In 2014 in Texarkana, TX a “mentally ill” man named Dennis Grigsby was shot and killed by a Texarkana police officer after a burglary call when Mr. Grigsby was found in a neighbor’s garage. Mr. Grigsby reportedly was later found to have had only a spoon in his hand which the officer reportedly took for a knife.
I do not speak of the Grigsby incident to disparage or illustrate a lack of confidence in the Texarkana, Texas police including the responding officer. I certainly do not believe a community ought to judge a police officer and the department for whom he/she works based on one incident. However, any existing improper pattern should be uncovered and heavily considered. I have no information concerning any improper pattern concerning the particular officer or police department.
Other cases in the Texarkana USA area that should be of concern to the community include Michael Sabbie, a black male, June 2015 case and the July 2016 Morgan Angerbauer, a white female, case both of which died while in custody of Texarkana, Arkansas. The Sabbie case is one in which a man died while in police custody where he was shouting repeatedly that he could not breathe and authorities showed no concern with acknowledging his medical distress which clearly caused him to loose control of his senses. In fact the whole incident began when one of the guards did not believe he was in medical distress and then loss control of common sense and begin to manhandle Sabbie because Sabbie started walking in the other direction. Where could he go, people? A video of Sabbie follows:
In the Angerbauer case she was a diabetic and did not receive proper medical assistance while in custody. An article on her may be found here.
I give some thoughts onf police conduct here.
References:
KSLA Coverage of the Grigsby Incident
Free Thought Project Coverage of the Grigsby Incident
Texarkana Texas Manual on Racial Profiling and Similar Issues
USA Today Research on Internal Disciplining of Police Officers
