Mathew Ajibade had been acting strangely shortly before Savannah, Ga., police officers arrested him on suspicion of hitting his girlfriend outside a convenience store last New Year’s Day.

Officers said he was combative, so after booking the 21-year-old Wells Fargo bank employee into the Chatham County Detention Center, a sheriff’s deputy Tasered Ajibade’s abdominal area after he was handcuffed with his ankles bound. They left him in an isolation cell and didn’t check on him for at least 90 minutes, in violation of department policy. When they did, he was dead.

Mathew Ajibade, 21, was handcuffed with his ankles bound when he was Tasered in the abdomen by police in Georgia. Ajibade, who was bipolar and was arrested on suspicion of hitting his girlfriend, was later found dead in an isolation cell. (Family Photo)
Ajibade is one of at least 48 people who have died in the United States since January — about one death a week — in incidents in which police used Tasers, according to a Washington Post examination of scores of police, court and autopsy records.

The link between the use of Tasers and the 48 deaths this year is unclear. At least one of the deaths occurred when an incapacitated person fell and hit his head. Other factors mentioned among the causes of death were excited delirium, methamphetamine or PCP intoxication, hypertensive heart disease, coronary artery disease, and cocaine toxicity. Twelve of the 26 cases in which The Post was able to obtain autopsy reports or cause-of-death information mentioned a Taser along with other factors.

More than half of the 48 suffered from mental illness or had illegal drugs in their system at the time. At least 10 were Tasered while handcuffed or shackled. Only one was female. Nearly 55 percent of the people who died were minorities. The Ajibade case was the only one that resulted in officers being indicted.

Deaths after Taser usage by police are relatively rare, accounting for a fraction of the people who die during or after encounters with officers, according to a comprehensive study by the National Institute of Justice. Research shows that when used correctly, the devices are generally safe and prevent injuries to both police officers and civilians. But when Tasers are used excessively or if officers don’t follow department policy or product guidelines, the risk of injury or death can increase, according to company product warnings and police experts.

About this story: At least 48 people have died in the United States since January — about one death a week — in incidents in which police used Tasers, according to a Washington Post examination of police, court and autopsy records. The link between the use of Tasers and the deaths is unclear. At least one of the deaths occurred when an incapacitated person fell and hit his head. Other factors mentioned among the causes of death were excited delirium, methamphetamine or PCP intoxication, hypertensive heart disease, coronary artery disease, and cocaine toxicity. Twelve of the 26 cases in which The Post was able to obtain autopsy reports or cause of death information mentioned a Taser along with other factors. The Post is compiling a database of all fatal shootings nationwide by officers in the line of duty in 2015, available at wapo.st/police-shootings.
Tasers are best known for their ability to incapacitate individuals while used in “probe mode,” when they fire two barbs that deliver an electric current along wires, causing the muscles to lock up. When placed against a person’s body in “drive stun” mode, as happened in the Ajibade case, Tasers do not incapacitate but cause localized pain that can be used to control dangerous individuals. Pain compliance, police call it.

At least nine of the 48 cases this year involved individuals who were Tasered in the drive-stun mode.

Taser International has issued product warnings to law enforcement about drive-stunning, noting the need for caution and restraint when using the technique on people with mental illnesses.

“Drive-stun use may not be effective on emotionally disturbed persons or others who may not respond to pain due to a mind-body disconnect,” the company warned in 2013. “Avoid using repeated drive-stuns on such individuals if compliance is not achieved.”

Chatham County Sheriff’s Office policy prohibits deputies from drive-stunning someone who is restrained, according to Sheriff Al St. Lawrence, who said he fired or forced out 16 people after the Ajibade incident.

The deputy who drive-stunned Ajibade, Jason Kenny, was indicted in June along with another deputy and a nurse. Kenny was acquitted last month of manslaughter and assault, but found guilty of cruelty to an inmate by using excessive force. The other deputy was convicted of public records fraud and perjury, and the nurse was convicted of making a false statement to a state agent. Kenny was sentenced to one month in jail and three years’ probation. Neither Kenny nor his attorney, Willie Yancey Jr., returned several phone calls seeking comment.

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Christopher Kohrs, a San Francisco police officer known affectionately on social media as the “Hot Cop of the Castro,” was arrested early Sunday morning after he allegedly plowed into two men in the city’s North Beach neighborhood and ran off.

Kohrs, 38, was off duty and driving westbound in his 2009 Dodge Charger on Broadway near Montgomery Street when he slammed into the victims, who were crossing the street around 2:20 a.m., police said. The driver ditched the car at the scene and ran away. Police found that the Charger was registered to Kohrs.

A former city councilman who won summary judgment after a police chief threatened to arrest him for criticizing a public official has settled with the police chief and the Northern California City of Cotati.

George Barich, who describes himself as a former newspaper editor, attended an April 2014 City Council meeting where he called city Planning Commissioner Neil Hancock a “liar,” to which Hancock retorted, “You’re the liar,” according to Barich’s January lawsuit in Federal Court.

Barich, a former city councilman, told Courthouse News on Friday that despite Hancock’s contradicting report, the exchange was civilized, and he did not exhibit any expressions of physical aggression, but was nonetheless stopped by Cotati Police Chief Michael Parish after the meeting.

“When the meeting was over, I walked by Neil (Hancock) and called him a liar again, and he said ‘No, you are the one who is a liar,'” Barich said. “Everyone was leaving, but Chief Parish said, ‘George, hold it!’ and told me to go outside. When we got out there, he told me he would arrest me if I tried to record him with my phone. Then he told me if I ever called anyone from the city a liar during or after a council meeting again, he’d arrest me. He asked me, ‘Do you understand me?’ and I said, ‘I understand, but I don’t agree with you.'”

Barich’s lawsuit against Parish and the City of Cotati alleged violations of the Civil Rights Act and the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

“Parish’s unlawful threats to arrest plaintiff were not constitutionally protected speech on an issue of public interest,” according to the Jan. 24 complaint. “Parish does not have a First Amendment right to arrest, or threaten to arrest, a citizen without probable cause and in retaliation for that citizen’s expressing criticism of government and/or in retaliation for gathering information about what public officials do on public property and recording matters of public interest.”

Barich filed a motion for partial summary judgment on Sept. 9, and the defendants filed a motion for summary judgment nine days later.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that there is no question that Parish violated Barich’s civil rights.

“At the time of Chief Parish’s conduct, Barich had a clearly established First Amendment right to record a police officer on public property,” Chhabria wrote in an Oct. 20 order. “Nevertheless, Chief Parish told Barich that, if he exercised his First Amendment right, he would be arrested. Chief Parish made this threat to deter Barich from recording him, and a reasonable person of ordinary firmness would in fact be deterred by this threat of arrest. For these reasons, Barich is entitled to summary judgment against Chief Parish on this claim.”

He added that since Parish is a “policymaker” for the city “Barich is also entitled to summary judgment against the city.”

Chhabria, however, found too many factual disputes about the circumstances surrounding the verbal exchanges between Barich and Hancock, and denied summary judgment on Barich’s claim that Parish violated his civil rights by threatening him for calling a city official a liar.

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A Los Angeles city councilwoman just proposed one of the most chilling uses of license plate scanners ever.

As an ostensible means of deterring prostitution, Nury Martinez, of the LA city council, wants to scan every single license plate, make a list, and mail out a shame letter to every person who drives through an arbitrary area deemed a prostitution zone.

You read that right. For merely driving through a designated area, Martinez proposes publicly shaming any and every motorist by scanning their license plate.

Martinez told CBS Los Angeles, “If you aren’t soliciting, you have no reason to worry about finding one of these letters in your mailbox. But if you are, these letters will discourage you from returning. Soliciting for sex in our neighborhoods is not OK.”

The idea is so Orwellian, so fascist even, that the police themselves have deemed it unconstitutional.

In the last week alone - November 20th through November 27th 2015 - in at least two separate incidents police officers opened fire inside of a school in order to kill a dog. These incidents occurred at Montevideo Middle School in Minnesota on 11-20 and Sacajawea Junior High School in Lewiston, Idaho on 11-23. During both incidents the animals involved caused no serious injury to students or staff and the entire school was forced into an emergency lockdown. At Sacajawea Junior High School, the dog who caused the crisis was apparently well known to a number of the students at the school - so well known that the dog's shooting resulted in a protest march in his honor just days after the shooting. Police claimed they shot the dog at Sacajawea Junior High only after the dog failed to respond to verbal commands.

The dog, Mister Chang, is deaf (he survived, but lost a leg).

What do you suppose that looked like?

Disabled vet keeps getting parking tickets despite city policy that says handicapped cars don't have to pay meters.

A Richland County Sheriff's deputy shot and killed a family's dog Tuesday while searching the wrong house for a possibly suicidal woman.

The deputies were dispatched to the 3100 block of Lucas Perrysville Road for an attempted suicide Tuesday morning. They were told a woman had called the suicide hotline and said she was going to try to hang herself with an extension cord, but it broke.

When police arrived at the home, they said a dog could be heard barking in the residence. Police knocked on the door, but no one answered. When they asked dispatchers how they knew this was the correct address of where the call came from, they were told the call was traced to that address. Highway Patrol had dispatchers conduct a location search on where the phone number came from and the address on Lucas Perrysville Road showed up.

Police said they found an unlocked side door and entered the home. One officer involved said he had his Taser out in case the dog in the home was aggressive. Officers announced that they were in the building multiple times, but no one answered.

When one of the officers made it to the second floor of the residence, the dog was spotted. Police said the dog began to growl and seemed aggressive. Police asked dispatchers to contact the dog warden to be contacted, but were told he was not able to be reached at that time.

According to a police report, one of the officers said he attempted to secure the dog in a bedroom. He had his Taser ready in case the dog charged at him. The dog, last identified as 9-month-old Zeus, began to growl and show its teeth. When the officer walked toward a bathroom in the home, he said the dog charged him.

The dog was shot three times and eventually laid down on a child's bed where he died.

The home actually belongs to Tiffany McGregor, who has lived there with her husband, three kids and their dog Zeus for the last six months.

"We buried him on our land," McGregor said. "He was a good dog. Never vicious, just a big baby."

McGregor said the family got the 9-month-old Bull Mastiff to look after their young children when they moved out of the city.

"I feel like he was scared to death," she said tearfully. "He protected us but we couldn't be here to protect him."

Deputies said the woman who called the suicide hotline was never found. The McGregor's home was listed as one of her former addresses, but she does not currently live there and the family does not know her.

Chief Cheryl Wilson has remained on administrative leave for the last two and a half months after a kerfuffle with city leadership over an inquiry into an officer’s use of force." The officer that used the stun gun is still a Lieutenant with Lancaster PD.

Jack Yantis, an Idaho rancher killed by two sheriff’s deputies under unclear circumstances on Nov. 1, is not. Or, at least, not yet. On Thursday, the FBI announced that it is investigating Yantis’s shooting.

“ISP [Idaho State Police] will be thorough, the FBI will be thorough,” U.S. Attorney for Idaho Wendy Olson said, as the Idaho Statesman reported. “The attorney general’s office will carefully review the evidence, we’ll carefully review the evidence, and decisions will be made. … That does take a period of time to do and get right.”

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“They opened up with their pistols and their M16s … before Jack got there,” Paradis said. “That’s an inhumane deal. … This is a 2-ton Angus bull that’s pissed off, he’s hurt and psychotic. … It was blazing down there and it sounded like World War III on this bull, because they got him charging at everyone again.”

It was unclear, however, if Keiford was dead. Yantis’s wife Donna brought him a .204-caliber rifle to finish the job. Yantis prepared to fire. Just another day on the open range.

Then, things went tragically wrong. Though how the altercation began isn’t clear, one of the deputies grabbed the scope of Yantis’s rifle and pushed him. The rifle may have gone off. That’s when the deputies opened fire on Yantis, who died at the scene.

The OIG found that the DEA’s policy for confidential sources, which was approved by the Criminal Division in 2004, differs in several significant respects from the Attorney General’s Guidelines Regarding the Use of Confidential Informants (AG Guidelines), which is DOJ’s overarching policy regarding component use of confidential sources. The use of high-level and privileged or media-affliated sources—such as individuals who are part of drug trafficking organization leadership, as well as lawyers, doctors, or journalists—can pose an increased risk to the public and can have unique legal implications for DOJ. For this reason, the AG Guidelines require special approval before these individuals may be used as a source. Yet, the OIG found that the DEA’s Confidential Source Program has no similar requirement, resulting in insufficient oversight.

In addition, the OIG reported that DEA policy and practices are not in line with the AG Guidelines’ requirements for reviewing, approving, and revoking confidential sources’ authorization to conduct Otherwise Illegal Activity (OIA). The effects of inadequate oversight of OIA by confidential sources could prove detrimental to DEA operations and liability, and could create unforeseen consequences. For instance, confidential sources could engage in illegal activity that has not been adequately considered, or could overstep their boundaries with a mistaken belief that the DEA has sanctioned any illegal activities in which they participate.

Further, contrary to its own policy, the DEA did not always review its continued use of long- term confidential sources and, when it did, the reviews were neither timely nor rigorous. The OIG found that between 2003 and 2009, the DEA used over 240 long-term confidential sources without rigorous review, often devoting an average of less than 1 minute per source to consider the appropriateness of the source’s continued use. In addition, in most instances the DEA continued to use these sources without obtaining the required DOJ concurrence.

This created a significant risk that improper relationships between government handlers and sources could be allowed to continue over many years, potentially resulting in the divulging of sensitive information or other adverse consequences for the government.

In addition, the DEA confidential source policy does not include any specific guidance regarding the use of DEA licensees as con dential sources. DOJ guidance emphasizes the need for controls to ensure that no licensee is led to believe that the continued validity of their license is predicated on their status as a confidential source, yet the OIG found that the DEA’s con dential source policy does not specifically address the recruitment, establishment, or use of sources who have been issued a DEA-provided controlled substance registration number.

Finally, the OIG found that the DEA provided Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) benefits to confidential sources without adequate processes in place for reviewing the claims and determining eligibility for these benefits. The OIG estimated that, in just the 1 year period from July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014, the DEA paid 17 confidential sources or their dependents FECA benefits totaling approximately $1.034 million. The audit also found that the DEA inappropriately continued using and paying confidential sources who were also receiving full disability benefits through FECA, and that the DEA had not adequately considered the implications of awarding such benefits on the disclosure obligations of federal prosecutors and had not consulted DOJ about the issue.

The report notes that the audit was seriously delayed by instances of uncooperativeness from the DEA, including a empts to prohibit the OIG’s observation of confidential source file reviews and delays, for months at a time, in providing the OIG with requested confidential source information and documentation. In each instance, the matters were resolved only after the Inspector General elevated them to the DEA Administrator. As a result, over 1 year after initiating this review, the OIG has only been able to conduct a limited review of the DEA’s Confidential Source Program. The OIG is continuing its audit to more fully assess the DEA’s management and oversight of its confidential sources.

The OIG made seven recommendations to the DEA to improve the policies and management of its Confidential Source Program. The DEA agreed with all of the recommendations...

The political fallout from the Laquan McDonald shooting continues Monday as Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was ordered held on a bond of $1.5 million for the killing of the Chicago teenager. Now, some Chicago politicians are calling for the resignation of Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez.

The calls for Alvarez to resign come from within her own party and include the powerful voice of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

"I think the way in which she's run the office is disgraceful," Preckwinkle said.

Preckwinkle joined the chorus demanding the resignation of Anita Alvarez, the Cook County state's attorney who took over 13 months to decide to charge Van Dyke in the Laquan McDonald murder. Earlier, the county board president demanded the city fire Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy for his handling of the same case.

"Changing the leadership at the state's attorney's office is very important at this time and that's why I'm supporting Kim Foxx for state's attorney," Preckwinkle said.

"I am encouraged that the county is paying attention to this race," said Kim Foxx, candidate for state's attorney.

Foxx is Preckwinkle's former chief of staff, who was endorsed months ago by the president in next year's Democratic primary.

Alvarez - who says the charging delay was caused by her office's cooperation with federal investigators - emailed Monday: "I will not be bullied by politicians who do not have a full understanding of the facts of the investigation."

"It's clear to me that there's been a cover-up," said Cook County Board Cmsr. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.

Meanwhile, a half dozen Latino politicians joined the call for the resignation of Alvarez, Cook County's first Latina state's attorney.

"We're not giving anyone a pass," Garcia said.

"Over a year it took her to come to the conclusion that this individual needed to be indicted," said Ald. Riccardo Munoz, 22nd Ward.

Last summer, Cook County Democrats decided not to endorse the two-term incumbent Alvarez. Some committeemen alleged she is reluctant to prosecute police or politically-connected suspects.

"If I were Anita Alvarez, I would resign," said Donna More, a candidate for state's attorney.

Attorney Donna More met the deadline to file petitions to become a third candidate in the Democratic primary race. She is a former state and federal prosecutor.

"The reason that I'm running is to restore people's faith in this office," More said.

The 2016 primary election will be held on March 15, 2016. As mentioned earlier, the Democratic Party has not endorsed a candidate for state's attorney leaving this a wide-open race where the Laquan McDonald case will be a centerpiece issue.

Man catches wild horse running down the street, calls police. Police respond, ignore the horse, demand ID.