Video shows police tasing a bloody, restrained Matthew Ajibade in the testicles before his death

Updated October 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

This piece by Shaun King originally appeared at DailyKos.com on October 13, 2015.

It is now abundantly clear that Matthew Ajibade was murdered by police in Savannah, Georgia. For over 10 months, police and prosecutors have concealed the video evidence of his murder not only from the public, but from Ajibade's closest friends and family members. His death in police custody was ruled a homicide by coroners, but the whole of Savannah's government has colluded in covering up the sadistic and brutal murder of a beloved artist and photographer who was a student at Savannah College of Art and Design.

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A Mental Health Professional and Artist Responds to Matthew Ajibade Piece by Shaun King

Until yesterday morning I was not aware of the story of Matthew Ajibade. The story has struck me on many levels. Having worked as an art therapist in a psychiatric facility for 14 years of the 17 years I was in the field it makes me sick at heart learning that he was treated in so callous and vicious way. I had a visceral response reading the story and viewing the video. In addition to providing art therapy services at the facility I worked for years in that setting teaching my co-workers that even the most volatile patients deserved to have their dignity and humanity respected. It did not matter if we were scared when a patient was striking out at us…we still had to remember that the person in front of us was suffering and that any physical intervention we did with a patient who was striking out at us had to be conducted in a safe and humanely way as possible. Upon learning that Matthew was an artist I just felt incredibly sad…another young person’s life stolen—whose expressions of creativity the world will never experience again. The painting "No More Generations” is now dedicated to Matthew Ajibade.

-Jill McLaughlin

[Note: This painting was a perk at the Indiegogo campaign for Rise Up October and was claimed with a $1000 donation on 10/14/2015.]

The video below is awful and is confirmation that the United States tortures and kills its prisoners on American soil. Torture is not something that happens far away in Abu Ghraib: It's happening here.

In case you can't stomach the video, here's an explanation of what happens, so that you can understand it and prepare to speak out against it.

On New Year's Day 2015, Matthew Ajibade was arrested after a mental health crisis. Instead of being taken to a hospital, Ajibade, who was otherwise in perfect physical condition, was taken to jail—against his family's wishes. In a video we received last week, police are seen punching and kicking Matthew Ajibade in the face and head before restraining him.

Now, after Ajibade was stripped of his clothes and handcuffed to a restraining chair, we see the worst. The police Taser has a camera attached to it that is automatically triggered when the device is turned on.

Strapped to the chair after already being beaten and stunned with a Taser multiple times, we see a red light, the target of the Taser, continually pointed at Matthew's groin. The audio from the Taser camera is distorted, but we see little to no movement from Ajibade.

It gets much worse.

Soon, we see that the Taser is moving closer to his genitals. As the camera gets closer to his genitals, it is deployed. You hear the awful shock of the Taser, followed by the unforgettable screams of Matthew Ajibade. The video then ends—perhaps as the Taser is turned off, but we don't know.

What we do know is that Matthew Ajibade died in his cell, strapped to this restraining chair, soon after being Tasered here. The timestamp on the video states that it is 4:45 AM on the morning of January 2.

Police claimed they found Ajibade "unresponsive" in his jail cell at 1:38 AM.

Either way, the video below shows a restrained man being tortured to death in our jails.

Nobody was charged with Matthew Ajibade's murder—and we now see that officials concealed this video because they knew we'd call for such charges if we ever saw it.

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