{"id":14952,"date":"2012-10-18T22:00:40","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T02:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=14952"},"modified":"2012-10-18T22:00:40","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T02:00:40","slug":"blind-justice-cops-taser-disabled-man-after-mistaking-walking-stick-for-samurai-sword","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/10\/blind-justice-cops-taser-disabled-man-after-mistaking-walking-stick-for-samurai-sword\/","title":{"rendered":"Blind justice: Cops taser disabled man after mistaking walking stick for samurai sword"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
A man carrying a samurai sword?(Reuters\/Marko Djurica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Police tasered and handcuffed a blind two-time stroke victim in northern England, reportedly mistaking his walking stick for samurai sword.<\/span><\/p>\n

Colin Farmer, a retired architect who is 61 and cannot move unaided, was on his own and walking down a street in Chorley, in the county of Lancashire, on a Friday evening, when the incident happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI heard this male voice shouting and bawling at me from behind and I became frightened because I thought I was about to be mugged,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cObviously I am the perfect target for muggers, because I don’t know what is going on around me and I carried on walking in the hope I would get away.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Farmer said that the next thing he knew was that he felt \u201cthis thump in the back, this huge electric shock\u201d and it was like \u201cthousands of volts going through his body\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that I was honestly going to die and they were going to kill me. All my muscles turned to dust and I thought I was having another stroke. I said ‘I’m blind, I’m blind. I’m blind,’ but this policeman knelt on me and dragged my arms round my back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Only then did the policeman realize Farmer was not a criminal and promptly took him to hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lancashire police say they \u201cdeeply regret\u201d putting Farmer through a \u201ctraumatic experience,\u201d but say they made an honest mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n

They say that the retiree\u2019s walking stick matched the description of a samurai sword that had reportedly been wielded by a Chorley resident in the same area.<\/span><\/p>\n

They also claim that Farmer\u2019s behavior prompted the tasering.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the officers who arrived in Chorley believed he had located the offender. Despite asking the man to stop, he failed to do so and the officer discharged his taser,\u201d said Chief Superintendent Stuart Williams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Farmer is not satisfied with the explanation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI walk at a snail’s pace. They could have walked past me, driven past me in the van, or said drop your weapon \u2013 but as far as I’m concerned they didn’t.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The incident has been referred to Independent Police Complains Commission, which will conduct an investigation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Colin Farmer says that he is still unable to sleep or go outside without fear following the incident, and will not be satisfied until action is taken.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want this officer sacked, charged and locked up because there is no excuse whatsoever for attacking a registered blind and disabled retired man without warning and with such a potentially lethal weapon,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The real owner of the samurai sword, a \u201cdrunk and disorderly\u201d 27-year-old man, was arrested later the same evening with no use of taser, and released without charge.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the second such incident this year, after officers tasered an agitated Alzheimer\u2019s victim several times in May.<\/span><\/p>\n

UK police recently asked for all front-line officers to be issued with tasers, rather than the current one-in-three.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police tasered and handcuffed a blind two-time stroke victim in northern England, reportedly mistaking his walking stick for samurai sword. Colin Farmer, a retired architect..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,84],"tags":[345,287],"class_list":["post-14952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-statements","tag-reactionary-watch","tag-united-kingdom"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/A_14952_fab04.jpg?fit=370%2C277&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}