Cops Tase Youth to Death, Then High-5. Who's Next?

Eighteen-year-old Israel Hernandez-Llach wanted to change the world through art. Miami police wanted to kill him. They won. (Photo Credit: Instagam user@miaskateshop via Russia Today)

Eighteen-year-old Israel Hernandez-Llach, an award-winning artist in Miami, Florida – a painter, sculptor, photographer and graffiti artist, was killed week before last by police officers tasing him to death, the type of death by “non-lethal weaponry” that ACLU wants help in halting.

“He was armed with nothing more than a can of spray paint, threatening nothing but the wall of an abandoned McDonald’s, when the cops chased him down, tased him, and allegedly laughed and high-fived as he lay motionless and dying on the ground,” ACLU’s Anthony Romero said in a written statement Saturday, seeking public support to prevent more needless deaths by tasers.

According to young Israel’s best friend’s mother, “he had been warned before by police that if they caught him again, they would beat the shit out of him.”

WSVN reporters asked the late Israel’s sister sOffir Hernandez if she thought police used excessive force.

“My brother is dead, isn’t he?” she responded. “Of course they went too far.”

“He wanted to change the world somehow through art,” she told the Miami Herald. 

Not Isolated Incident

Anyone could be next to meet an untimely death-by-taser, especially in Miami.

The Miami Beach Police Department has what Romero says an “appalling record of excessive force, including:

• firing over 100 bullets at a man in his car just for not following orders to stop and
• falsely arresting a witness who called 911 to report police beating a handcuffed gay man.”

In fact, Florida has the 2nd largest number of deaths by Taser in the country, according to the ACLU.

Events of Israel’s tragic death have devastated his family and sparked national outrage over this use of lethal force to deal with a youthful indiscretion. 

Miami Beach Police are now under investigation, but without better policies and training for the use of Tasers, ACLU says there will surely be more needless deaths.

“That’s why we need to act now, while Israel’s story is in the spotlight, and call for change. Sign the petition urging the Mayor of Miami Beach to order a change in the police department’s Taser policy – to prevent any more needless deaths. ”

Tasers are supposedly “non-lethal” tools for law enforcement, but Israel is just one of around 500 people who have died after being shot by police Tasers since 2001 – clearly, these tools have the potential to be deadly. 

Part of the tragedy is that police never should have tased Israel in the chest.

A recent study found that sending shocks to the chest, as cops did to Israel, cause cardiac arrest and sudden death. 

“That’s why we need to demand that the Miami Beach Police Department make real changes to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again. For example, ensuring that Tasers are only used when a person is attempting to harm officers or the public, and when other, less potentially-dangerous types of force will not be sufficient to bring the situation under control.

We all want safety for our communities and families – but that also means not worrying that our children could end up dead for minor indiscretions. We must ensure that there are clear guidelines and training to prevent future tragedies. 

Sign the petition urging the Mayor of Miami Beach to order a change in the police department’s Taser policy – to prevent any more needless deaths.