Chatham County deputies indicted in Taser death of inmate
Authorities in Savannah have finally confirmed that a local artist was shocked to death in the Chatham County jail while strapped to a restraining chair. From the Savannah Morning News:
Two former sheriff’s deputies and a contract health-care worker at the Chatham County jail were indicted Wednesday on felony involuntary manslaughter and related charges stemming from the Jan. 1 death of Mathew Ajibade, 21, at the jail….
Chatham County Sheriff Al St. Lawrence addresses reporters at a press conference earlier this month on the use of Tasers by officers on inmates in the jail. Ian Maule/Savannah Morning News/AP
The grand jury said Jason Paul Kenny, 31, caused Ajibade’s death during the commission of “reckless conduct ... without any intention to do so by tasing him while he was restrained,” Chatham County grand jurors said in the indictment…
Kenny was also charged with aggravated assault for “drive stunning” Ajibade with a Taser while he was restrained.
Lawyers for the Ajibade family say they are disappointed that murder charges weren't leveled against the deputies. More background can be found here.
Here's your Wikipedia definition of "drive stun."
Some Taser models, particularly those used by police departments, also have a "Drive Stun" capability, where the Taser is held against the target without firing the projectiles, and is intended to cause pain without incapacitating the target. "Drive Stun" is "the process of using the EMD (Electro Muscular Disruption) weapon [Taser] as a pain compliance technique. This is done by activating the Taser and placing it against an individual’s body. This can be done without an air cartridge in place or after an air cartridge has been deployed."
Guidelines released in 2011 in the U.S. recommend that use of Drive Stun as a pain compliance technique be avoided. The guidelines were issued by a joint committee of the Police Executive Research Forum and the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The guidelines state "Using the ECW to achieve pain compliance may have limited effectiveness and, when used repeatedly, may even exacerbate the situation by inducing rage in the subject." Your daily jolt on politics from the AJC's Political insider blog
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The National Park Service is calling on concessionaires to stop selling items with the Confederate flag following the fatal shooting of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. From the Associated Press:
Jarvis made his request in a memo issued Wednesday evening.
The agency contracts with third parties to administer concessions at national parks. Park stores that carry the Confederate flag are generally found at Civil War battlefields or national historic sites.
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Georgia Equality sends word it has at least a half-dozen couples lined up to immediately get hitched at the Fulton County Courthouse, should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn state bans on gay marriage this morning -- or next week.
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Stripped of all their trade leverage, Georgia's U.S. House Democrats are preparing to cave on aid to displaced workers as part of a new trade deal.
House Democrats had blocked Trade Adjustment Assistance in an effort to shut down President Barack Obama's efforts to get "fast track" authority to negotiate a trade deal. It didn't work. The Senate sent fast-track to Obama's desk Wednesday, and it sent TAA back to the House attached to a popular African trade measure.
Republicans don't like the new spending, so Democrats have to carry the vote on a program they typically support. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Wednesday she will flip -- and the rest of her caucus likely will follow suit.
Said Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta:
"And I'm going to continue to yell about all the ceding of our power to the presidency and so forth. But we made a good case for it. But it wouldn't be smart to just for spite now go against something that we normally agree with."
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, said a new training center in his district at Georgia Piedmont Technical College was built with TAA money:
"Disappointment has to turn now to optimism that this TPP is going to be much better than those previously. I'm just an optimistic person at heart, as opposed to thinking it's terrible that this has happened. My mind goes to, OK, the president has assured us this trade agreement will be better than the others. So we await that vote."
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Meanwhile, you might say that the Lanier Tea Party Patriots were against Trade Promotion Authority, based on this tweet.
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Don't give Sonny Perdue short-shrift for his role in the flag overhaul. That's the message from one former Democratic state lawmaker.
Rob Teilhet, a former Smyrna Democrat, recalled on Facebook the 2003 vote to replace Barnes' version of the flag with the compromise version that we have now. That vote helped stave off a divisive referendum on the controversial 1956 version of the flag that Perdue promised to hold when he was elected.
The truth is, had Governor Perdue wanted the 1956 flag on that referendum, or had he felt obliged to fight for it to be there, it would have been, and I suspect Georgia would be where so many of our neighbor states are tonight. It took wisdom and restraint to do what he did, and those are qualities that seem in short supply in politics.
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The Alligator, the University of Florida's student newspaper, is reporting that the Atlanta-based regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is in some financial hot water:
Documents obtained by the Alligator reveal that Jennings took out a loan from Alarion Bank for $144,504 on Aug. 3, 2011. Jennings reportedly owes $100,579.31 in principal on the loan along with $1,829 in unpaid interest. He also reportedly owes $4,618.45 in late fees as of March 11. ...
According to documents, multiple attempts by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office in Fulton County, Georgia, to serve Jennings an affidavit in March and April were unsuccessful.
