In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants Chicago police to carry tasers and become trained to defuse non-lethal situations with non-lethal weapons and force. What a concept!
The decision follows the deaths of 19-year-old Quintonio LaGrier and 55-year-old Bettie Jones, both black and both killed when the CPD answered a domestic disturbance call last weekend. Emanuel and Interim Police Superintendent John Escalante announced the taser program in a press conference on Wednesday.
On Monday, Anthony LaGrier, the father of CPD’s latest victim, filed a lawsuit against the CPD citing “excessive and unreasonable” force used by cops, which led to his son’s death. On Tuesday night, protesters marched outside Emanuel’s home singing, “Rahm Emanuel’s got to go.”
In a broader stroke, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund released new numbers disproving a “war on cops,” a common retort to the existence of Black Lives Matter. In fact, according to the Washington Post, there was a decrease of police deaths in 2015, down 14 percent from the previous year. The most common cause of death among the 124 cops killed in the line of duty was citizens refusing to slow down for emergency vehicles. Forty-two deaths were the result of fatal shootings and another 30 were due to various other causes, including “job-related illnesses.”
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Image via AP.