After this incident, the taser gun controversy may be stirred again. When a Florida teenager ran from the police on Tuesday, police officers used a taser gun to stop him; which led to his premature death.
Israel Hernandez, 18, was drawing graffiti on an abandon building in Miami Beach, and when police saw him they began to chase him. After telling him to stop running, the police stunned him with a taser gun. Hernandez was showing signs of medical stress, and he was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital; where he later passed away. His family said that they were not aware that he had any medical problems. Autopsy reports are still pending to find the cause of death. Israel Hernandez’s sister said he was an artist who “lived and breathed” for his art work.
Police are always unaware of medical problems before they tase their suspects, so how can they just shoot hundreds of watts of electricity through a person? Hernandez most likely did not have any medical problems, and he still died after being taken down with a taser gun. Since 2001, over 500 people died from stun guns in the United States. Something has to give. We can’t continue to take the lives away from people with these weapons.
When will we start holding officers accountable for their brutality and excessive use of force? It seems the more these situations arise, the more they are ignored and even justified. Over 20 years after the Rodney King incident and what has changed? We live in a country which profits from violent policing. Read more about how our justice system has fixed the game to turn a buck at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-privatized-police-state.html