Jamaal Valentine is the 27-year old man who's life was cut short when LaMarque (TX) police officers fired 50,000 volts of electricity into his body with a taser gun.
Jamaal Valentine was unarmed. He was in physical distress. One of the witnesses at the scene thought that he was having a heart attack and needed medical attention. The police arrived and decided that it would be better to electrocute this man rather than call an ambulance on the scene to provide medical attention.
Result? Jamaal Valentine is dead. His children won't be celebrating Father's Day with him this weekend.
The Powers-That-Be in Texas are desperate to keep the attention on this death with the young father. There is no evidence of drug use. He was unarmed. Yet, it appears that the G
alveston District Attorney is leaning towards blaming Valentine's death on 'excited delirium'. Excited delirium is a manic state in which a person appears frantic while adrenaline pumps into the body at a high rate.Valentine’s family and the eyewitness who called police in the first place claim the officers used excessive force in handling Valentine.
La Marque police records show an ambulance was not called for until after officers had gotten into the scuffle and shocked Valentine. EMS only was called to the scene to treat Valentine for cuts he suffered during the struggle with the three officers.
It was while in the ambulance that Valentine went into cardiac arrest.
We continue to wait for the decision from the Galveston District Attorney on whether or not criminal charges will be filed against the police officers who contributed to the death of this young man.
In the meantime, I encourage all villagers to sign our online petition asking for congressional hearings on the escalating incidents of taser torture in America this year.
2 comments:
Villager: Tasing has long since gotten out of hand. However, due to black blogger's efforts led by blogs like yours, people are beginning to see that officers are too quick to use the taser; and it can cost lives. For instance, Atlanta police arrested one of its own officers for tasing a man without provocation. In addition, they charged two officers, who are sergeants, and who happened to be on the scene, for "conduct unbecoming of an officer" for not reporting the incident. The two officers resigned. For more on this, see http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2009/06/18/GWXtaser_officers_resign.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab
Villager: The article is in the metro section of today's Atlanta Journal Constitution.
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