NORFOLK
Pamela Brown, well-known for hula hooping almost every day on a grassy Granby Street median near Wards Corner, can talk about the 1977 car crash that injured her brain like it just happened.
But after her release from jail Tuesday, the 49-year-old woman said she was at a loss to recall her arrest Saturday morning by city police.
Police say what started as a noise complaint led them to Brown and that she was shocked repeatedly with a Taser. She spent the weekend in jail on charges of assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and excessive noise before her release Tuesday on a $5,000 recognizance bond.
No police report was available Tuesday, and no further details were released.
Brown was 17 years old and six days from graduating from Deep Creek High School in Chesapeake when she was in the car crash in 1977. She spent weeks in a coma, and she had to relearn how to walk and speak.
She has struggled to establish an independent life since the injury, said her social worker, Marylin Copeland, who came to court with Brown. Brown has short-term memory loss and seizures.
She lives in the Cromwell House apartments for senior citizens and people with disabilities. Nearly every day, Brown hangs a radio in a plastic bag from a road sign on nearby Granby Street and hula hoops to "golden oldies."
She used to hula hoop closer to her apartment, but her radio woke residents. She was charged last year with disturbing the peace, but the charge was withdrawn in Circuit Court after she appealed her conviction in District Court.
After her release Tuesday afternoon, Brown said she didn't remember anything about Saturday's arrest. Jail staff returned Brown's possessions, including a medic-alert necklace reading: "Seizure disorder, metal rod in lower LT leg & pin LT shoulder, allergic to penicillin, aspirin."
She's due back in court on Nov. 3.
Brown's lawyer is Howard Copeland, who is married to her social worker. The Copelands said Tuesday that they talked with police who patrol near Wards Corner after last year's incident to warn them about Brown's brain injury and the conduct it might cause.
"When she's confronted, she has a negative reaction," Marylin Copeland said. The injury makes Brown prone to passive seizures, during which she doesn't react to her environment, Brown said.
"This is something most people don't understand - especially cops," Brown said.
It also makes her impulsive, Copeland said. Still, Brown doesn't believe she assaulted police officers, given her physical limitations.
"No way," Brown said. "And I was brought up by my parents to respect and obey police officers."
She also said that if neighbors objected to her music, she would exercise farther away. Meanwhile, she was headed home.
"I'll be glad to sleep in my own bed and not have to hear all that noise," Brown said of the jail. "These ears can hear roaches running."
Michelle Washington, (757)446-2287, michelle.washington@pilotonline.com
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Just as a reminder... the city of Norfolk offers help for those who appear to be in psychiatric crisis or emergency. I see NOTHING about a call to Norfolk CSB's emergency services for assistance. The police could have called in specially trained individuals and served as a secondary support for safety. Services in Norfolk and Virginia are NOT great but there is something available outside of a tazer.
Remember this when you go out to vote... Individuals with disabilities will use tax dollars - either through the legal system or for community supports. How you vote regulates where the dollars go and that makes al the difference.
They can be strong sometimes.
This lady hula hooped everyday and all day for over 30 years? You know she is in shape, I bet she could knock down a Norfolk cop or two.
Age/Gender/Size
While it's very easy for posters here to rip apart the police department, I'd like to play devil's advocate. From what's been reported, the officer that responded was new on the force and didn't know about Hula Hoop Lady's past, so we don’t know what he was thinking/feeling when he approached someone that may not have been acting in a rational manner. We don't know everything, only that a call was made about a disturbance, and she was taz'd and arrested. Now, many of you cite the fact she's mentally challenged, a woman, elderly, etc. Last time I checked, it doesn't take a young, beefy NFL linebacker to pull a trigger. It's very possible the officer did what he thought necessary by using NON-lethal force. Imagine the posts had he shot her.
Ya'll have it wrong
Norfolk PD responded to a noise complaint made by a citizen. The person causing the complaint was Ms. Brown. If Ms. Brown would have cooperated with Norfolk PD, she wouldn't have been tased. End of story. And to blame her lack of cooperation on a medical condition which causes an adverse reaction to confrontation.... please. Confrontation is in day to day life and not many people have a happy disposition when being stopped by the police, I know I don't. But, I cooperate and hence have never been tased. It's not the officer's responsibility to understand the nuances of EVERY citizen and EVERY condition. If you are well enough to live among the every day citizen, you are well enough to live by the same law as the every day citizen. Period.
Well I feel safer now..
The next time I am in Norfolk, I will feel so much safer knowing that NPD is tough on crime. I do not have to be worried about being accosted by the Hula hoop woman. Thanks Norfolk Police Department for keeping us all safe from a mentally disabled woman. And an added thanks for tasering this poor woman...........NICE!!!!
elsie
I don't care what you looked up. I saw Trooper Wooten with my own eyes say he used an actual Tazer. He turned the severity down to a training setting and then tazered a 10 year old. He himself admitted at the least it was incredibly bad judgement.
So your ok w/ that?
Ira - those are not quite the facts...
I just looked into the whole tasering Palin's relative thing and found that:
Wooten was a new Taser instructor, and his stepson (Palin's nephew) was asking him about the equipment. Wooten hooked his stepson up to a training aid.
While it was stupid, given the stepson was 10 years old, it doesn't quite fall into the realm of truth to say that "Palin's relative was tasered", does it?
Lucky
The Norfolk Police Dept. is lucky that woman is still alive. What a travesty.
Ashamed of my city, ashamed of my state
I am an individual who works daily with individuals with disabilities. I am also a Norfolk resident.
These past few days, I have been saddened and disturbed by the events surrounding Ms. Brown.
There are services in place for individuals with disabilities, particularly if there is a possibility of psychiatric crisis or escalation. I see no reference in this story to a call to Norfolk CSB's Emergency Services unit - a 24 hour a day service to assist individuals in crisis. Why would they not be called to assist an individual who very clearly has her own struggles? Why would the police allow a situation with a delicate individual to escalate instead of seeking support from staff who are readily available and well trained?
Ms. Brown is well known to me, a Norfolk resident. I imagine then she is also a well-known resident to those officers patrolling her area.
This signifies yet again to me the little services available to individuals with disabilities, the lack of community support and limited financial resources for these individuals. Jail has become Norfolk's answer to addressing difficult populations instead of housing, day programs, job programs, emergency fund
xwifeofxnpd
So you justify tazing a mentally handicapped harmless woman who has been doing the same activity for years in the same place.
I beeped every day when I drove by and she waved and put a smile on my face evry day. I would say she was more of an asset to Wards corner than anything else going on there.
This is the same Ward Corner area of Norfolk
that is home to open air dope dealing and prostitution, and the location for multiple murders this year, yet the cops find the time to beat on a harmless mentally disabled women?
Several of you
Several of you did not cry foul when Sarah Palin was going after a state trooper who tazered her relative. The kid was only 10 years old. Should he have been Hula Hoopin' in front of a bank? Would it have been a problem is she were a democrat?
This is good stuff here.
Scary
I must admit due to my own experiences w/ NPD, that I am not a fan. But after this story it just solidifies that the dept is in dire need of an internal makeover.
OOops
Oops. I just realized the article doesnt state officer Wood was the cop in question, another poster did. (read the article and comments together) Hate to name him personally if we dont know for sure it was him. The rest of my comments stand though.
Officer Wood must be a real tough guy.
Too bad this cop wont use his taser on drug dealers and hookers. I guess they might fight back. I support the cops and respect what they do to help our communities, but there are way more serious offenses that the police seem to ignore in that area. Somehow they find the time to get hula hoop lady though. Shame on them.
just don't understand
can someone please tell me why the city of norfolk still has a police department? they're damned if they do and damned if they don't,regardless of any situation any more. i realize this person has special needs and she wants her independence but hoola hooping on granby street is dangerous for anyone. why can't she be made to do this closer to her home without the radio? whats her social worker doing to help direct this persons activities to something more safe. and if she does have moments of agitation, then my hats off to any of the officiers involved.
It Takes A Real Manly-Man Cop to Arrest a Hula Hoop Lady!
Way to go in Norfolk PD! I can walk the streets of Ward's corner and know that I am safe from the menace known as the hula hoop lady. I think tasering her into submission was a fine idea and I am SURE that the jury at the CIVIL SUIT for excessive force will agree that this was the proper course of action for a 49 year-old brain-damaged hula hoop lady. It's refreshing to know that the Norfolk police department has officers on the street who know how to keep a hula hoop lady under control. Using electricity on the hula hoop lady must be at least as much fun as nightsticking the black population, another popular pastime at Norfolk PD. I feel very sure that this will definitely prevent the propagation of hula hoop ladies, and that the streets of Norfolk are much safer with her in jail. Kudos to the manly officer for taking out this threat to our community. Your mother must be so proud.
Where are all the changes in mental health
services & procedures Little Timmy Kaine was promising after the Tech shootings? Someone please tell me there's a better way to help persons w/disabilities or whom are mentally challenged. Aren't the police, as paid professional observers not more aware that this person is limited & special circumstances exist? Circumstances that I know 1st hand are easy to see as the nose on your face. I can't think of how many times I have seen this lady myself & I live in P-Town. I kind of expect to see her & I would think NPD see's her alot more than I. NPD, please use more common sence & a little less force. I would also like to see the police report & or further details. This did occur last week & I'm sure the paperwork is complete by now. I'd also like to know whom called in the noise complaint, because I know this area is so quiet that you can hear the crickets chirping. A bad situation only made worse, no win win here.
amazing
For once, Gertz, I agree with you. I can not imagine any reason the need to shock this lady into submission would be needed. Standard fare for the Norfolk bullys as far as I'm concerned. I can't wait till someone files for the info through the FOIA and this ALL comes to light.
Unsolved Murder In 2004
The NPD needs to focus their attention on finding out who shot and killed the security guard in the bank that is located at the same spot that Ms. Brown does her hula hooping. Oh no, that's just too hard for them.