Attorneys representing Keenan Anderson’s family have launched a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles. Anderson died in January of a cardiac arrest after being tased multiple times by police officers after he got in a minor traffic collision.
Anderson’s death is another instance of people, primarily people of color, dying from police interactions over minor traffic violations. Which has sparked LA City Council members to start examining the use of guns and the role of police when it comes to traffic stops.
Council member Marqueece Harris-Dawson has been leading the charge in exploring alternative methods of handling traffic violations in order to prevent more people from dying for breaking minor traffic laws.
The council member joined “Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen to talk about the potential reforms and the recent scandal involving Council member Curren Price.
The idea to reform traffic stops for Harris-Dawson was sparked by an incident involving a staff member of Community Coalition, an LA-based social and political activist organization. A police officer stopped a staff member and a youth volunteer, and felt threatened because of the officer having a gun.
Harris-Dawson recalled the young person saying the entire ordeal had caused added stress because the police officer having a gun meant they could be killed in an instant. The Community Coalition started to wonder why there was a need to have a gun at traffic stops.
“We started to ask that question in a real way,” Harris-Dawson said. “Like, ‘Why is it in fact done this way?’ You find that there are places in the world where they don’t do it this way.”
Los Angeles has some of the highest pedestrian and cyclist deaths in the country, so Harris-Dawson argues having armed police officers handling traffic stops is not making the streets safer.
“We think there’s another way; we think Los Angeles should lead this,” Harris-Dawson said. “When you look across the country, so many of the worst murders by police officers are a result of a traffic stop.”
There’s still work to be done before implementing alternatives to armed police officers handling all traffic stops, and Harris-Dawson emphasizes officers will still play a role in helping keep streets safe.
“If someone is a public safety risk, then it makes sense for a police officer to deal with them, if you’re going 90 miles an hour with a gun waving out the window down Crenshaw, clearly that’s a situation for an armed police officer,” Harris-Dawson said.
Five council members proposed the alternative traffic stop method in June 2020 and now with the study close to being completed, the Council will now debate police’s role in traffic stops and what other methods could be used instead.
This isn’t the only issue Harris-Dawson is dealing with, as he was recently elected the new Council president pro tempore, replacing Price, who stepped down after being charged with embezzlement and perjury.
Due to the abruptness of the situation, Harris-Dawson said there is still a lot of information that needs to be released before he can make a judgment on what should happen to Price.
“What should happen to his district is they should have uninterrupted service and, as much as possible, uninterrupted representation,” Harris-Dawson said.
The City Council has been rocked by a number of scandals over the last few years, but Harris-Dawson sees this one as the most confusing when it comes to the charges being brought against Price.
“Is this the equivalent of stopping somebody and putting your hand on your gun because they crossed a double yellow line? I don’t know the answer to that,” Harris-Dawson said. “And I have to tell you, I’m still trying to figure out who the victim is here.”
Since Harris-Dawson was elected to the City Council, three African Americans have been elected to the Council, two of them have been indicted.
“As an African American official, or an official of color, it certainly feels like you’re being hunted,” Harris-Dawson said.
While the council member believes elected officials should be held to a higher standard and should be accountable, he thinks all the scandals can’t be lumped together.
“It’s like comparing a person who robs a bank to a person who cuts the tag of the mattress…those things are not the same, those things are not the same, at least what we know at this point,” Harris-Dawson said.
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