be a severe crime. It could have been a home invasion,” Wood said. Wood, who was hired because of the potential for litigation, said the truck was not registered to Blackmon, nor was it registered to anyone at the Denver Street address. Officers, debating entry into the home, reportedly heard a male and a female shouting “call police” and “call 911.” Officer James Hamlin, who arrested Blackmon, later asked Blackmon about it, according to Hamlin’s body camera video. “That’s what we was telling you,” Blackmon told Hamlin. “We called 911. We were waiting on the police.” A police officer kicked in the door. An officer shot Blackmon with an electrical stun gun. While six other officers entered the residence, Smith was trying to figure out what was going on. Casady delivered approximately one second of pepper spray to Smith. “My mother’s 84 years old, mother f—–,” Blackmon said when Smith was pepper-sprayed, according to the video. Muskogee Police Chief Rex Eskridge said Smith failed to comply with officers’ orders and turned toward the kitchen. Smith actively resisted by ducking away from officers, Wood said. The police department’s use of force policy states that pepper spray, considered to be the lowest use of force, is to be used for passive resistance. Eskridge said that when Casady used the pepper spray, she “believed she was acting within policy in using” pepper spray to gain compliance. The matter was still under internal investigation as of Friday morning, Eskridge said. “There is nothing more serious than to breach a home without a proper search warrant,” Eskridge said. “We want to make sure that we were in compliance with, not just policy, but the law.” Muskogeephoenix.com
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