LiberalNation
09-23-2012, 01:35 AM
cops
http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...yssey=nav|head
journal.com
The man’s clothes were dusty, and he had difficulty speaking. Questioned by a Louisville Metro Police officer inside Mid-City Mall, he couldn’t provide his own address.
Judging the man to be a homeless panhandler, the police officer asked him to leave, and a confrontation ensued — a Taser was drawn, other officers were called and the man was taken down and handcuffed for several minutes.
But the man cuffed and threatened with jail in the Jan. 29 incident was neither homeless nor panhandling. He was a Purple Heart and multiple Bronze Star recipient and a Kentucky National Guard lieutenant colonel going on a routine errand.
Lt. Col. Donald Blake Settle has a poor memory and difficulty speaking as the result of injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, incurred in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan and a vehicle rollover. And on this day, he had stopped to chat with an acquaintance while shopping for a gift card.
His case has resulted in an internal police investigation, sharp questioning from Fort Knox officials, and a potential lawsuit. But it also has prompted a new mandatory training program for police on how to deal with military veterans coming home with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I wish it had never happened,” said Louisville Metro Police Lt. Col. Vince Robison, who met with Settle and Fort Knox officials in July while helping to prepare the training for next year. “I wanted to see that we tried to do the right thing and become better. Whether we were right or wrong, we can always become better.”
In an interview, Settle said the story is less about what happened to him that day and more about the number of soldiers returning with brain injuries and understanding the challenges they face.
“I don’t want what happened to me to happen to somebody else, regardless of whether they are in the military or a regular civilian,” he said, speaking sometimes in a halting voice, searching for the right words.
“Unfortunately this is real familiar,” Eddie Reynolds, outreach director of the Brain Injury Association of Kentucky, said of Settle’s experience. There are more than 250,000 Kentuckians with brain injuries and they are seven times as likely as the average person to have a run-in with the law, he said.
http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...yssey=nav|head
journal.com
The man’s clothes were dusty, and he had difficulty speaking. Questioned by a Louisville Metro Police officer inside Mid-City Mall, he couldn’t provide his own address.
Judging the man to be a homeless panhandler, the police officer asked him to leave, and a confrontation ensued — a Taser was drawn, other officers were called and the man was taken down and handcuffed for several minutes.
But the man cuffed and threatened with jail in the Jan. 29 incident was neither homeless nor panhandling. He was a Purple Heart and multiple Bronze Star recipient and a Kentucky National Guard lieutenant colonel going on a routine errand.
Lt. Col. Donald Blake Settle has a poor memory and difficulty speaking as the result of injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, incurred in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan and a vehicle rollover. And on this day, he had stopped to chat with an acquaintance while shopping for a gift card.
His case has resulted in an internal police investigation, sharp questioning from Fort Knox officials, and a potential lawsuit. But it also has prompted a new mandatory training program for police on how to deal with military veterans coming home with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I wish it had never happened,” said Louisville Metro Police Lt. Col. Vince Robison, who met with Settle and Fort Knox officials in July while helping to prepare the training for next year. “I wanted to see that we tried to do the right thing and become better. Whether we were right or wrong, we can always become better.”
In an interview, Settle said the story is less about what happened to him that day and more about the number of soldiers returning with brain injuries and understanding the challenges they face.
“I don’t want what happened to me to happen to somebody else, regardless of whether they are in the military or a regular civilian,” he said, speaking sometimes in a halting voice, searching for the right words.
“Unfortunately this is real familiar,” Eddie Reynolds, outreach director of the Brain Injury Association of Kentucky, said of Settle’s experience. There are more than 250,000 Kentuckians with brain injuries and they are seven times as likely as the average person to have a run-in with the law, he said.