Cleveland police
Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
While the nation waits with bated breath for the verdict to
come out of Ferguson for the police officer who gunned down Michael
Brown, it’s important to remember that it isn’t the only case of a cop
killing an unarmed person. Far from it, actually, as police are
responsible for some 400 deaths a year, though the numbers are likely
higher as departments often engage in cover-ups and obfuscation to
protect their own. And not all are shootings, either.
Take the case of Tanesha Anderson, for example. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported yesterday
on her case in which a police officer slammed her head into the
concrete in front of her family and children. The catch? Anderson
suffered from several mental illnesses and was likely unable to fully
understand the situation.
Reports differ on what happened, with police saying that
she resisted arrest after they were called to her home for a
disturbance. Apparently she “went limp” while police were trying to take
her into custody, which the cops took as a cue to smash her head into the ground hard enough to kill her.
“The woman began to kick at officers,” said police spokesperson Ali Pillow.
“A short time later, the woman stopped struggling and appeared to go
limp. Officers found a faint pulse on the victim and immediately called
EMS.”
Anderson’s family witnessed the entire altercation, and their version of
events is a little different. They say that Anderson did not, in fact,
“kick at officers,” instead sitting silently in the police car until she
became unsettled by the enclosed space and attempted to leave. A cop
then grabbed her from the vehicle and slammed her face into the ground,
according to her brother, Joell Anderson.
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