Instead of helping Keenan Anderson after a car accident, LAPD officers tased him to death but still protected and served, according to their union.
Source: Variety / Getty
How convenient that yet another police organization investigated themselves and found themselves innocent after taking an innocent life. KABC reports that the Los Angeles Police Union defended the unnamed cops responsible for three separate incidents of arrests turned executions in the span of two days.
Different deaths, but the same excuses from the Los Angeles Police Union
Adding more insults to fatal injuries, the Los Angeles Police Protective League also trotted out familiar excuses to place blame on everyone but its notoriously violent members. Of course, all these trained and well-armed cops feared for their lives.
“This is not a video game, this is not where you get nine lives. You’re out there, this is your one life. Domestic violence incidents along with traffic stops account for the majority of police officers being ambushed and murdered,” said LAPPL representative Debbie Thomas.
Anderson comparing himself to George Floyd shortly before his own death proves civilians are the ones who should be scared during police interactions. Officials also blamed the victims, saying all three experienced mental health emergencies. They cited the importance of LAPD’s under-resourced Mental Evaluation Units and Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Teams (SMART).
“In all three incidents that we talked about today, nothing would have changed if an MEU unit was at the scene. In any of these incidents, they have to be rendered safe first before a mental evaluation unit can come up,” said Detective Jamie McBride, the LAPPL Board Director.
Apparently, deadly force is the standard operating procedure, even for the mentally ill and car accident victims. MUE and SMART can only respond to about a third of their calls. When they do, those teams can only engage after the trigger-happy cops decide the scene is safe.
The defense is so pathetic, it takes the talking points straight from abolitionists. They’re admitting that police are too scared and unprepared to de-escalate the mentally ill while taking up valuable time, space, and billions of dollars in resources desperately needed for mental health services. If this is supposed to explain their innocence, it further highlights that this oppressive system of violence is not about public safety and cannot be reformed.
Keenan Anderson’s family files $50 million wrongful death lawsuit
Although LAPD justified its bloodthirsty incompetence instead of taking responsibility, Keenan Anderson’s loved ones still hold them accountable. USA Today reports Anderson’s family announced a $50 million dollar lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles on Friday.
Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Carl Douglas joined Anderson’s 5-year-old son Syncere Kai Anderson and the boy’s mother, Gabrielle Hansell, at the press conference. The complaint says the cops either refused or the city failed to train them to subdue someone without “unreasonable deadly force.” Anderson fled a short distance on foot before multiple officers tackled and repeatedly tased him. The 31-year-old died from cardiac arrest hours later at the hospital.
“If you Taser someone with 50,000 watts of electrical energy six times in the heart, is there really any wonder that moments later, his heart will begin to flutter? Is there any wonder why four hours later, his heart could no longer withstand the pressure from that Taser and give out, leaving a 5-year-old boy in his wake?” Douglas asked during the announcement Friday.
Bodycam footage shows Anderson was scared and disoriented, appearing to run out of fear of the cops themselves. Outnumbered and on foot, he was a danger to himself far more than the officers at the scene. They already had the young father on the ground before tasing him.
“The officers’ use of unreasonable force under these circumstances was intentionally malicious, oppressive, and despicable, and/or with a deliberate indifference to Mr. Anderson’s rights and safety,” the complaint says.
Hansell hopes the tragedy that robbed her son of a father wouldn’t be in vain.
“My son is going to see that one day, and I don’t know how I will answer any of his questions, now or in the future. We are here to get justice for Keenan and in the process we hope to evoke change so that moving forward my son doesn’t have to live his life in fear of one day what happened to his dad may happen to him,” Hansell said.
