Colorado arrest of woman with dementia - trigger possible

This is awful. She's ill. She's not a criminal. I really think we need social workers on the front line w/officers in cases like this.

My heart breaks for that poor woman!

I’m thoroughly disgusted. I hope the prosecute and I hope they win

I have no words. I just lost my mother to dementia last week. She was 78. I can't imagine anyone treating her this way.

Again, more police officers out there make it impossible to trust. I'm getting real tired of the "it's just a few bad apples". Currently, there is a lot of bad apples.

I am sick from this and all this brutality being uncovered. I was watching Philly DA on PBS, excellent documentary by the way, and the scene of a large gathering of uniformed cops actually made me feel fear. I have been traumatized and changed by all that I see about the pervasiveness of police corruption.

This makes me sick.

Decades ago, my grandmother, who had dementia, was a wanderer. She would have periods of believing she was a young girl again, not knowing the present date.

I'm pretty sure, had that happened to her, several of her adult children would be facing prison time.


We have a police problem in our country. 

This is so horrifying. My mom is 75. She doesn't have dementia, but she is a tiny little thing, and I can't imagine someone, especially those who are supposed to protect us, treating her that way.

My Dad has the start of dementia and this horrifies me.

But my question is, and excuse my ignorance, but I keep such a close eye on my Dad to the point that I'm looking into pinning a tracking device on him every morning when the time comes. I have a tracking app on his phone now. Where were her people? Why was she alone? I understand that she was picking wildflowers by a busy road before going to Walmart.

Jennifer

I’m so sorry for the loss of your mom. It has been ten years this year for me. May your memories of her bring you comfort. Hugs to you and all who loved your mom.

As for the story in the OP, that is beyond horrible. WTAF. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of what dementia or Alzheimer’s looks like would know pretty quickly that this poor lady had issues. I would be beyond Pea Livid if something like that would have happened to my mom. I hope her family wins their lawsuit and those horrible cops are held accountable in every way possible. 

No matter what you do or how hard you try to keep them safe, it can be very difficult to do, especially in the time between discovering there is an issue and realizing you just can’t care for them 100% on your own.

My brother lived with my mom for about ten years, and even with some help from me and another brother, it was HARD. In that last year or so at home, her days and nights got all confused. She had serious problems with sun downing where she would sometimes get up in the middle of the night, get dressed thinking it was the next day and once even got so far as out into the driveway before my poor exhausted brother woke up and realized she wasn’t in the house. It’s freaking scary. We arranged for her to go to an adult daycare three days a week just so my brother could SLEEP without worrying that she was going to get out of the house and wander away.

Heck after we moved her to the memory care home, my mom was such an awesome escape artist that she even managed to get as far as the front lobby once. She cut off the little wrist GPS thing TWICE (they discovered she had a tiny cuticle nipper in a manicure set in her night stand drawer that she cut the strap off with, and they confiscated it) that kept her from getting in the elevator, and they had to start putting the monitor on her ankle instead where she would obsess over it less. Thank God the place where she lived that last year had door alarms on all the main doors that had to be deactivated with a code or the alarm would go off if anyone tried to open the doors without punching in the code.

I have an immense amount of sympathy for anyone caring for someone with dementia or memory issues. It is mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting and I refuse to cast any blame on anyone who is really just trying to do their best by their loved one.

I could not even finish the video, you can hear her arm break. WTF she wasn’t even violent just confused. And he’s nothing but snotty from the get go, he was making snotty remarks getting out of the car, before even going to her, he made no effort to ascertain what the issue actually was. Then, when she is already secured he breaks her arm. This is not ‘one bad apple’ if they all thought it was funny - it’s not a funny video to watch even if you don’t know she has dementia. She is clearly so confused that she had SOME medical condition or other.

BTW, Walmart could have responded a bit better too. They got their stuff back what was the point in having her roughed up over it - did they not notice how confused she was? You can see in the video she’s clearly confused. Dear Walmart, you keep saying your part of the communities you build in- act like it. Yes theft is wrong but once the person is obviously confused then maybe take a different tack.

I read the story but can't watch the video. I just remember my poor confused dad. He just couldn't understand or comprehend. I feel sick at the thought that a police officer could have treated him like that. That poor woman. I hope those officers are fired, but it probably won't happen. Hopefully her family will win a large settlement in the lawsuit -- maybe that will make the town think twice about who they hire to protect their citizens. Asshat bullies.