Chicago Police officer Tasers 82-year-old grandmother during "wellness" check

MARY MITCHELL, Sun-Times columnist
Chicago Sun-Times
Nov. 18, 2007

As shocking as it is that a Chicago Police officer Tasered an 82-year-old grandmother during a "wellness" check, it's even more disheartening that so many of our readers believe the police action was appropriate.

By late Tuesday, 7,967 people had responded to the Chicago Sun-Times Web site poll question:

Should cops have Tasered an 82-year-old?

Sixty-three percent responded no.

But 37 percent, or 2,940 people voted yes -- Lillian Fletcher, the elderly and mentally-ill grandmother who was Tasered by police who burst into her home, should have been Tasered because she was wielding a hammer.

That's scary.

Mind you, Fletcher had not broken any laws, police were not executing a search warrant, and the elderly woman had not been threatening neighbors with the hammer. In fact, she didn't grab the hammer until officers forced their way into her garden apartment.

After the Tasering, Fletcher, who suffers from dementia and schizophrenia, was hospitalized for five days and may have to undergo surgery for fluid on the brain.

Instead of condemning the police action, many of the people who shot me an e-mail blamed the elderly woman's family for the fiasco.

"What about the family that left their mother home alone knowing she had all these issues," said Dave M. "Put the blame where it really belongs: on the family. Why don't you stop by and visit good old granny and when she starts swinging a hammer at you just take your beating and give her a hug."

Well, Dave M., I did visit Fletcher at her home on Monday night, and she didn't pull out a hammer. You know why? I didn't push my way into her home. I rang the doorbell. When she ushered me into her kitchen and invited me to sit, I sat. And when our chat was over, I put on my coat, said "Good night" and made sure she locked her door behind me.

In other words, I respected her space -- something police didn't do.

As for her family, they aren't the triflin' people some of you are depicting. In fact, if anyone is to blame for what's happened, it would be the city's Department of Aging.

Fletcher, who can be belligerent, told a caseworker to go away. But instead of leaving, the worker called the police, and officers treated Fletcher like she was a criminal.

Joyce Gallagher, the city's commissioner for the Department of Aging, declined to discuss Fletcher's case because it is under investigation. She did say that last year, her department answered 591 calls without incident.

Still, Fletcher was within her rights to deny city employees access to her home. Although she has mental problems, she wasn't threatening anyone, nor was she living in squalor.

And despite what the cold-hearted among us have said, police officers showed poor judgment in their handling of this woman.

It shouldn't take a front-page story or a lawsuit to make the city acknowledge that much.