The systemic killing of blacks at every slightest provocation has continued in Unites States with impunity. In the latest development, according to Metro UK a mentally ill prisoner died after allegedly being tasered while her hands were cuffed and legs were tied. Natasha McKenna, 37, who was diagnosed as schizophrenic aged 12, was on remand at Fairfax Adult Detention Centre in Virginia, US, for punching a police officer last year.
Natasha McKenna initially cooperated with deputies, placed her hands through her cell door food slot and agreed to be handcuffed, the reports show. But McKenna, whose deteriorating mental state had caused Fairfax to seek help for her, then began trying to fight her way out of the cuffs, repeatedly screaming, “You promised you wouldn’t hurt me!” the report said.
But according to Washington Post, six members of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team, dressed in white full-body biohazard suits and gas masks, arrived and placed a wildly struggling 130-pound McKenna into full restraints, their reports state. But when McKenna wouldn’t bend her knees so she could be placed into a wheeled restraint chair, a lieutenant delivered four 50,000-volt shocks from the Taser, enabling the other deputies to strap her into the chair, the reports show.
‘They made it worse. She was mentally sick.’ Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid did not comment on the case but said using stun guns on restrained prisoners was ‘a means that is often useful to ensure the safety of a person.’ “She wasn’t a threat; she wasn’t going anywhere; she was restrained,” said Richard Lichten, a use-of-force expert and former jail official in Los Angeles. “It feels excessive, unnecessary and out of policy, based on what you’re telling me.”
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