CHATSWORTH, Georgia (WTVC) – Defense attorneys for an 87-year-old Syrian refugee have released police bodycam video of an incident that made national headlines last August.
Chatsworth Police arrested Martha Al-Bishara after officers said she would not drop a knife that she was holding. Officers eventually used a stun gun on Al-Bishara, who did not speak English and was unable to understand the officer’s commands.
Al-Bishara and her husband are immigrants from Syria who have been living in Chatsworth for the past 20 years.
On Aug. 10, 2018, officers responded to a 911 call about a woman with a knife on the property of the Boys and Girls Club.
Chatsworth Police Chief Josh Etheridge told WTVC the nature of the call “a knife at the Boys and Girls Club” was enough to force an immediate response.
Al-Bishara’s granddaughter, Martha Douhne, told WTVC her grandmother was cutting dandelions with a kitchen knife to use in a meal she was preparing for her husband across the street from her home. Douhne says she was unaware the property belonged to the Boys and Girls Club. The area where police found the 87-year-old had no signs indicating the property was owned by the Club.
Douhne says her grandmother was shocked to suddenly find herself surrounded by officers with their guns out, shouting commands in English at the Syrian woman, who only speaks Arabic.
“She was just confused,” Douhne told us. ” Grandpa was sleeping. She didn’t know what was going on.”
The police bodycam video released by Al-Bishara’s attorneys shows the officers repeatedly commanding Al-Bishara to drop the knife. Al-Bishara is confused, and cannot answer.
Then, while the officer is still about 20 yards away, you can hear the stun gun being fired, and hear the 87-year-old cry out in pain.
The officer approaches the other officers, as they stand her back up on her feet.
Chatsworth Police Chief Josh Etheridge told us last year that he believed officers used the “least force necessary” to control the situation.
She was later taken to the Chatsworth Police Department and booked. Her criminal case is still pending.
Al-Bishara’s family are urging Conasauga Judicial District Attorney Bert Poston to drop the charges.
Douhne spoke with WTVC on Wednesday and said her grandfather died at the age of 97 earlier this month. He and Al-Bishara had been married for 73 years.
Watch the full bodycam video below:
How can you be so ignorant as to live somewhere for 20 years and not understand the basics of the language…… kinda asking for it.
Whether she speaks the language or not is irrelevant. Two big heroes, steroided out, and they have to stun an 87 year old woman to take a knife from her over some f-king dandelions?
Sorry brother, but I’m not a sadist.
People who cannot speak our language after 20 years of being here maybe shouldn’t be here, but you know who allowed her to come here? We did. How? By obeying the dictates of our masters.
I do have a problem with the commie club that called Blackwater USA on a woman cutting dandelions with a knife. If I ever see anyone like these ‘roided out Blackwater agents do something like this to any person 87 years old, my war will begin. F-king cowards and they disgust me to my core.
The whole incident does not meet the standard of reason, hence it is unreasonable and brutal and it is what is coming to you and me. So find a reason to condone it if you can, I’m sure somebody will find a reason to condone it when it starts happening to you and yours, but it won’t be me.
What’s NOT to get, right, Henry?
They have ZERO AUTHORITY to even exist to begin with, so NOTHING that follows can be in the least justifiable.
And yet, the sheeple still don’t get it (but THAT is changing rapidly… thanks to the pigs’ blatantly unapologetic brutality).
syrian refugee? anyway….. ‘ grandmother was cutting dandelions with a kitchen knife to use in a meal she was preparing for her husband ‘……cops yelling at her to drop the knife…she doesn’t understand so she gets tased…WTH? surprised the jew commies aren’t jumping up and down screaming racism….’Her criminal case is still pending.’ criminal case! sheesh… bet she wishes she was back in syria …..
Pig report…
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/20/philadelphia-takes-72-police-officers-off-streets-offensive-social-media-posts/
Should ALL be taken off the streets.
STRAIGHT TO PRISON!!!