Written in GLOBAL he 4/26/2024 · 12:08 pm
Frank Tyson, 53 years old, black man, died after being violently detained by police officers last week at a social club. His death sparked outrage in the community and is already being investigated. Images from the body cameras of the police officers involved in the case, released on Wednesday (24), reveal how the murder happened.
A Canton police officer, identified as Beau Schoenegge was called to respond to a “reporting a traffic accident” and met Tyson at a bar near an American veterans club. A passerby directs him to a nearby bar, where a woman opens the door and begs: “Please get him out of here right now!”.
Upon finding Tyson at the bar, the police grab him and try to handcuff him. Tyson resists, repeating phrases like “They are trying to kill me” It is “Call the sheriff”. The officer then aggressively approaches Tyson, throwing him face down on the ground. The agent left him in that position for a prolonged period, causing him to suffocate with his own knee. The information is from the Spanish newspaper The world.
Police violence against black people is systematic
After the approach, one police officer asks another if Tyson is “calming down”, to which the other responds: “Maybe he’s dead”. The phrase recalls the murder of George Floyd, who died at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in 2020, after pleading that he couldn’t breathe, and reveals once again the deep racism that it perpetuates in the country.
The police officers’ negligence becomes even more evident when it is noted that, even after Tyson said he couldn’t breathe and fell unconscious, the officers took five minutes to begin CPR. The police report, released on Friday (26), attempts to downplay the situation, stating that “shortly after arresting him”, officers “recognized that Tyson was unresponsive” and that CPR was performed on him.
“As we navigate this difficult time, my goal is to be as transparent as possible with the community,” said the mayor of Guangzhou, William V. Sherer II. The US Department of Justice has been warning police officers since the mid-1990s about the risks of turning suspects face down after being handcuffed, due to the risk of positional asphyxiation.
Law enforcement experts warn that this position can compress the lungs and put pressure on the heart, preventing the individual from breathing, especially if the force used is excessive or if the immobilization lasts a long time. And in recent years, agents have only used this approach against black people. An investigation of the Associated Presspublished in March this year, revealed that more than 1,000 people died this way in the last decade.
