Death of an American, cousin of one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, after being “tasé” in Los Angeles. The facts date back to January 3 and sparked growing reactions and controversy last week in the United States when police released videos of the arrest of Keenan Anderson, recorded by the officers’ portable cameras, on Wednesday. 20 minutes takes stock of the violent death of this 31-year-old professor.
What happened ?
In the videos of the portable cameras of the police, we see this teacher visibly feverish and agitated after being involved in a trivial traffic accident in the Venice district of Los Angeles. Officers use force to subdue him, pinning him to the ground where they taser him to stop him struggling.
“Police wrestled with Anderson for several minutes, using a Taser, body weight, hard grips and armbars to overcome his resistance,” Los Angeles police said in a statement.
Video shows Keenan Anderson yelling “help”, “they’re trying to kill me” or “they’re trying to do me the same as George Floyd”, as an officer presses his elbow to his chest and neck . Taken to hospital after his arrest, Keenan Anderson died of cardiac arrest.
The precedent George Floyd
On May 25, 2020, African-American George Floyd died of asphyxiation by a Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee on his neck for nearly ten minutes. This police blunder had triggered a protest movement in the United States and in other countries of the world, with the central slogan Black Lives Matter (Black lives matter).
Accusations of new blunder
“He was killed by the police,” accused on Instagram Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matters movement. Keenan Anderson, who lived in Washington and was visiting Los Angeles, was his cousin. “Keenan deserved to live, his child deserved to be raised by their father. Keenan, we will fight for you and for all of our loved ones who are victims of state violence”
The death of Keenan Anderson brings to three the number of deaths involving police officers in the city of Los Angeles since the beginning of 2023, according to American media.
The African-American mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, called for the immediate suspension of these police officers pending the results of the investigations. “Regardless of the outcome of these investigations, the need for urgent change is clear. We need to reduce the use of force, first and foremost, and I have absolutely no tolerance for excessive (use of) force,” Karen Bass said on Wednesday.