a 24-year old black man who is now
paralyzed after being tasered by police
in London last month has told the BBC he
believes he was targeted because of his
color jordan walker brown fell off a
wall as police chased him and he damaged
his spinal cord a metropolitan police
officer is under criminal investigation
and the case underlines growing concerns
about the disproportionate use of Tasers
on black men Home Office figures for
England and Wales show the tasers were
used around 22 thousand times in the
year up to March 2019
almost 20 percent of those incidents
involved a black person but black people
represent 3.5 percent of the population
in England our home affairs
correspondent Gene Kelly has been
investigating seven weeks ago Jordan
Walker Brown was a fit young man of 24
today he's in a wheelchair paralyzed
from the chest down doctors have told
him he'll never walk again police had
been following him and he was then
chased by two officers along this Street
in Herrin gay in North London he says he
had a small amount of cannabis Jordan
Walker Brown has a criminal record and
had been arrested the day before for
cannabis possession he climbed onto a
wall one officer fired a Taser
and Jordan Walker Brown fell onto the
concrete of the Canal towpath a drop of
nearly 2 metres his sister Sean who
doesn't want her face shown takes up her
brother's story as he describes it knees
in the back twisting his arms around put
him in handcuffs he's telling them that
he can't feel his legs he can't feel his
body they've tried to drag him to stand
him up and obviously he can't stand up
because he can't feel anything a
Metropolitan police officer is now under
a criminal investigation by the police
watchdog one of the issues for the black
lives matter movement is the way black
men are treated by the police and that
includes the use of Tasers Bishop
Desmond ro is a community activist
in Birmingham
he is currently helping travail wise who
was tasered four months ago and is still
suffering the after-effects police Rose
a car crash near his house he went out
to investigate and one officer began
focusing on him the officer turns around
taser already drawn and then he's he
runs back up towards me so telling me to
get down on the ground rips my t-shirt
off trying to get me down on the ground
[Music]
when he fired the Taser the Bob's of the
Taser they're like fish hooks to barbs
come out one of half one lower so the
upper Bob hit me in my throat and the
lower Bob hit me in my chest I thought
I'd die afore I'm gonna die yeah a west
midlands police officer is now subject
to a criminal investigation by the
police watchdog I would not have been
tasered if I was white as a that's a
straight fact like travail wise Jordan
Walker Brown has told a BBC he believes
he was targeted because of his color in
a written statement from his hospital
ward questioning why a taser was fired
at him he says I'm determined to prove
that the police are not above the law
Jim Kelly BBC News