Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Texas Cops Investigated for Violent Arrest of High School Vaper

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The Galveston County (Texas) Sheriff’s Office is investigating a May 6 incident in which two of its deputies allegedly used excessive force to arrest a Dickinson High School student who had been caught with a vaping device at school.

Eighteen-year-old student Keitherine Williams was caught in a restroom by school staff holding a vaping device. After leaving the school, Williams was stopped by two Galveston Sheriff’s deputies, who allegedly beat the teenager before arresting him.

Keitherine’s aunt and legal guardian Regina Williams says she has seen part of the surveillance video showing his arrest outside the school. She said deputies pinned the black youth down with knees on his back and neck. Keitherine says he passed out during the arrest and woke up in jail.

“It’s wrong for anybody to brutalize, to slam, to hurt any kid at school,” Regina Williams told KTRK-TV, the Houston ABC affiliate that first reported the story. “We send our kids to school to be safe, not to come home hurt just because of a vape.”

A medical examination conducted after Keitherine was released from jail found the special needs student had injuries consistent with blunt-force trauma. Photos of the teenager taken after the incident (see video above) show his face covered with bruises and abrasions.

He has been charged with resisting arrest and minor in possession of tobacco. (Although Williams is 18 and a legal adult, some states like Texas criminalize the actual possession and use of vapes and tobacco by people under the legal age to buy, which is 21 in all states.)

Dickinson is a city of about 20,000 south of Houston in Galveston County.

With flavored vape bans spreading and the FDA preparing to prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes, the spectre of Drug War-style enforcement looms over the nicotine marketplace. Prohibition never works, but those who argue for it always believe it will work this time.

“As tobacco, e-cigarettes, and e-liquids transition from legal to illicit, law enforcement agencies will more aggressively interfere with production, distribution, retail sales, and in some cases even individual use,” wrote author Jacob Grier in a recent Reason article. “Every such interaction carries with it the possibility of freedom lost, perhaps violently.”

Video courtesy KTRK-TV.

Smokers created vaping without any help from the tobacco industry or anti-smoking crusaders, and vapers have the right to keep innovating to help themselves. My goal is to provide clear, honest information about the challenges vaping faces from lawmakers, regulators, and brokers of disinformation. I recently joined the CASAA board, but my opinions aren’t necessarily CASAA’s, and vice versa. You can find me on Twitter @whycherrywhy



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