Keenan Anderson was released from the City of Angels on Jan. 3 from a Santa Monica hospital, four hours after being arrested by Los Angeles police. His behavior, a few minutes after a car accident from which he appeared to flee on foot, was erratic but he was unarmed and did not threaten anyone. At the request of his family, Los Angeles police released a video of his arrest on Wednesday. She is overwhelming. From the beginning of the incident, at a crossroads in Venice, until this 31-year-old teacher was taken by ambulance, it is clear that he is not dangerous but that he is in a state of panic.
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They make me a George Floyd
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He’s afraid of dying, he says, and once he’s turned on his stomach against the asphalt, he utters this sentence loaded with meaning: “They’re making me a George Floyd. » Allusion to the famous arrest of this 46-year-old black man, who died under the pressure of the knees and elbows of two police officers on his neck in Minneapolis in May 2020. A death seized by the organization Black Lives Matter ( BLM) with demonstrations across the country to denounce systemic police violence.
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It turns out that 31-year-old Keenan Anderson, who lives in Washington and was only passing through Los Angeles for the winter holidays, is a cousin of Patrisse Cullors, one of the three co-founders of the anti-racist association. Shortly after the publication of the video, the young woman reported the “murder” of Anderson by the LAPD. Although officers did not fire live ammunition at the teacher, he was hit more than six times by Taser fire, but did not die until much later at the hospital. Toxicological analyzes showed that he had also consumed cocaine and cannabis in the hours before his arrest.
The investigation followed closely
The police chief of the country’s second city, Michel Moore, wants to be as transparent as possible and has promised an investigation that could last almost a year. The mayor of Los Angeles, African-American Karen Bass, in office for just over a month, wants the officers involved fired and is already calling for things to change “rapidly and radically” so that “Reducing excessive use of force by police”. According to her, a third of those killed by law enforcement in the country had mental health problems and did not deserve to die.
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Karen Bass had almost become a vice-presidential candidate on Joe Biden’s ticket, but he had preferred another elected Californian, Senator and former prosecutor Kamala Harris. There’s no doubt that the tragic death of Keenan Anderson will reignite the recurring debate between progressive and centrist Democrats over policing and racism in America’s police force. The Legal Defense Fund, the main civil rights organization in the country, already indicates that this case will be followed closely by its lawyers and lawyers.
Source : Le JDD
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