The New York Police Department (NYPD) have tasered to death a bipolar Greek American outside his home in the borough of Queens. George Zapantis, who was not committing any crime had police called to his house when neighbours falsely claimed he was walking around with a gun. Mr. Zapantis did not have a gun.
Chillingly, he is believed to have shouted 'I can't breath', but neighbours claim the police simply told him 'don't play this card, no one is choking you'. The words of Mr. Zapantis are exactly those of George Floyd who was killed last month by police in Minneapolis. Clearly the police officers involved believed this was an excuse.
It is believed he died of a cardiac arrest as a result of receiving the electric shocks from the tasers.
It has been revealed that police entered the man's home where he was standing with an ornamental sword, the officers then tasered him. As he was taken outside, he was again tasered. At no point is it believed that Zapantis had committed a criminal offense, or had ever committed a criminal offense in the past.
Neighbours, (not those that called the police), spoke of Zapantis in glowing terms, saying he was a church going man who lived with his mother and looked after his 33 year-old sister with downs-syndrome.
They said of Mr. Zapantis:
"He's good. He's a good human being. He was a good person. I told the officers he's got mental health (issues), he takes medicine … I was yelling at the officers that he was (mentally ill), and they were still tasing him. Just handcuff him and walk him out."
The incident outside the home was caught on camera. In the video, the police can be heard saying:
"Get down! You're going to get tasered again if you don't get down!"
Another then says:
"Hit him again!"
The victim's mother says that she will have an independent autopsy carried out on her son's body and move out of the neighbourhood as she is too traumatised to continue living there. She spoke of her anguish:
"He was supposed to go to work tomorrow. I have to call them and tell them, you know, he's not going back. I'm crying because I was not here for my son in his last moments, and he died in such a horrible way. He was my left hand, my son. He was everything… He died for no reason."
This latest incident is just one in a long line of incidents of police brutality that have led to the deaths of innocent individuals in the United States. While the recent focus has been on police brutality against African-Americans, it is quite clear that the police are dishing out extra-judicial violence against individuals of many races and backgrounds.
One month on from the death of George Floyd, protests are continuing to take place both in the US and in other countries as part of the Black Lives Matter protests and against police brutality. It is unclear as of yet where there is an end or solution in sight, and how justice and faith in the authorities can be restored.
COMMENTS