Hi clo,
It all sounds pretty convincing, but then we've seen these one-sided accounts before and discovered the police were following defined procedures.
Let's examine the sequence of events.
They started out by doing an apparently deranged and dangerous man a good turn by taking him to hospital. They then discovered he was high and violent. They learnt that his behaviour was a symptom of drug taking and had no cause to believe his condition was life-threatening. They responded by seeking to subdue and arrest him. When a person is violent and on drugs, I imagine it is normal procedure to put them in gaol.
So far, so good.
It sounds like they found him hard to subdue. Maybe we can judge from a distance that they over-used their tasers. But maybe not.
I believe he died from his own cocaine overdose and not from the use of the tasers, by the way.
If so, then the tasers may have been over-used/abused but they were not the cause of his death. Okay. Police officers have used tasers in order to subdue a drug-addled person who had just kicked out a window in their car. My guess is they were a little scared of this crazy guy and didn't fancy a fight, albeit with a chap in handcuffs. Over-use? Possibly. I am no expert. But is this a story worthy of national news?
Only if he died as a result of taser use. But apparently he did not. It's a drug overdose story running alongside a taser overuse story, but they aren't much connected to one another. Except by inference and suggestion by the news organisation.
If MSNBC has downplayed or concealed the cause of death, then they are dishonestly concocting a story designed to promote outrage where a factual account suggests the death and the tasering were unconnected. The obvious dog-whistle. Racism in the police force. This is one reason I am cautious before forming a strong opinion. Channels like MSNBC want viewers to believe in a minority abuse narrative and they will make the story conform with it if needs be. Or they will find another one that works along the same lines. If they are lucky, the story will induce some good, old-fashioned, newsworthy riots. Seen it before with Michael Brown. Their politics defines their approach. Their aim is to induce outrage. I am not so easily led to it.
Even so, there will be bad actors. Unfortunately, news organisations aren't always trustworthy in defining which ones are. Or in considering the cause fairly.
Heck, they may just want to garner better ratings. Who knows?
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