Harrowing video footage released this week shows officers with the Los Angeles Police Department forcibly restraining and repeatedly using a Taser on 31-year-old Keenan Anderson — a high school teacher and cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors — following a traffic accident.
Soon thereafter, Anderson was transported to a local hospital where he suffered cardiac arrest and died.
Footage of the incident shows one LAPD officer holding Anderson down with an elbow on his neck while another, wielding a Taser, yells orders for Anderson to turn over.
“I can’t,” Anderson says as he struggles to breathe. “They’re trying to George Floyd me.”
Seconds later, one of the officers uses the Taser on Anderson several times as he pleads for help.
Watch (warning: the video is disturbing):
Anderson, who was visiting Los Angeles on winter break, was a 10th grade English teacher at the Digital Pioneers Academy in Washington, D.C.
In a statement, the school said it is “deeply saddened” by Anderson’s death and called the details of the police encounter “as disturbing as they are tragic.”
“Keenan is the third person killed by the Los Angeles Police Department in 2023, and we’re 12 days into the new year,” the statement notes, referring to the police killings of 45-year-old Takar Smith and 35-year-old Oscar Sanchez earlier this month.
Last year, U.S. police killed at least 1,176 people, the highest number on record. A Reuters investigation published in 2017 showed that “more than 1,000 people in the U.S. have died after police stunned them with Tasers, and the stun gun was ruled to be a cause or contributing factor in 153 of those deaths.”
“Keenan’s family deserves justice,” the Digital Pioneers Academy said in its statement. “And our students deserve to live, to live without fear, and to have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential.”
Cullors, the Black Lives Matter co-founder, said in an interview with The Guardian that “my cousin was asking for help, and he didn’t receive it. He was killed.”
“Nobody deserves to die in fear, panicking and scared for their life,” Cullors continued. “My cousin was scared for his life. He spent the last 10 years witnessing a movement challenging the killing of Black people. He knew what was at stake and he was trying to protect himself. Nobody was willing to protect him.”
Summarizing the video footage released by the LAPD, The Guardian’s Sam Levin reported that “an officer who first arrived to the car collision at around 3:30 pm at Venice and Lincoln boulevards found Anderson in the middle of the road, saying, ‘Please help me.'”
“The officer told him to go on the sidewalk, and issued commands, saying, ‘Get up against the wall,'” Levin noted. “Anderson held his hands up, responding, ‘I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.’ Anderson complied with the officer’s commands and sat down on the sidewalk. After a few minutes, he appeared to be concerned with the officer’s behavior, saying, ‘I want people to see me,’ and ‘You’re putting a thing on me.’ Eventually, Anderson started to flee, at which point the officer chased him on his motorcycle, shouting, ‘Get down to the ground, now,’ and ‘Turn over on your stomach.’ Anderson repeatedly responded, ‘Please help me,’ and ‘They’re trying to kill me,’ as multiple officers arrived and held him down.”
In a statement issued Wednesday following the release of the video footage, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she has “grave concerns about the deeply disturbing tapes.”
“Full investigations are underway,” said Bass. “I will ensure that the city’s investigations will drive only toward truth and accountability. Furthermore, the officers involved must be placed on immediate leave.”
“No matter what these investigations determine, however, the need for urgent change is clear,” the mayor continued. “We must reduce the use of force overall, and I have absolutely no tolerance for excessive force.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today during our fundraiser. We have 6 days to add 379 new monthly donors. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.