One of the most recent cases of excessive force occurred earlier this month, on March 1, 2015 in Los Angeles. Homeless 43 year-old Charly Leundeu Keunang, who came to the U.S. from Cameroon in West Africa, was fatally shot at Skid Row by members of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The news outbreak became a mass trending topic as a video taken by a witness was published via Facebook. In the video, Keunang who was mentally ill tussled with officers when apprehended. This unleashed tension between officers and Keunang, but seconds later concluded when officers shot fire at the scared man unwilling to cooperate. Officers are trying to excuse this by alleging that Keunang tried to grab an officer’s gun, but no video footage or eye witnesses have proven such.
Once again, like the Ferguson case, which resulted in the death of 18-year-old African American Michael Brown and riots nationwide, the spotlight is on the authorities and their dysfunctional implementation of force when trying to subdue a suspect. The pattern on this type of homicide raises the question on whether authorities’ tactics are too brutal, and also, on whether racial profiling is factor to the equation.
Just within the past month, six other cases of killed unarmed men have occurred. Another very polemical one took place on Feb. 10, 2015 in Pasco, Wash. resulting in the death of Antonio Zambrano-Montes, which was also caught on tape, and shows the man helplessly running away unarmed, and getting shot to the chest.
Authorities not only need to respect international human rights standards, which according to Amnestyusa.org, law enforcing officers should only use force as a last resort, and may only use firearms when strictly necessary to protect themselves or others. But also the United States Constitution, which states under that Eighth Amendment that cruel and unusual punishments are prohibited. Although officers undergo through mental health training, it seems that lethal force prevails, especially with the reoccurring killings of unarmed men due to minor crimes or misbehave. Excessive use of force should not be implemented out of pure reflect or instinct of adrenaline and tension, especially when suspects show no public threat.
Although the LAPD is trying to figure ways to work with the homeless community according to the Los Angeles Times, it should not be the only focus of the situation. They should focus on the dysfunctionality of the system that seems to be affecting the community. These types of “justifiable” homicides of unarmed suspects should come to an end. They could have easily used pepper spray, or at least shot him at one of his extremities, because as far as the video shows, they acted irrationally and killed an innocent victim. Had a more specialized team in handling the mentally ill been there, this could have resulted in a different outcome. But this case, like many others, was not handled properly because of poor decision making.
