TEHRAN -- Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Saturday criticized the U.S. over the brutal killing of a black American teacher by police.
“Watching images of the violent and brutal act of the U.S. police in killing Keenan Anderson, the black American teacher, recalls the brutal killing of George Floyd,” Kanaani said.
“Such heinous actions demonstrate the continuation of the U.S. police’s racism against the country’s black people that once again shocks the world.”
The spokesman said while the U.S. regime hypocritically meddles in other countries’ internal affairs for political ends, it remains silent on excessive violence, racism, and despicable treatment of its black citizens by the police.
Kanaani reminded the U.S. government of the need to behave responsibly toward the latest inhumane crime besides other systematic human rights violations in the country, particularly towards the rights of minorities and African Americans.
Anderson, a cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, was killed by Los Angeles police after he got in a traffic accident and officers who showed up repeatedly tased and restrained him in the middle of the street, according to body-camera footage and his family’s account.
Footage from the January 3 encounter showed that Anderson, a 31-year-old high school teacher and father, was begging for help as multiple officers held him down, and at one point said, “They’re trying to George Floyd me.”
One officer had his elbow on Anderson’s neck while he was lying down before another tased him for roughly 30 seconds straight before pausing and tasing him again for five more seconds.
Last year was the deadliest year for U.S. police violence since experts started tracking killings nationwide in 2013, according to a recent analysis.
Anderson, who leaves behind a young child, was working as an English teacher at the Digital Pioneers Academy, a majority-Black school in Washington DC, and was visiting Los Angeles, said Cullors. He previously worked at several other schools, including a charter school in Watts in LA.