A black man from Washington, D.C., named Keenan Anderson resisted arrest whereas visiting Los Angeles. To subdue him, Los Angeles law enforcement officials tased him a number of occasions. He later died of cardiac arrest at a hospital. He was additionally a cousin of Black Lives Matter cofounder Patrisse Cullors.
NPR wrote: “In accordance with the accompanying police assertion, an LAPD officer, whose identify has not but been launched, first encountered Anderson at 3:38 p.m. PT on Jan. 3, when Anderson flagged him down for assist with a visitors collision. The officer discovered Anderson ‘working in the midst of the road and exhibiting erratic conduct.’… Others concerned within the collision stated Anderson had brought about it, (Los Angeles Police Chief Michael) Moore stated throughout a information convention Wednesday. Moore additionally stated that Anderson had dedicated a felony hit-and-run and that one other particular person concerned within the collision stated Anderson tried to steal a car.”
Some use of power specialists say he posed no risk and the usage of taser and quantity of power “appeared extreme.” As ordinary, the media highlighted the suspect’s race, implying that he would have been handled in another way had he not been black.
Just a few days after Anderson’s dying, I watched an interview on the Los Angeles Occasions channel carried out by an anchor/host Alex Cohen. She interviewed Democratic California Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, who’s black. Bryan advised the police mistreated Keenan Anderson, and that the alleged mistreatment was as a result of his race. He additionally talked concerning the issues within the black group, which he insisted required extra authorities spending.
I wrote Cohen instantly after the interview:
“Noticed your interview with Assemblyman Bryan. Did you ask him why Keenan Anderson didn’t comply and that he would nonetheless be alive had he carried out so? Did you level out that at the least one of many officers concerned in attempting to subdue him is black? The LAPD displays the range of Los Angeles, with about the identical (or barely larger) share of sworn officers who’re Hispanic, black, or Asian as is the inhabitants of the town.
“But the implication in your interview is that the LAPD is systemically racist. Why did you let your visitor get away with implying that no matter occurred to Anderson needed to do with Anderson’s race? Even within the case of George Floyd, the lead prosecutor, who was black, by no means argued that Derek Chauvin was motivated by George Floyd’s race. Certainly within the prosecutor’s opening assertion, he stated neither the police, usually, nor the Minneapolis police, usually, weren’t on trial. He stated this particular person officer was on trial. And Chauvin was by no means charged with a hate crime. Nevertheless you are feeling about Chauvin’s conduct there is no such thing as a proof Floyd’s race influenced the cop’s actions.
“Not one phrase about private duty? Not one phrase about fatherlessness within the black group, which is, by far, the primary situation? Not one phrase about faculty alternative? We spend extra money on healthcare, welfare, training and homelessness than ever earlier than. Did you ask him why California is simply 6.5% black, but blacks are 40% of the California’s homeless? Did you ask him why black male teenagers are 9 occasions extra prone to commit murders than white teenagers, and that the murdered younger black man is sort of all the time killed by one other younger black man? By the best way, the police kill extra unarmed whites yearly than unarmed blacks.”
She responded:
“Although I’m the host, I don’t make the visitor selections. That falls to our Govt Producer. I’ve truly advised having you on fairly a bit however these choices are above my pay grade.”
I replied: “You definitely have management over the questions you ask and whether or not you push again in your visitor’s ‘blacks are victims of racism narrative’ that you just accepted with out problem. It’s laborious to know why you didn’t ask the assemblyman, ‘Would this complete factor have turned out in another way had Keenan Anderson merely complied?’”
As of proper now, no response to my response.
