Activist Post – by Amanda Warren
Katharina Lambert, age 88, was sleeping in her own home in San Bernardino, California.
At around 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 23rd, 2013, her silent burglar alarm allegedly went active.
If true, as police say, this does not explain the way they responded. With no warrants, no pressing circumstances, no announcement and no warning about a dog; three officers entered her home and officer J. Echevarria released an attack dog that quickly went to her bedroom.
Lambert awoke to vicious bites to her arm and shoulder causing serious injuries like puncture wounds and severe bruising, she says. Echevarria had to physically remove the dog from Lambert to stop the attack.
She also claims that medical treatment was delayed and that the department knew about her severe hearing impairment. She doesn’t pull punches when it comes to accountability. She is personally zeroing in on everyone involved and believes that the culture of San Bernardino police encourages the idea that “it is permissible to unlawfully enter a person’s home, deploy a police K-9 to attack innocent people, refuse to accommodate a disabled person, and delay prompt medical care.”
She is now suing San Bernardino, Police Chief Robert Handy and Officers J. Castro, S. Aranda and J. Echevarria, in Federal Court. She seeks punitive damages for “unlawful entry, excessive force, municipal liability, supervisor liability, Americans with Disabilities Act violations, strict liability, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.” (Source)
Whether the victims are sleeping or not, the more police sic attack dogs on citizens, the less it appears accidental. Here is a sampling of sleeping victims, sometimes with deadly results:
- Lawsuit Claims Cops Let Police Dog Rip Apart Sleeping Woman’s Leg, Joked That Dog Deserved “A Slurpee!”
- California Police Dog Bites Innocent [Sleeping] Woman
- Sioux City police dog bites [Sleeping] homeless man by mistake…
- Police And Their Dog Attack Sleeping Man
- BPD K-9 Attacks Sleeping Woman – Victim Is Estranged Wife Of Current Sheriff
- Hayward to pay $1.5 million to settle police dog attack suit – (Sleeping innocent victim, age 89, died from attack)
- Homeless [Sleeping] Woman Dies In Police Dog Attack [1990] (including this one because the newspaper attempts to justify the woman’s death from the attack dog)
An officer who defended a police dog that attacked a playing child came up with some excuses for the incident. One of them was that a police dog “can’t differentiate between a playing boy and a crime suspect.” Comforting revelation. And, “Anything running, they’re trained … could be a potential threat. And all he’s doing is reacting and doing what he was trained to do.”
Okay – setting aside the whole debacle of police breaking into homes in SWAT-style raids – then why are police dogs increasingly attacking sleeping people – often innocent people? Notably, police dogs and their handlers are often defended for “proper procedure,” meanwhile, police often shoot homeowners’ dogs on leashes.
http://www.activistpost.com/2014/01/sleeping-elderly-woman-awakes-to-police.html
I hope that not only does she get everything that she is sueing for but that isn`t good enough, each and every cop involved there in what ever way needs to go to prison and not jail or rehab. They need prison time and this Kathrina Lambert should get everything she is asking for. She is lucky she isn`t dead to be sure…. Yea, she will probobly end up dead over this I am sure 🙁 . Yea this is what cops are trained and hired to do as it happens too much for it not to be what they are paid to do.
“An officer who defended a police dog that attacked a playing child came up with some excuses for the incident. One of them was that a police dog “can’t differentiate between a playing boy and a crime suspect.” Comforting revelation.”
Hmm…if a dog can’t differentiate between these two, I don’t know, call me crazy, but maybe IT SHOULDN’T BE A FRIGGIN’ POLICE DOG!!!!!!!!!
OMG! What the F**K is wrong with this world?
These dogs are like cops. They charge in and attack you for no reason and when you fight back, they say you attacked a police officer and say that the dog is a police officer and has more rights than you do. WTF?? And if you sue them, they say, “Oh they were just doing what they were trained to do” and get a two week paid vacation for the officer and his dog.
Meanwhile, if I shot the dog and the cop out of self-defense and say, “Oh I was just doing what I was trained to do by my self-defense trainer”, you’d either be shot and killed by another officer arriving on the scene who is willing to shoot first and make up a story later (no need to ask questions later since it was a fellow officer) or you’d be put in jail for life.
How much more of this shit are people gonna take? I just can’t understand it. Unite with your friends and neighbors and fight back, dammit!!
Notice the names of the 2 officers involved…Castro and Estravarria. Both from south of the border and probably first generation Latino’s. Now with both Dems and Republicans ready to pass immigration freedom to 30 million Mexicans you can be sure this will not be the last time you hear of police brutality. Third world nation here we come.
At what point do these terrorist bastards start getting shot?