For the past few years I’ve watched and read with disgust as my man Villager over at Electronic Village highlights story after story of taser deaths in America. As you could imagine, these are deaths at the hands of police officers; anbd yes, oftentimes the victims are people of color – more specifically, they’re mostly Black males. But then I came across the following story, and I have to wonder: how long must legalized torture that’s not seen as deadly force continue to be sanctioned?
Read more at Rippa's blog on Everett Howard's death at the hands of a police officer with an electrocution device. The police electrocuted and executed Everett Howard, without so much as a trial. This was an extra-judicial murder. We used to call it "lynching," but the rope and the tree have since been replaced by an electronic fire arm, just like the "phasers" in the Star Trek television series. However the people with the phasers now are all too often police with suspected Extreme Color-Aroused Disorder. They view all young Black men as worthless pre-prison and/or pre-death scum, even when these young Black men have rejected prison and death, and are pursuing college degrees.CINCINNATI – An autopsy is expected to be performed Monday on a teen who died after being stunned with a Taser gun at the University of Cincinnati.
Everette Howard, 18, died early Saturday morning. Friends said Howard was trying to break up a fight in front of Turner Hall when campus police responded.
Police said Howard appeared angry and didn’t follow orders. Witnesses said Howard collapsed after a UC officer stunned him with a Taser.
Blacks in the United States need a national anti-electrocution and execution law just as much as we needed anti-lynching laws in the days of Jim Crow.
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