San Francisco's Ken Wayne Refuses to Pass Judgment…

…unless it's against a frail old woman who doesn't have the common sense to avoid being tackled and brutalized by burly California cops. If you enjoyed this unbelievably infuriating video of a Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte-style property seizure in the Sportsman's Paradise, Stephen Van Dyke sends along this email, purportedly from Ken Wayne, the Fox newsman who assured us that we were not actually seeing an old lady getting forcibly removed from her home—we were seeing an old lady who had a gun forcibly removed from her home:

I can only tell you what we saw. I have seen other images from other police incidents. It's clear there's been no uniform policy on how police are enforcing or not enforcing any evacuations. Policies seemed to be changing day by day.

The California Highway Patrol was under the guidance of a Louisiana State Trooper during our report. It was the state trooper who ordered the woman out of the house. She opened the door, it was not kicked in. The officers talked to her for several minutes to try to get her to put down her gun and knife. (The knife was not clearly visible in the video.) The officers said they tackled her to remove the weapons for officer safety.

I'm not in a position to debate the legalities of who was right or wrong. I know the officers were enforcing a mandatory evacuation order. The woman had a gun and refused to drop it. They never arrested her. Common sense tells you if armed police tell you to put down your gun… you do it and figure out the legalities later… or risk being shot.

All things considered she was lucky. If it had been officers from another agency… she might be dead.

Regards,
Ken Wayne

It must be great consolation to the woman that policies are changing day by day. That and the fact she isn't dead.

You, the fabulous little people, commented on this issue here.