More than two years after the murder of African American George Floyd by a police officer, another case of police brutality is raising questions in the United States.
Videos of the police intervention that led to the death of 31-year-old teacher Keenan Anderson in Los Angeles on January 3 circulated on social networks. The black male became agitated during the procedure.
He had previously been involved in a traffic accident. Appearing to exhibit erratic behavior, he then headed down the road. The authorities therefore decided to use force to bring him under control.
While the man was on the ground, officers shot him four times in the back in 33 seconds with a taser (taser gun).
In one of the videos, Keenan Anderson asks for help on several occasions as the police try to subdue him.
“They’re trying to do the same thing George Floyd did with me,” exclaimed the man who worked in Washington DC and was visiting Los Angeles.
He was handcuffed before paramedics arrived. He eventually died in hospital four hours later after suffering cardiac arrest.
Keenan Anderson is the cousin of Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It will be difficult to convince a judge”
A Northern California congressman and top state adviser on police tactics, Ed Obayashi, criticized the intervention in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
“It’s going to be difficult to convince a judge that these officers used reasonable force,” he said. Looking at the images, he does not threaten the police. The victim indicated that he was not resisting. What could be considered resistance is the body’s automatic reflex to the painful application of the Taser.”
A retired policeman, Walter Katz, also expressed serious reservations. Katz said the victim could not comply with the police order after the first use of the weapon.
“The first application of the Taser is such that if it’s effective, it contracts the muscles, so the person can’t move, and renders them unable to comply with that order,” he explained. […] It was a bad decision by the police to use the repeating weapon.”
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is investigating the incident.