NOLA, CHPs, and Katrina Confiscations

Musings of The GeekWithA.45

Geek With A .45 (The Alpha Geek of Bloggers, Joe Huffman notwithstanding) posted recently about Patricia Konie, a middle-aged New Orleans resident who was forcibly removed from her home during the flooding which resulted from hurricane Katrina.

He refers to a previous post, and cites a video which is merely an overview of National Guard troops doing a house-to-house search for survivors . . . whom they were ordered to forcibly evacuate.

One resident, Patricia Konie, was very clear when she was visited by members of the California Hiway Patrol (who were sent to help in any way they could to support the NOPD). She didn't want to leave her home, and she didn't want the police officers in her home.

Ms Konie, you may remember, allowed the CHPs to enter her home but stood in her kitchen with a pearl-handled revolver and a clasp knife in her hand, in a non-threatening attitude (she had them both in her left hand, and was holding the revolver around the cylinder, rather than holding the grip of the revolver with her finger on or near the trigger.) When she refused to leave her home and her two dogs, the CHPs attacked her, "took her down" to the floor, confiscated her weapons and forcibly removed her from her home.

Geek reports that she suffered a broken and dislocated shoulder, which required surgery, and is now suing for damages. *

So far, so good.

Trigger Finger has found himself behind the groundswell of bloggification, so he adds a great deal of details to the story. *(She's suing The State of Louisiana, the Louisiana State Police, The State of California, and the California Hiway Patrol.)

One of the details is a link to the video which was taken when Ms Konie was 'taken down'. This is a presentation by KTVU in California, reporting on the CHPs participation in the evacuation.

Okay, we've got to the bottom line of the JerryTheGeek version of the story.

At the end of the KTVU video, we see Ms. Konie being lead out of her house, and the announcer mentions that she was allowed to take her two dogs with her.

And it shows her LIFTING ONE OF HER DOGS into the back of a military vehicle. The tailgate is armpit-high on the lady, but she doesn't seem to have much problem lifting it up.

I'm not saying she's shamming.

The news reports cited by Geekwitha45 imply that her injuries "required surgery".
The text of the suit cited by Trigger Finger suggests that surgery "may be necessary".

I've never had either a broken OR a dislocated shoulder, so perhaps someone reading this may have experiential or anecdotal evidence which will clear up the question.

All I want to know is, if a 100-pound woman was so badly injured in the shoulder, would she be able to lift a 20-pound dog to shoulder height and deposit it in the back of a truck, without showing any sign of pain or distress, shortly after the injury was inflicted?

I always thought that a dislocated shoulder was immediately and dramatically debilitating. A childhood friend of mine suffered a broken collar-bone, and he couldn't even get out of bed for a month. Are shoulders not, after all, that painful?

Has anyone heard whether she actually DID undergo surgery for these shoulder injuries?

What's the dealio here?