Charges dropped against Pop Kohanowich
Some good news for you to start off the week. Remember the case of Pop Kohanowich, the patriotic senior citizen inexplicably charged with assault against a police officer after placing his hand on the officer’s shoulder? :
The assault charge against a 79-year-old man called the “Patriotic Grandpa” was dropped this morning by Guilford District Attorney Doug Henderson.
The controversial case ended with a whisper as Alexander Kohanowich stood with his attorney Seth Cohen in a Greensboro courtroom.
The case was never discussed in open court.
Kohanowich said afterward he was happy with the result. He would like for the city to apologize and pay for his legal expenses. But he has no plans to sue.
“I love this city,” he said outside the courtroom. “I had a choice to move to Greensboro and I certainly have no hard feelings.”
The decision ends a controversy that started more than a month ago in the grassy median beside the Greensboro Coliseum complex…
…After the story first appeared in the News & Record, Kohanowich’s case was picked up by national syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin and prompted a flurry of calls and e-mails about the case from as far away as Indiana, Mississippi and California.
Malkin’s headline: “Drop the charges against Pop.”
Glad to see some common sense exercised.
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Oh yeah? Well, my blogger’s Michelle Malkin, and Michelle Malkin says . . .
The jerk that arrested him should still be fired.
Another example of our brave L.E.O.
.
Glad to hear it. It should not have happened in the first place.
Reason #3,450,773,247 why I am Michelle’s #1 groupie!
Prove it Soap! Where’s the sign?
This is great news for a Monday. Thanks, Michelle for providing it. Here’s one for you, although I suspect you’re on this ….. SCOTUS ruled Indiana’s Photo ID voting law is legal….whooo hoo!
Schweet!
Good work Michelle.
Sometimes our government just needs a little nudge to getting moving in the right direction.
Good news! I agree with jtex (post #2): The arresting officer, at the least, owes Mr. Kohanowich an apology and or an afternoon of fishin.’ (Everyone I know in Greensboro fishes.)
Pop should definitely be reimbursed for expenses.
Exceedingly good news.
I am very happy for “Pop”…common sense isn’t totally dead.
englishqueen01….. Good to see you back!
I’m sorry that the old guy had to go through what he did, just to get him out of the media eye when Obama was in town.
I’m sure he is glad it’s over. Those cops in that town deserve all the flak they get, and I hope they get fired!!!
I’m thinking that the lack of judgement to charge someone like Pop and the influx of phone, e-mail and other messages is what swayed it, EQ, not common sense on any of their parts.
However, it is still good to know that Pop is not going to be prosecuted.
I am glad to hear the charges were dropped … a good final decision to say the least …
At the same time I am very unhappy … the whole thing should have never gone into the courtroom … so the D.A. still grandstanded the whole thing …
I’m sad to say that I think Barry is probably right. We were fortunate that media professionals like Michelle,Jeri Rowe of the Greensboro News & Record, & part time bloggers took an interest in Pops case, or else I’m afraid he would have been just another case number on the docket.
It’s a great example of why it’s important for every American to speak up.
It goes back to that old adage by Pastor Martin Niemöller
I know most of you know it pretty well, but I always like to be reminded of it.
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
~Dan Lee
I reckon this is proof that “Common Sense” isn’t completely gone.
Now, if only we can get those Border Patrolmen released.
Thanks for the follow-up Michelle. I can’t thank the other readers that also contacted the local authorities to let them know how many felt about this miscarraige of justice. Glad to see the charges were dropped against “Pop,” but they should have never been pressed to begin with. It appears public outcry against the excesses of elitist public officials is shaming them into to doing what is right. Thank God for the new media!
Thanks for reminding me.. I’ll wrote about that soon on my site. It’s hard to keep up with all the atrocities of liberals in our government these days..
~Dan Lee
Ooops.. Of course I meant “write” about it soon..
~Dan Lee
Really? Why was he arrested in the first place? Why were there charges?
If there had been nada sound made on his behalf, he would have been prosecuted. The people who spoke up made the difference not common sense.
Wow! A twofer on Mon. being this is also my day off (a threefer), life couldn’t be better.
The citizenry wins against the corrupt, power-hungry and woefully inept stooge who can’t rationalize between “assault” and “hey you ass, halt.” Stop harassing me.
Don’t give yourselves too much credit. He didn’t get off because of media attention. He got off because he got a lawyer. . . and the cop probably didn’t show up. It’ll cost him 500 bucks and that’s that.
The only pressure our city responds to is that from the NAACP. They just fired the Chief of Police last year for a mythical ‘black book’ that supposedly targeted black officers for something or other. FBI, SBI, NAACP all looked to lynch someone and they got someone fired.
Anyway, like I said, if you want to know about the GPD – and it is interesting – read what Jerry Bledsoe writes in the Rhino Times.
With all due respect ThackerAgency, this is a cynical response at best.
I mean I’m trying to encourage people to speak out, & pressure their Government to do the right things. You speak as if elected politicians (District Attorneys for instance) have no concern about what the people think in an election year, & that’s just not true.
Also, I personally don’t take credit for any of this, because I was praying the whole time for the guy. I believe that God directs citizens to have the courage to speak up. If we want to get technical about “taking credit”, the credit belongs to God. Without his influence & provenial grace quite frankly, I for one of many probably wouldn’t give a crap about anyone else. Human nature is terribly apart from God. That’s the hard cold truth right there.
~Dan Lee
Where is the OUTRAGE from our token liberals! What? No comparisons to the lefty loons who were unfairly treated and prosecuted? Oh, that’s right…they never seem to get prosecuted, now do they?
Never doubt the power of Michelle. The force is strong in this one ….
without knowing all of the details of the case but the summary provided in Michelle’s initial posting shows that there was cause for the arrest and I think the DA showed good judgment in reviewing the facts and not pressing charges.
Those who call for the firing of this officer obviously have not worked the streets in a law enforcement capacity and the quote from the first posting says it best
Flynt sees the arrest as appropriate without unnecessary force. You put your hands on an officer, you’re going to get arrested. That’s the bottom line.”
Are you still a police officer?
So, if I walked up behind you, tapped you on the shoulder, and said, “Excuse me, Officer! Could you direct me to the closest Post Office,” YOU would arrest me because I “put hands” on you?
For the record, “putting hands” on a police officer, as defined, means aggressively engaging, not simple touching. The officer MUST feel that his safety is in jeopardy. If your discretion is such, that a kindly looking, 70 year old man is a threat to you, then you have no business being a Police Officer!
What a bunch of wusies. My great uncles were Chicago cops. If you put your hand on their shoulder in a non threatening way they would just brush it off and tell you not to do it. If you did it in an aggressive ‘attack’ kind of way, you’d just wake up on the ground with some body parts bent, broken, or missing. But not today. We have to go to court. Lots of lawyers. Take up the judges time with trivia. Great. That’s progress. Yuck.
right_on
1. No I am no longer working in law enforcement
2. The fear factor of a threat does not negate the threat.
3. Tapping on the shoulder of a police officer is not a effective means of communication. It is better to get his/her attention with a voice command.
4. If you look at this particular case, it appears that Pop was not immediately following the orders of the officer and with the physical contact the officer felt justified in making an arrest. One must take into account the setting and in a crowd control during a protest or in a protection detail with a potentially confrontational participant .
Now as for my personal view on this, it appears that the DA did not find sufficient cause to prosecute the charge. This is the beauty of our legal system. The police officer felt that a law was broken and enforced it. No harm no foul. If Pop feels that he should get his $500 back for legal fees; he should file a small claims court claim.
Chuck,
Great that your great uncles served proudly but it is very hard to extrapolate their experience when comparing what the arresting officer in Pops case did.
I am not supporting the actions or arrest against Pop just trying to share a different perspective and show that this is how our legal system works. Not to knock on Michelle or the participants here but most likely charges would have been dropped even if this case did not get the level of a attention that it did.
As for the wussie claim, assualt can be defined not only as a attack against someone but any physical contact with another person without their consent.
To put this issue to rest, the system worked.
And sometimes it takes something a little more subtle, like a two by four between the eyes…
.
You know what’s really odd?
I sent this Police Dept. an e-mail telling them, in fairly explicit terms, what I thought of them arresting this guy, and I’ll be darned, I never did get a response back from them, go figure.
Some people/dept.s have no sense of humor.
.
You missed an important component of the law regarding assault claims, & that is “intent”. Intent must be established, & not just means to carry out the assault. You will find no sane judge that calls putting a hand on an officer’s should alone, “an assault”.
I’ve seen officers use more restraint than this at really rowdy protests, even after being shoved by protesters.. If you’d like I can point you to a few You Tube videos where 20-23 year old, college students actually physical push back at the police, & they just kept them back by pushing them with batons. No arrests even.. I’m not saying that;s always right, but showing restraint goes a lot further than unnecessary escalation, & smart cops know it.
This case would have been very shaky on both counts of missing “intent” & “means”, since Kohanowich is 78 years old, & with the added scrutiny, would have been an fiasco for the City, & the PD from a publicity perspective.
I’ll defend a cop who is not a robocop idiot any day of the week, but these guys were in the wrong, period.
~Dan Lee
supersean
I am a retired police officer from Chico (CA) P.D., home of the nefarious “Pioneer Days” riots, from years ago. I have been involved in numerous crowd control, unlawful assemblies, and riotous situations.
Being able to accurately gauge a situation is a the forefront of affecting an arrest. In my experience, the threat of arrest after verbal warnings is generally enough to get people to comply.
This 70 yr. old must have looked pretty dangerous/intimidating/threatening to have been arrested. Or, the policeman was just tired of listening to his BS, and decided to remedy the situation by using a standard practice “catch all” reason to make the arrest, knowing and not caring that it would go no where. My take, anyway.
Dan Lee
We’ll not to argue semantics here but you’ve obviously never worked in the police or legal fields.
1. If an officer felt that he was assaulted, he has the right and the duty to make an arrest. It is then the duty of the legal branch to substantiate the claim and press charges or vindicate the and let the arrestee go.
2. The legal definition of assault varies from jurisdiction but there is a common standard when it comes to police action in a crowd control or protection detail. Most departments have a zero contact policy and when anyone lays a hand on an officer for any reason, they are arrested. It is the law it is common sense.
Most arrests of the hippies and tree huggers occur for similar and then have the charges dropped after legal review
Now with this being said, I want to stress again I do not support the actions of the arrest against Pap just support the legal grounds that an officer could make an arrest based upon the limited information provided. I do believe that the calls for the officers firing or 2×4 between the eyes are out of line.
right_on,
you hit the nail on the head with your post and the truth is we really do not know the exchange that occurred so therefore in my opinion we cannot make a rush to judgment. Did the officer provide a verbal warning? Did Pop touch the officer more than once?
And after all we must remember that this story worked out in everyones favor
I’m glad the charges were dropped against Pop Kohanowich. It was silly to charge him in the first place. I couldn’t comment on it when it happened for I wasn’t registered. Again I want to thank you, Mrs. Malkin.
Looks like a few posters have a dog in the fight or did have, trying to justify the actions of this over zealous police officer. Since non of us were there and do not know exactly what went on i’m curious just what did this cop think the old man, hard of hearing was going to do to him? Lack of judgment on the police officers part, IMHO.
Any way it made my Monday a lot better and the SCOTUS decision was a fine topping…6-3. Thanks MM for the reporting the story in the 1st place and the follow up…clapping vigorously here.
I’d be interested in knowing what you do for a living jtex. Only because I want to find some examples of boneheads in you field and paint everyone in your field as being exactly the same way, with as wide a brush as I possibly can.
For the record I too sent GPD an e-mail. Someone earlier stated that “the fear factor does not negate the threat” which is true, but common sense does. It is true that everyone is a threat but a violent twenty-year-old with a club trumps a peaceful eighty-year-old with a sign.
#36 right_on
Or he was a rookie who panicked.
I seriously doubt it was panic. Senior Officers are always on the scene in these situations, and that officer would not let the situation get that far, nor would other officers tolerate a rookie officer losing control. Officers are trained in crowd control before they are thrust into these kind of situations. At least in my experience, that has been the case.
I know a GPD cop who worked with the arresting office. He said the officer has done things like this before and does not have good sense.