On the night of September 18th, 2010, the Orlando Police Department received numerous 911 calls from witnesses appalled that they had just watched Orlando police officer Travis Lamont slam a frail, elderly man onto the pavement head-first and so hard that Daniel Daley’s neck was broken.
The injuries were so severe that Daley required immediate surgery. Doctors told Greg Daley, son, that this injury kills nine of ten people upon impact.
For over a month now, Daniel Daley has been lying in a hospital bed in and out of medically induced comas and receiving additional surgeries.
This all started when Daley’s car was being towed outside of a downtown bar. There was a dispute over it and was the reason for the presence of Lamont.
The towing dispute was resolved and ended with Daley and Lamont making friendly conversation.
According to Orlando police chief Val Demings and Sgt. Barbara Jones, who were not there, Daley was uncontrollably violent, was attempting to strangle and punch Lamont, and putting Lamont’s life in serious jeopardy.
It is at this point that brave Travis Lamont heroically performed an “armbar” technique to slam the 84 year-old on the pavement head-first. Had Lamont not taken this action Daley surely would have killed him right there.
However, the only source for this seems to be Lamont himself.
According to the eyewitness accounts of bar owner Tim Scott, bartender Nicole Butler, and Sean Hill, Daley did no more than touch Lamont’s shoulder and was not acting violent at all.
“He [Daley] touched the police officer. This young police officer flips him [Daley] through the air on his face,” one angry 911 caller stated. “This is totally over the top.” “I want to meet with the mayor after watching that. That was incredible. Totally excessive.”
Greg Daley says his father has never been arrested in his entire life.
OPD originally tried to charge Daley with felonious assault of a police officer, but soon dropped the ridiculous charges.
After waiting a month for public outrage to die down, the Orlando police department issued a report clearing Lamont of any wrong doing. Police chief Demings says he acted appropriately and within department guidelines, even though she was not present at the incident.
The report does include statements from three witnesses, but makes no mention at all that two of them, Scott and Hill, are on record in news interviews expressing their anger over Lamont’s brutal take down and that they are on record saying Daley was acting calm and friendly. The other witness listed, Faith Palermo, was the one who called the tow truck. The report states that Palermo did not witness the take down, but she is on record in an Orlando Sentinel article expressing her disapproval of what happened that night.
The report also states that Lamont’s partner, Natasha Endrina, was sitting in the car during the entire ordeal between Lamont and Daley. If Lamont was at such a great risk of being battered why wasn’t his partner helping him?
Six other senior officials signed the report approving of the take down and neck breaking of 84 year-old Daley.
OPD’s October 15th report has set a dangerous precedent and the relationship between police and Orlando residents has been altered dramatically. OPD have now demonstrated that they will defend their officers no matter what. They have shown that they will engage in blatant deceit to protect their police from being punished. They are allowing Travis Lamont to keep his badge and patrol your neighborhood. A man who only a month ago, and for no good reason, broke the neck of a respected WWII veteran because the elderly man committed the heinous crime of touching the cop’s shoulder.
Call the OPD complaint desk at 321-235-5300 and demand that Lamont be fired and put behind bars immediately. Police are not above the law. They should be subjected to the same punishments that any other citizen would receive. The taxpayers are the employers and the police are the employees. It is about time that law enforcers be reminded of this fact. Imagine if Daniel Daley was your father or grandfather.
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