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.
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.