Update on Patricia Konie and Ashton O'Dwyer

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XavierBreath

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To: National and State Desk

Contact: Ashton R. O'Dwyer, Jr., 504-561-6561

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A New Orleans woman is recovering from surgery this week from injuries resulting from when she was roughed-up by authorities who forced her to leave her home a week after Hurricane Katrina. Patricia Konie, 58, has filed a Federal lawsuit over the injuries and other violations of civil rights.

"My client was severely injured in a needless removal from her home," stated attorney Ashton O'Dwyer. "Patricia Konie had food, plenty of water, and a roof over her head. The police who illegally entered her home and imposed their will on a frail, middle-aged female should have been out apprehending armed, male looters instead."

Konie was greeting a reporter and photographer from a San Francisco TV station and a journalist from the London Times when police unexpectedly entered her home. When she refused to leave as ordered, they confiscated a firearm used for defense and according to Konie, "slammed" her to the ground, both displacing and fracturing her left shoulder.

After remaining in custody for several hours without charges being filed against her by authorities, she was flown alone to South Carolina where she remained for more than a month before returning to her native New Orleans.

A Federal lawsuit was filed claiming that authorities assaulted and knocked her to the ground when she refused to leave her New Orleans home on September 7th, 2005. Konie also alleges numerous civil rights violations including assault and battery by police in her suit against several Louisiana and California State Police officers who took her into custody. She also alleges authorities violated her Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

"Hurricane Katrina was horrible, but there is no excuse for what happened to this nice lady", said O'Dwyer. "Police caused her months of pain and suffering and she still faces months of physical therapy. This suit will hold the individuals responsible for their misdeeds."

Konie had her surgery early on Monday morning, December 12. She is still recovering in the hospital, and lives alone on a limited budget of Social Security benefits. She is devastated by what happened and has not had her seized property returned.

"Sadly, Patricia Konie is only one of many examples of police going too far in the wake of Hurricane Katrina," said O'Dwyer. "Already one court has ruled against their strong-arm tactics, and we look forward to our day in court."

http://www.usnewswire.com/

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I don't ever remember crying about it, but cops are routinely bashed. It's too bad she was injured-that should go without saying. If she resisted and they used reasonable force to arrest her, that's fine with me. I don't know all the specifics of the case and I assume you don't either. Because she appears to be a frail old woman and she decided not to go with the program, she would be more susceptible to injury.

This appears to be a case of a lawyer doing his/her job in making their client look like a completely innocent victim and the authorities looking like monsters. She should have left when she was told and none of this would have ever happened. They were removing her from her home for a reason, not because they had nothing else to do.

I like how the attorney put in that it was "a needless removal from her home". I seem to recall some stories about people that refused to leave their homes, then the same people crying about authorities not rescuing them, giving supplies, etc. Sometimes you just can't win.

I hope she recovers quickly.
 
Keep in mind that Mr. O'Dwyer himself was there.

He is the attorney who declared "I will leave when I am dead. OK. Let them be warned. They come to my house, they try to evict me, they try to take my guns, there will be gunfire." When officers insisted they were only there to help, he instructed them to "Treat me with benign neglect. Get out of my neighborhood, get out of my life, get out of my God damned city."

In another interview, CBS news correspondent Lee Cowan asked O'Dwyer "So if someone walked into your house, you'd shoot 'em?"
O'Dwyer responded "With pleasure."
"Dead?"
"Yes! I would aim for the head. Actually, you aim for the mid-chest."

The authorities decided to find an easier target.

A lawyer is being quoted so all of it is true of course
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I don't think the events are very disputable.

They were removing her from her home for a reason, not because they had nothing else to do.
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Care to state the reason?
 
Were you there?
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Yes.
Were you?

It truely saddens me that my fellow gun owners have forgotten about the illegal confiscations in New Orleans in a scant 3 months. I had hoped that the abuses of the constitution in New Orleans could be turned into a victory for gun owners everywhere. I guess memories are just to short, and sheeple do not mind being led to the slaughterhouse.
 
If she resisted and they used reasonable force to arrest her, that's fine with me.
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Arrested for what? Not following arbitrary commands from LEOs? She was in her own home, not breaking any laws until some JBT's stormed her.

So...Arrested for what? What statute?
 
I guess the main reason would be Katrina.

The woman was being taken from her home because New Orleans is below sea level and a hurricane hit the city and it vitrually ground to a stop. There are not arbitrary commands, the circumstances were unique and catastrophic. The authorities were there to remove the people that didn't know enough to get out on their own. The point was to minimalize casualties. I don't have a staute and I'm not going to look it up-I'm not that involved in the incident. It seems like common sense to me.
 
No and I know you were there (GOD PRAISE YA), so what you are also telling us is that your PERSOANLLY witnessed THIS INCIDENT?
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Of course not. You should be more specific...;)

However I find the incident in question hard to doubt when orders for gun confiscation were given by Eddie Compass and Warren Riley, and out of state officers went about carrying them out. This incident was filmed. I assume you have watched the tape. It was discussed at length here. Eddie Compass has left in disgrace as police chief of New Orleans. The NRA has filed suit to halt the confiscations. A restraining order was issued to halt the confiscations.

And now you doubt the confiscations occured? Now you would prefer to take the word of a man who forced an old woman to the ground to take her only means of protection rather than believe the attorney and the woman who was victimized? Where were you when Tookie Williams needed you most?

k9lwt, all I can suggest is that you read up on this a bit. I hope that you are simply uninformed about what happened.
 
And now you doubt the confiscations occured? Now you would prefer to take the word of a man who forced an old woman to the ground to take her only means of protection rather than believe the attorney and the woman who was victimized? Where were you when Tookie Williams needed you most?
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I dont doubt that confiscations occurred, they were admitted IIRC.

I just dont accept willy nilly a sharks view of how tasty his prey is gonna be. Between black and white there is always gray.


WildsneezeAlaska
 
Wasnt this the older lady that we saw video of being jumped by several law enforcment officers?

1. what is the penalty for failing to evacuate in NO? isnt it like a misdemeanor or something with no arrest or posibly no punishment at all.

2. I think the officers were sleeping during the use of force training session that covered de-escalation.

3. The lady was in her own home talking to reporters not out on the street looting nor being a nuisance. I am sure the officers could have found something better to do with thier time than tackle an old lady...lol
 
I guess the main reason would be Katrina.

The woman was being taken from her home because New Orleans is below sea level and a hurricane hit the city and it vitrually ground to a stop. There are not arbitrary commands, the circumstances were unique and catastrophic. The authorities were there to remove the people that didn't know enough to get out on their own. The point was to minimalize casualties. I don't have a staute and I'm not going to look it up-I'm not that involved in the incident. It seems like common sense to me.
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Doesn't seem like common sense to me. I don't really know whether or not I'd leave given a situation like Katrina but I do believe that I am the only one allowed to make that choice. If this woman wanted to die in her home who is anyone to deny her control over her own body?
 
"k9lwt, all I can suggest is that you read up on this a bit. I hope that you are simply uninformed about what happened."

As I mentioned earlier, I don't have all the specifics on the case and I'm honestly not all that interested. Just because someone is a victim, or a lawyer representing a victim doesn't make them honest or reputable. There is always more to the story than what is leaked. I hope that the truth will eventually come out. If the cops did wrong, they should be dealt with. It was a unique set of circumstances, and they were probably doing the best they knew how under the circumstances.
 
Redworm,

As I said-it seems like common sense to ME. My version of common sense and the next guy/gal's is most likely completely different. If I was in the middle of a natural disaster and a LEO came door to door and said we should leave, I'd leave. That's my option and my choice. If I told him to go to hell and he had the power to make me leave and I was injured resisting-that's MY fault. It's not a LEO's fault that was there lawfully to get me to leave. I don't know the details of the incident and if he didn't have a legal right to be there, as I said-he's wrong and should be dealt with.
 
Redworm,

As I said-it seems like common sense to ME. My version of common sense and the next guy/gal's is most likely completely different. If I was in the middle of a natural disaster and a LEO came door to door and said we should leave, I'd leave. That's my option and my choice. If I told him to go to hell and he had the power to make me leave and I was injured resisting-that's MY fault. It's not a LEO's fault that was there lawfully to get me to leave. I don't know the details of the incident and if he didn't have a legal right to be there, as I said-he's wrong and should be dealt with.
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I probably would leave, too. Then again I might not; maybe I built that house with my own bare hands and would rather "go down with the ship" than abandon my home. The point is that no LEO should ever have the power to enter a person's home nor drag them out of it if they haven't commited a crime.

He may have had a legal right to be there under whatever laws dictate these kinds of situations but that still doesn't mean it was right. Law and morality are not mutually inclusive. A law can be unjust and an immoral action can be legal.
 
Fair enough-personally I'd rather piss her off and take her out of her home if I had the legal right. It would be easier on me morally than seeing or hearing about her floating lifelessly in the mess a week later.
 
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