Black Man (Elijah McClain) Murdered By Choke Hold In Colorado By Police

[Knicksman20]

The cau-cacity of this nonsense:

Aurora officer involved in Elijah McClain photo scandal suing chief, city manager over termination

Jason Rosenblatt was not pictured in the photos but replied “HaHa” after receiving them. He is suing over his denied request for an Independent Review Board.

Jason Rosenblatt, one of several Aurora officers involved in a photo scandal near an Elijah McClain memorial, is suing the department's interim police chief and city manager after being denied an Independent Review Board (IRB) prior to being terminated.


According to documents released by the Aurora Police Department (APD) earlier this month, photos depicting a choke hold taken at the site where McClain had an encounter with Aurora officers and later died, were texted to Rosenblatt, who responded with “HaHa.” Rosenblatt was one of the three officers who responded the night of McClain’s encounter. Aurora's interim police chief, Vanessa Wilson, said he was fired for his "utter inability to do the right thing" when he was also involved in the incident with McClain.

Court documents show on June 30, Wilson held a pre-disciplinary meeting with Rosenblatt.

After Rosenblatt learned about Wilson's decision to terminate him, he sent an email to Wilson that same day requesting in writing an IRB. Wilson denied that request and adopted the position that allowing an IRB is “permissive” and that it was within her discretion as chief of police to deny Rosenblatt's request for an IRB, documents say.

Rosenblatt claims in the documents that as an Aurora Police Officer, he has specific rights granted to him under the City of Aurora Human Resources Policy and the Aurora Police Department Directives, including the right to an IRB prior to the imposition of discipline against him.

The IRB, implemented in 2015, is designed to assist the chief of police in the deliberative process of determining an appropriate level of discipline for instances of sustained misconduct by APD officers.

The documents say per Aurora's human resources policy, the chief can issue discipline without input from the IRB only in matters involving criminal conduct by an officer: “In matters involving allegations of criminal conduct by a member of the department, the Police Chief may, in his/her discretion, move to discipline or terminate the member without input from an IRB.”

Two of the three officers who took the photographs depicting the choke hold were also terminated. The third officer resigned before his punishment could be handed down.

Those two officers, Kyle Dittrich and Erica Marrero, filed appeals on July 8, according to a spokesperson for the city. On July 9, the city spokesperson said they also received an appeal of termination from Rosenblatt.

Aurora's city manager, Jim Twombly, is also listed as a defendant. The document says Twombly is authorized by the Aurora City Charter to approve, modify or disapprove any disciplinary order against an Aurora Police Officer that involves a monetary impact against the officer greater than one-third of the officer’s monthly salary.

The August 2019 death of McClain has now made international news as Black Lives Matter protesters across the U.S. have called for justice for the 23-year-old, who died of cardiac arrest after an encounter with APD.

The officers involved in McClain’s death, including Rosenblatt, were cleared of wrongdoing earlier this year, but the Colorado attorney general has now been appointed as a special prosecutor, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) are eying a federal civil rights investigation.

https://www.9news.com/article/news/...ation/73-0754695f-86c9-4c88-8cc3-873027808273

 

[Knicksman20]

Class action lawsuit filed after police involvement in Elijah McClain violin celebration

The attorney who represents Elijah McClain’s family, Mari Newman, has filed a class action lawsuit in federal court against the City of Aurora and several other individual officers and police leaders because of the heavy police response during a demonstration in honor of McClain’s life last month.

“Aurora again resorted to bullying and violence during a violin vigil that was held on June 27, 2020, to honor Elijah and call for justice for his murder,” the suit says.

“We are filing that lawsuit to align with the police reformation that we’re seeking,” said Thomas Mayes, who is named as a plaintiff and sits on the City’s new police task force. “An apology is not enough,” he said.

Police responded to the area with pepper spray, smoke bombs, and 40mm foam rounds to disperse the crowd. The police chief previously defended officers and pointed out that some agitators were throwing objects, including rocks, at officers.

Mayes said the main thing that disturbed him at the scene of the McClain vigil was that people were not given enough time to disperse from the scene and some people didn’t even hear the announcement to move away from the area. “Within less than five minutes (police) fired what they say now is just smoke…and pepper spray.”

“There were many, many people there who were doing the right thing and protesting peacefully, but there were a faction of agitators that came with pipes and sticks and helmets and gas masks and face shields,” Chief Vanessa Wilson previously told the FOX31 Problem Solvers after the June protest.

At that time, Wilson also said she believed the officers behaved lawfully.

“I’m sure that people were confused, and a lot of people of people saying, ‘No,’ when they saw the riot police, and I understand that, and I sympathize with that. But it really was us trying to separate that peaceful group from the people that were coming with and throwing rocks and creating havoc,” Wilson said last month.

Wilson is also named in the suit.

https://kdvr.com/news/problem-solve...lvement-in-elijah-mcclain-violin-celebration/

 

[Ducktales]

I never cried hearing a story. I’m so numb from all the murders that I just get angry. But this one was just so chilling, so disgusting... they killed that little boy. And not just any boy, I think he was Autistic just by how he spoke. As they said he was acting suspicious and weird, which was nothing but a innocent happy boy and violin player who was just trying to make it home. He pleaded for his life, and how he kept stating he is a good kid just killed me inside.

My 4 year old son is Autistic and literally a younger version of how he seemed. The fact alone that the police feel they have to use a whole fukking squad to take down a completely compliant child. They have thousands of dollars worth of training, but always need more than 3 fukking cops anytime they deal with black people. And children? Wtf. A full grown ass adult should be able to handle a child on their own. He shouldn’t have been ducking arrested anyway of course. But they live getting as many as they can for a Lynching.

Just like they used to do.. just like white American communities grabbed their kids and loved ones and gathered around to see what ****** would be hanging from a tree today while they smiled and laughed, hugging and kissing eachother..Those same little children we have to go into offices and interview with for a job as they smile in our faves...The same ones that are the judges in the courtroom raising the gavel..shyt ain’t changed. It’s so scary being a parent. But especially when you have one that’s a little different, white people think it’s a even better target. That boy wouldn’t hurt a fly. That positivity is the same as my 4 year old son.

fukk jail.. I hope someone slits their throats. Each one. Black people better wake up and realize the war never ended. The wealth gap is getting wider... the incarceration rates higher. It don’t stop. It just intensified.

 

[Stir Fry]

I never cried hearing a story. I’m so numb from all the murders that I just get angry. But this one was just so chilling, so disgusting... they killed that little boy. And not just any boy, I think he was Autistic just by how he spoke. As they said he was acting suspicious and weird, which was nothing but a innocent happy boy and violin player who was just trying to make it home. He pleaded for his life, and how he kept stating he is a good kid just killed me inside. My 4 year old son is Autistic and literally a younger version of how he seemed. The fact alone that the police feel they have to use a whole fukking squad to take down a completely compliant child. They have thousands of dollars worth of training, but always need more than 3 fukking cops anytime they deal with black people. And children? Wtf. It’s so scary being a parent. But especially when you have one that’s a little different, white people think it’s a even better target. That boy wouldn’t hurt a fly. That positivity is the same as my 4 year old son. fukk jail.. I hope someone slits their throats. Each one.

And then had the nerve to return to the scene and mock the chokehold that they used to take his life

The username to quoted post correlation is

 

[Knicksman20]

Elijah McClain's death prompts Colorado health department to investigate ketamine


July 29, 2020 / 11:45 AM / CBS News


While much of Elijiah McClain's death last summer has focused on the actions by Aurora, Colorado, police officers, the use of ketamine by paramedics that night is now under new scrutiny by the state's health department.

CBS Denver reports the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which grants individual agencies waivers to use the sedative ketamine and can look into complaints about its use, is now launching an investigation.

"The Colorado Department of Health and Environment received numerous complaints, beginning June 24th, that provided additional information regarding a ketamine administration in August 2019," a spokesperson said in a statement.

McClain, a 23-year-old Black man, died in August last year after he was detained by police and injected with ketamine.

Mari Newman, the attorney for Elijiah McClain's family, has long questioned how and why the powerful sedative was used.

"The weaponization of any kind of medication used involuntarily against a person just trying to go home is very, very troubling and it absolutely needs to be addressed," she said.

Newman believes it should have been done sooner, but she says better late than never.

"They certainly should have looked into it long ago but I am glad they are doing it now," Newman said.

"It shouldn't take millions of people across not just the country, but the world, speaking out and questioning the treatment of Elijah McClain before the government does what it should have done all along," she said.

McClain's case received renewed attention in recent weeks amid nationwide protests against racial injustice and police brutality following the death of George Floyd in May in Minneapolis. He died last August after three officers stopped him while he was walking down a street. A 911 caller had reported him as suspicious.

Police placed McClain in a chokehold and paramedics administered 500 milligrams of ketamine to calm him down. He suffered cardiac arrest and was later declared brain dead and taken off of life support.

Elijah McClain's death prompts Colorado health department to investigate ketamine

 

[Knicksman20]

Celebrities, including Brandon Marshall, join ‘Justice for Elijah McClain’ campaign in new PSA

AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — The Justice for Elijah McClain campaign has released two new initiatives with support from the entertainment world.



Celebrity advocates include: Janelle Monae’, Virgil Abloh, Tobe Nwigwe, Beanie Feldstein, Tess Holiday, Busy Phillips, Ben Platt, Palmer Williams Jr., BLK MKT Vintage, Brandon Marshall, Kazeem Famuyide, Cassie & Alex Fine, Meagan Good, Demi Moore, Rumor Willis and Kate Bosworth.

‘Elijah McClain’ trademarked in Colorado

The #LettersForElijah campaign lets supporters send a specialty card and postcard to elected officials in Colorado.

https://kdvr.com/news/local/celebri...stice-for-elijah-mcclain-campaign-in-new-psa/

 

[b_b]

This one still hurts. I both try not to think about it and force myself to think about it at the same time because it is too sad.

 

[Knicksman20]

Elijah McClain’s father on Nuggets’ T-shirt tribute: “He would’ve been thrilled”

Lawayne Mosley, Elijah McClain’s father, has watched the Denver Nuggets for decades.

Going back to the days of Hall of Famers Alex English and Dan Issel roaming the court, Mosley’s been a fan.

When he learned that Nuggets head coach Michael Malone wanted to recognize his son, who died last August after a violent arrest by Aurora police, by way of “Justice for Elijah McClain” T-shirts for him and his players, he was floored.

“It really means a lot that they would take the time out of their day to honor my son,” Mosley told The Post. “He would’ve been thrilled. He would’ve been … Oh my goodness.”

The idea came to Malone while sitting in his Orlando hotel room amid the NBA’s re-start. As teams and players grappled with the uncomfortable question of whether playing basketball during a time of racial and social unrest was prudent, Malone and the Nuggets made an effort to spark conversations that address racial inequities. The shirts, just one of the team’s many examples, were about highlighting discrimination within Colorado.

“Because this is Aurora, this is our backyard, these are the people that we represent on the court every night, I just felt really strongly about trying to do something where we could honor Elijah McClain, his memory, his name, his family,” Malone told The Post. “If the police cameras were not conveniently all knocked off the night of Aug. 24, when he was arrested, 2019, maybe it would’ve been a little bit more sensationalized, like George Floyd’s was, because everybody would’ve seen it. But that didn’t happen. It’s truly a tragic event.”

Malone reached out to Mari Newman, the McClain family lawyer, to see if the family was comfortable with the team’s gesture.

“Coach Malone and I had a long conversation, and then I talked to both of Elijah’s parents (Mosley and Sheneen McClain) about what we had discussed and they were both very touched by Coach Malone’s concern,” Newman said. “Both his concern for Elijah and also his concern to make sure that the way that he moved forward was respectful to the family’s wishes as well.”

With their blessing, the shirts were ordered.

Malone and players such as Torrey Craig, Troy Daniels and P.J. Dozier have all worn them prior to games. In another example of the team’s social conscience, forward Jerami Grant has dedicated both of his news conferences in Orlando to the memory of Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed by Louisville police in March.

“I’m mentioning Breonna Taylor, but I’m also speaking for all the other African Americans throughout America, or throughout the world that are Africans, that went through a lot of social injustices period,” Grant said.

Having Malone’s backing “shows the type of person he is,” Grant added.

Mosley remains a huge sports fan. He said Elijah, who died at 23, preferred football over basketball but enjoyed all sports.

“He was an athletic person,” Mosley said. “So he really liked all athletic sports. He would’ve loved it. Oh, he would’ve loved it. He would’ve enjoyed this very much, just for them to take the time out to honor him. He’s probably up there smiling now, you know what I mean?”

Mosley is both humbled and grateful that the Nuggets would honor his son.

“It’s just a blessing, and I truly would like to say, ‘Thank you guys, it meant a lot to me,’” he said. “That platform is huge. So it gets out there to nation-wide and also world-wide.”

On Friday afternoon, Mosley connected with Malone and thanked the coach personally. And yet it was anything but a one-way conversation.

“My thing to him was, ‘I’ve read and heard so many great things about Elijah,'” Malone said. “‘Can you tell me a little bit more about him?’ And he just talked about Elijah and the kind of kid he was, such a peaceful person, who loved everyone.”

Malone followed up: What would Elijah’s message be?

“He said, ‘Elijah was all about love and peace, so protest peacefully,'” Malone said. “‘We have to find a way to bring about change and do it peacefully.'”

Malone was so moved by his conversation with Mosley that the two discussed the possibility of him addressing the team in the future, to share more about who Elijah was as a person.

Newman, herself, isn’t a sports fan, but she said Malone’s gesture and the NBA’s movement have caused her to re-evaluate her position.

“Sports play a huge role in American society, and people like Coach Malone have a platform to lend voice to issues that are incredibly important to people who might not otherwise hear them,” she said.

Mosley can’t help it. On one hand, he’s heartened by the recognition and national attention his son’s case has garnered. But the spotlight also means re-living his worst nightmare.

“It hurts to see it every day, but I’ve been living with it since my son passed,” he said. “It has to get out there and it has to be done, and it should’ve been done a long time ago. I am happy. I am happy that it’s finally getting the recognition that it’s supposed to get and he’s going to get the justice that he deserves because he didn’t deserve any of this.”

The pressure and attention are working. On July 29, the Colorado public health department reopened its investigation into the use of ketamine on McClain after “numerous complaints,” according to the department’s spokesperson. The U.S. Department of Justice also announced it would look into whether police violated McClain’s civil rights, while state attorney general Phil Weiser is now reviewing the case as a special prosecutor after a district attorney declined to file charges against the officers.

Before he and Malone spoke and the topic was raised, Mosley said he would relish the opportunity to thank the Nuggets for bringing more attention to his son’s case.

If it ever got set up, I’d love to speak to all of them,” he said. “I am a fan, I wouldn’t mind having a jersey signed by you guys. Like I said, it’s truly an honor.”

Numerous times he reiterated how much gratitude he had that the local team had poured energy and investment into his son’s case.

“Just thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I am a true fan,” he said.

And now that basketball is back?

“I’ll be watching, for sure,” he said.

Elijah McClain's father on Nuggets' t-shirt tribute: "He would've been thrilled"

 

[Knicksman20]

Parents Of Elijah McClain Sue Colorado Police Over His Death

The parents of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died after officers in suburban Denver stopped him on the street last year and put him in a chokehold, sued police and medical officials Tuesday.

With the federal civil rights lawsuit, the McClain family said they were seeking both accountability for the loss of a "beautiful soul" and to send a message that "racism and brutality have no place in American law enforcement."

"We have filed this civil rights lawsuit to demand justice for Elijah McClain, to hold accountable the Aurora officials, police officers, and paramedics responsible for his murder, and to force the City of Aurora to change its longstanding pattern of brutal and racist policing," the family said in a statement released by their attorney.

McClain was stopped by three white officers on Aug. 24, 2019, while they responded to a call about a suspicious person wearing a ski mask and waving his arms. Police put him in a chokehold, and paramedics gave him 500 milligrams of ketamine to calm him down.

McClain suffered cardiac arrest, was later declared brain dead and taken off life support several days later.

The lawsuit claims one officer jammed his knee into McClain's arm "with the sole purpose of inflicting pain by forcefully separating Elijah's bicep and triceps muscles."

It also says two of the officers reported that all three of them simultaneously placed their body weight on McClain after a chokehold. One officer estimated that the collective weight on McClain, who weighed 140 pounds, to be over 700 pounds.

The national reckoning over racism and police brutality following George Floyd's death in Minneapolis brought renewed criticism to Aurora police over McClain's death.

Aurora police and the city's fire department did not immediately return a call and an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.

Elijah McClain case: Parents sue Aurora police over Black man's death

 

[Knicksman20]

Colorado AG investigating Aurora police after Elijah McClain's death

McClain's family filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Aurora officers violated his civil rights in stopping him last year.

The Colorado attorney general is investigating whether the Aurora Police Department permits "patterns and practices ... that might deprive individuals of their constitutional rights" after Elijah McClain, a young Black man, died in officers' custody last year.

The announcement of the investigation Tuesday came the same day McClain's family filed a federal lawsuit alleging that his civil rights were violated on Aug. 24, 2019, when officers placed him in a chokehold and paramedics injected him with a large dose of ketamine, a powerful sedative. McClain, 23, died days later.

Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday that an investigation had been going on "for several weeks now," and that it was authorized as part of a sweeping law enforcement accountability bill that Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, signed into law in June.

Weiser declined further comment.

The Aurora Police Department tweeted that Weiser contacted Police Chief Vanessa Wilson on Tuesday and that the department is "steadfast in our commitment to transparency and earning the trust of our community back."

Wilson also pledged "full cooperation with this investigation."



The Aurora Police Association, a union representing more than 240 officers, did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

The Aurora Police Department drew additional scrutiny this month after a viral video showed officers with guns drawn on a group of Black women and girls who had been ordered to lie face down in a parking lot while some of them were handcuffed. The group cried and screamed, with one young girl yelling, "I want my mother!"

The officers had stopped their car on the belief that it was stolen because it shared the plate number of a stolen motorcycle, Aurora police spokeswoman Faith Goodrich said. But after determining the car was not stolen, police then "unhandcuffed everyone involved, made efforts to explain what happened, and apologized," Goodrich said.

Brittney Gilliam, the driver of the car, said on MSNBC last week that the department's apology "is not good enough for me" and that officers at the scene weren't sorry.

While Goodrichsaid officers are trained in "high-risk stops" when a vehicle is believed to have been stolen, officials also acknowledged there is no written policy on such stops and "officers can use discretion based on the information they have at the time."

Wilson later apologized for what she said was "traumatic and horrific."

"It's unfortunate that it happened," she told NBC affiliate KUSA, adding that the department needs to look at new training to "drive change" and give officers "the ability to say, 'Hey we need to stop this, and feel OK to do that.'"

David Lane, a civil rights attorney representing Gilliam, said that his firm has sued Aurora police "dozens and dozens of times for this exact same type of behavior."

"They are there to occupy and intimidate," he said of police. "They are not there to serve and protect."

The death of McClain drew renewed attention in the weeks after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died in May while in police custody in Minneapolis, leading to national protests against systemic racism and police brutality.

McClain, a massage therapist, was walking home after buying iced tea from a corner store, according to his family, when he encountered Aurora police, who were responding to a report of a "suspicious person." McClain at the time was wearing long sleeves and a ski mask, which his family said he needed because he had a blood condition that made him feel cold.

The incident, which was captured on officers' bodycam, soon escalated. "[T]he male resisted contact, a struggle ensued, and he was taken into custody," police said in a statement.

According to the family's lawsuit, "in a span of eighteen minutes, Defendants subjected Elijah to a procession of needless and brutal force techniques and unnecessary, recklessly administered medication, the combined effects of which he could not survive."

Authorities said officers applied a carotid control hold on McClain, a type of chokehold meant to restrict blood to the brain to render a person unconscious. Paramedics were called to the scene, and McClain was injected with ketamine to sedate him after body cam showed him writhing on the ground saying, "I can't breathe, please," and vomiting. He apologized for vomiting.

About seven minutes after he received the drug, McClain was found to have no pulse in the ambulance and went into cardiac arrest, according to a report last fall by a local prosecutor, Dave Young. Medics were able to revive McClain, but he was later declared brain dead, and he was taken off life support less than a week later.

The Adams County Coroner's Officedetermined that McClain's death was due to "undetermined causes," and that the "evidence does not support the prosecution of a homicide," according to Young's report. Young declined to press charges against the officers.

But the coroner did not rule out that the chokehold, in addition to the ketamine, might have contributed to his death.

In June the Aurora police banned carotid control holds. That same month, Polis appointed a special prosecutor to investigate McClain's death, and separately, federal authorities said they were reviewing whether a civil rights investigation is warranted.

In addition, the three officers involved in taking McClain into custody were moved to "nonenforcement" duties in late June.

But the department continued to garner negative attention. In July, three other Aurora police officers were fired from the force after an internal investigation found they held a selfie photo session in October near a memorial site for McClain. A fourth officer also resigned.

Wilson said last month she only learned about the picture in June. The officers, she said, told investigators that they "were trying to cheer up a friend by sending that photo," but that she was unconvinced.

"We are ashamed, we're sickened and we're angered," Wilson said at the time. "I am disgusted to my core."

Colorado AG investigating Aurora Police Department in wake of Elijah McClain's death

 

[Knicksman20]

The Adams County Coroner Met With Aurora Police Before Elijah McClain’s Cause Of Death Was Determined

The pathologist who performed the autopsy of Elijah McClain told the Adams County coroner that the manner of death “may be undetermined” — rather than a homicide — before he had reviewed complete police reports, witness statements or video capturing a violent confrontation between Aurora Police and McClain.

Dr. Stephen Cina’s final decision, that McClain’s manner of death could not be determined, came after Adams County Coroner Monica Broncucia-Jordan met with Aurora police officers investigating McClain’s death, according to emails obtained by CPR News through an open records request.

In addition to meeting with the coroner in the midst of the investigation, Aurora police investigators were also present at the autopsy — even as the actions of some of the department’s officers were under review.

Allowing officers from the agency at the center of a death case to be present during the autopsy — and to consult with the coroner leading it — while the case is under investigation “should not happen,” said Democratic state Rep. Leslie Herod, author of the law enforcement reform legislation that passed in Colorado this year.

And failing to seek a second medical opinion to avoid an undetermined ruling in an autopsy is not a best practice, according to the head of a national coroners group.

McClain died in August 2019, a few days after Aurora police attempted to detain him while investigating a complaint about a suspicious person. Officers placed him in two carotid chokeholds and pinned him to the ground for nearly 18 minutes, according to his family’s attorney. McClain vomited and fainted. Paramedics, who arrived on scene after McClain was in custody, injected him with 500 mg of the sedative ketamine, which is the recommended dosage for a 200-pound person. McClain weighed 143 pounds.

The 23-year-old went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance and never recovered. He was declared dead on Aug. 27 at 3:51 p.m., three days after the encounter with Aurora officers.

Seven days later, on Sept. 3, Cina conducted the autopsy with two Aurora police officers and two representatives from the Adams County District Attorney’s Office in attendance. The coroner would neither disclose to CPR the names of those who watched nor release transcripts of any comments made during the autopsy.

Twenty-eight days after the autopsy was completed, on Oct. 1, Cina, an independent contractor who is paid at least $324,000 annually to perform 324 autopsies a year in Adams County, wrote an email to Broncucia-Jordan:

“still need witness statements, police report, and any video of the incident. I know APD doesn’t like long narrative on homicides, but it appears appropriate here. may be undetermined.”

The subject line of that email was “draft for review.” The file attached, of an apparent draft of the autopsy report, was not provided to CPR News. Cina’s contract requires him to provide early results of autopsies to the coroner before finalizing his decisions.

Fifteen days later, on Oct. 16, Coroner Broncucia-Jordan met with Aurora detectives. Those involved in that meeting have either declined to comment on what was discussed or have declined to respond to questions from CPR News.

The day after that meeting, Cina sent another email to Broncucia-Jordan, with the attachment “McClain, E Autopsy.” His final report, dated Nov. 7, declared there was no way to determine whether police or paramedics played a role in his death, effectively crippling any effort to find criminal fault with the response to the initial call of a “suspicious person.”

McClain had committed no crime.

Before Cina signed that final report, he had received copies of the Aurora police reports on their encounter with McClain and video from the incident. None of it altered his apparent initial intuition to rule the manner of death as undetermined.

At the time, though there had been local coverage of McClain’s death, and his family had been vocal in insisting on a complete investigation, there was no way for Cina to know that what happened to the young musician would, over the next year, become a subject of global protests and petitions.

The Adams County Coroner Met With Aurora Police Before Elijah McClain’s Cause Of Death Was Determined

 

[Knicksman20]

Hundreds gather with Elijah McClain’s family to remember him one year after fatal police encounter

Organizer Candice Bailey: “We wanted to come together to show each other love”

Hundreds gathered around Sheneen McClain on Sunday evening as night fell. They told her they loved her. They chanted her son’s name.


“Say his name! Elijah McClain!” the crowd chanted, lovingly surrounding his mom.


For several hours Sunday evening, hundreds gathered outside Denver’s Montbello Recreation Center to remember Elijah McClain as the anniversary of his death neared. Together, hundreds danced the Cupid Shuffle, listened to a violinist and demanded justice for McClain’s family. Families spread out on blankets across a football field and children danced at the base of the platform where a DJ played the Wobble and music from local artists.

Joy mixed with mourning and calls for justice. That was exactly the point, said Candice Bailey, friend of the McClain family and organizer of the event. The event was meant to center on gratitude, music and community.


“We wanted to come together to show each other love,” Bailey said.

Many of those strewn across the lawn came to pay their respects to the McClain family.


“This is a place where you can come to offer respect without having to worry about the possibility of violence,” said Midian Holmes, of Denver. “Tonight is an opportunity to look at each other in a form of peace.”


A small memorial for McClain set up toward the back of the field featured several cardboard signs with pictures of McClain, a few roses on the grass at their base.


“Mourning a rare and beautiful soul,” one sign read. “Rest in paradise.”


The 23-year-old massage therapist never recovered after being choked by Aurora police and injected with the sedative ketamine by paramedics on Aug. 24, 2019. He was taken off of life support in a hospital on Aug. 30 after being declared brain dead.


McClain’s family has been calling for accountability for the police officers and medical responders involved in his death since last August. His name became known across the world during protests of the killing of George Floyd, and increased public pressure has sparked a slew of new investigations into his death and the Aurora Police Department as a whole. His family demands that the officers and paramedics involved in his death be fired and charged. None have been charged and one officer has been fired, though not for how he treated McClain.


“Elijah’s mom has not seen justice,” Holmes said. “Tonight is a night to recognize that, and to recognize that our systems are broken.”


Sheneen McClain didn’t speak at the event, though she did dance for a moment with the crowd.

The gathering at the Montbello Recreation Center replaced a previously planned march that had swelled to an expected attendance of thousands of people. McClain’s family canceled the event when it no longer aligned with how they wanted to mark the day.


Those who came Sunday night said they felt they needed to be present as peaceful proof that people care about McClain and all those killed by law enforcement.

“I’m here because if I don’t come, who will?” sad Sylvia Akol. “I’m here for the generations to come.”


It’s going to take many years for Aurora police to undo the damage they wrought on the community because of how they treated McClain, Carolyn Phillips said. There is no amount of cadet programs or community bike giveaways that can make up for the loss of an innocent life.

Police need to use their common sense more, she said. McClain should’ve never been tackled or choked — he did nothing wrong. People will continue to die at the hands of police until there’s a fundamental shift in how officers think about the community they serve, she said. There will be more names added to an already too-long list, many of which are forgotten over time.

“How many years until we forget this young man?” Phillips said. “Something has to change.”


Hundreds gather with Elijah McClain's family to remember him one year after fatal police encounter

 

[b_b]

“How many years until we forget this young man?” Phillips said. “Something has to change.”

Over and over and fukking over. I do not know about yall, but for the very first time in my life I am actively looking at other countries to at least have a backup place to live. We have tried and tried and tried and have been patient and worked with and guided this country toward doing whats right for hella centuries. Its bleak and depressing after seeing my older relatives fight through all this bullshyt for us to be sitting here dealing with this nonsense. Take what you can from this place, get as much bread it will offer and for my ADOS folks out there, maybe this is the time our people actually get to PICK where we want to be. We stay having to be the band-aid for the soul of this country. At the very least, we for the first time have an opportunity to even look at other countries for a new home. It aint even got to be permanent, but at the very least we can dip our toes in it and see what else is out there. Perhaps find a place where we dont have worry about our sons growing up to get murdered for buying something to drink. Our daughters shot while sleeping in their own damn home. Centuries ago our people didnt get to pick where they laid their heads, maybe now we start to think seriously about other options.

 

[Knicksman20]

Elijah McClain’s death reflects failures of White, suburban police departments

His death began on a streetside patch of grass less than 100 feet from his front door.


Elijah McClain, his hood up against a slight chill and a bag with Arizona Iced Tea in his hand, made his way from the corner Shell station convenience store to his apartment building one night a year ago. The quarter-mile walk home was his last.

Three police officers in this large Denver suburb tackled the unarmed McClain, who they later said looked “suspicious,” and choked him unconscious. Paramedics then shot him up with a sedative, a dose later found to be too much for his 143 pounds.

Struggling for air through his own vomit, the 23-year-old called out, “I can’t breathe,” as he lost consciousness.

McClain never woke up. He died in the hospital nine months before George Floyd uttered the same dying refrain in Minneapolis when a police officer held a knee to his neck on the street.

Being Black in Aurora has proved dangerous. The same is true across many of the nation’s suburbs where predominantly White, male police departments, once a fair facsimile of their communities, have failed to change as rapidly as the places they are charged with protecting.

President Trump’s campaign appeals to suburban women with dramatic characterizations of urban crime have fed into a racist legacy of White flight from large cities, which filled these communities over the past half century and yielded sometimes-fatal consequences for residents of color.

In recent years, Black men have been killed by suburban police officers in Ferguson, Mo., in Falcon Heights, Minn., and in Vallejo, Calif., where police officers are being investigated for allegedly bending a prong on their star badges to proudly signify that they have killed someone on duty. There are more and, police watchdog groups, data analysts and law enforcement experts say, the number of cases is growing: In the Denver suburbs alone, the number of police shootings has tripled since 2015.

Last month, police officers in Kenosha, Wis. — about 30 miles from Milwaukee — shot an unarmed Black man at least seven times in the back after they were called to a dispute at an apartment complex. Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old security guard, has been in a Milwaukee hospital since then, recovering with a severed spine and shattered vertebrae. His three young sons were in the car’s back seat when he was shot.

Police reform and accountability have been hard to develop in suburban areas. The Colorado legislature passed a law in June that seeks to hold police officers personally liable for civil rights violations, a financial punishment meant to discourage reckless action. The following month, the city council of Greenwood Village, another Denver suburb, voted to indemnify any officer on the hook for such a penalty. The state attorney general criticized the vote as undermining the spirit of the law.

Here in Aurora, a tradition of impunity for police officers, a cumbersome hiring process and a changing population have resulted in deep public mistrust of the police force and numerous legal complaints against the department in recent years. A White majority endures in this city of 386,000 people, but it has shrunk from 70 percent of the population to 61 percent since 2000. Every other racial category has grown.

The city paid out $6.5 million in officer-involved lawsuits between 2010 and 2017, nearly as much as Denver, which has twice the number of sworn officers. One Denver law firm alone has five active civil rights cases against the Aurora Police Department, including one filed last month concerning the killing of Elijah McClain.

“We don’t have the trust of the community, and we lost the trust because of the actions of the police department,” said City Council member Allison Hiltz, chairman of the council’s public safety committee. “Racist policing is not unique to Aurora, but unfortunately, here we have a largely White police department in one of the most diverse cities in the country.”

A chokehold and ketamine
Aurora grew from the post-World War II building boom, a city where building and business were the primary civic ambitions for decades. Two Air Force bases bordered the emerging city, and many veterans were among Aurora’s early residents.

The city is low and wide with no single landmark rising above the many pines. It is still largely a commuter town, although it has its own thriving aerospace and health-care employment base with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus towering along Colfax Avenue.

In July 2012, the city made a notorious appearance nationally when James Holmes, a 24-year-old White man, opened fire in a movie theater screening “The Dark Knight Rises.” He killed 12 people, including a 6-year-old girl, and wounded more than 50 others.

Aurora police officers managed to capture the heavily armed Holmes alive. To this day, the city’s Black residents wonder how that was managed given the fatal violence that has been used against unarmed men of their race. Holmes is serving a life sentence.

Nothing, though, has interrupted the city’s growth and change, a process that has accelerated in recent decades. Suburban diversification is taking place nationally, but City Manager Jim Twombly said that here it “has been on steroids.”

Since the turn of the century, Aurora’s population has grown by 40 percent, making it Colorado’s third biggest municipality. The influx has comprised many immigrants. One in five Aurora residents was born abroad. El Salvador has opened a consulate here. City officials say more than 100 languages are spoken among residents.

Over that time, the Black community has increased as a proportion of the population, now accounting for 16 percent of city residents.

The police department, which has more than 700 sworn officers, has remained largely static in its racial composition over that time.

According to the 106-page McClain lawsuit against the city, the Aurora Police Department ranked eighth among the nation’s 100 largest cities for most police killings per capita. The department killed Black people at four times the rate of Whites.

In a statement, Mayor Mike Coffman, a former Republican congressman who narrowly defeated a Black candidate for the city office last year, said, “I do not believe that these few incidents, as egregious as they may be, define the nature of our city, which has always been welcoming, diverse and cooperative.”

“We will be tireless in our pursuit of a community-oriented police department that has the full support of our residents and reflects the city’s people, values and culture,” he said.

The racial disparity in the department’s use of force echoes in other American suburbs. It has led to what Chris Burbank, the former Salt Lake City police chief, calls a “crisis of legitimacy” facing law enforcement agencies.

The “defund the police” movement, which gained new energy after Floyd’s videotaped killing in May, is an expression of that sentiment.

“What we are seeing now is a complete change in what the public expects of its police force,” said Burbank, now the vice president for law enforcement strategy at the Center for Policing Equity, a think tank. “What we have not taken into account is the fact there is no connection between arrests and crime rates, between search and seizure operations and crime rates. But there is connection between those methods and the racial disparity we see so clearly now.”

The McClain killing, which was marked late last month on the first anniversary of his death with a thousands-strong rally at the Capitol, represents the most egregious case of violence that residents and some elected officials say is too-often employed by Aurora police.

After two internal inquiries into the officers’ use of force, none were disciplined, even though several of them shut off, tampered with or altered the positions of their body cameras as they engaged a terrified McClain, according to the lawsuit against the city.

McClain made the walk frequently from Shadow Tree apartments, where he lived, to the Shell station and back. He loved Arizona Iced Tea, unopened cans of which now decorate the shrine across the street from where he died. There are lights spelling his name, artificial roses and “rest in peace” messages.

His mother, Sheneen McClain, moved the family from Denver years ago to protect her children from gang violence. Elijah was a vegetarian and violinist, a self-described introvert, who worked at a nearby Massage Envy as a masseuse. He championed animal rights in his social media accounts.

 

[Knicksman20]

“Those are not characteristics people think of when they imagine a Black person,” said Candace Bailey, a civil rights advocate in Aurora who has helped organize many of the demonstrations around McClain’s death, including rallies last month here and in Denver. “We’re wild animals, inhuman, that’s how we’re portrayed here.”

Bailey, who grew up in Aurora, said Black residents here have an old saying: “Come to Aurora on vacation, leave on probation and potential incarceration.”

The call that brought police to Billings Street and Evergreen Avenue that August night was made because, on a 67-degree evening, McClain had his hood up. Three officers grabbed McClain just steps from his front door, threw him to the ground and began using a now-banned “carotid hold.”

“I was just going home. I’m an introvert, and I’m different,” McClain said, sobbing, according to tape of the episode, captured by one officer whose body camera recorded audio but not video of the incident. “I’m just different. I’m just different, that’s all. That’s all I was doing. I’m so sorry. I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do any fighting. Why were you attacking me?”

Paramedics arrived and administered a 500 milligram dose of ketamine, a powerful sedative. Citing Aurora Fire and Rescue Department protocol, the correct dose for someone McClain’s weight should have been 325 milligrams.

Eighteen minutes after police first engaged McClain, the young man was dead.

“Anyone who listens to the audio of Elijah McClain dying ends up crying,” Bailey said. “And if you do not, you are part of the problem.”

The Justice Department has been examining the case since last year, and in early August, the state attorney general, Phil Weiser, announced that his office would open a new review. The city recently hired an outside firm to investigate the incident with an eye toward what it may say about the police department.

“For Aurora, this is an effort to rebuild trust with the community,” Twombly, the city manager, said. “We want to come out of this with peace officers. And part of this is to determine how we have been part of the problem in the past and how we can be a solution in the future.”

'All about intimidation'
The Aurora Police Department’s conduct continues to baffle even some of its chief defenders.

Police used pepper spray, batons and gun-fired bean bags to break up a “violin vigil” in late June commemorating McClain’s life and death. The conduct, carried out in front of city hall and police headquarters, is now the subject of a lawsuit.

Then, in early August, the department made national news again when police officers confronted a Black family out for a pedicure. Brittney Gilliam was taking her sister, her daughter and two nieces — the children ranging in age from 6 to 17 years old — to a nail salon on a blazing summer day.

After seeing that the salon was closed, Gilliam walked the family back to her blue minivan and, soon after pulling out, police stopped her. Guns drawn, officers ordered her and other family members to the ground.

Video of the incident, showing members of the family, including children handcuffed face down on the hot pavement, attracted millions of Internet viewers.

The officers explained the episode as a mistake. The van’s license plate matched that of a stolen out-of-state motorcycle. Adding to the confusion, officers said, was the fact that the van had also been reported stolen earlier this year, although the report had been resolved.

Police Chief Vanessa Wilson, a White department veteran who was officially named to the post in August after serving on an interim basis, apologized and offered the family counseling. Wilson declined to be interviewed for this article.

“What we hear all the time from police is that they do not want our legislation to be too prescriptive regarding how they do their job,” said City Council member Curtis Gardner, vice chairman of the public safety committee. “Then something like this happens and they say we were just following policy. Well, they can’t have it both ways.”

Gardner, a credit union executive, was elected last year after receiving the endorsement of both police unions. He is White, a self-described numbers guy and taxpayers’ advocate who said he is “more reform minded than defund minded” when it comes to the police.

But he is working now on what he described as a police discipline matrix, which matches police misconduct to specific disciplinary measures. He said that, once finished, the document would be made public.

“We need to send a message to the community that we have accountability for police officers and it is not just ad hoc,” Gardner said.

The message is meant for people like Lindsay Minter, a 38-year-old high school track coach who is also a civil rights advocate here. Minter is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the city for the police response in June to the violin vigil, which she described as “like a scene from some crazy movie where all of this horrible stuff is happening to this beautiful music.”

Minter, among others here, is asking for a measure of common sense in how police behave in the city.

She lives not far from Colfax Avenue, the original city center, now a collection of small ethnic restaurants, boarded-up businesses and pawnshops, and once-popular and now faded movie theater marquees.

Giant Dollar, Dollar General and the Dollar Store sit within a block of each other on one stretch of road. The Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library is a centerpiece, a modern building surrounded by many homeless people. A story board outside recalls King’s visits to the state and his call in 1963 to “let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.”

Minter has a cousin named for Elijah McClain. She worries about sending her track team running through neighborhoods here, as she has had to during the coronavirus school shutdown. She is haunted by the death of Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia suburb earlier this year. The 25-year-old unarmed Black man was fatally shot in February as he jogged through a neighborhood in Brunswick, Ga. Three White men have been indicted on a charge of his murder.

“I love this city,” Minter said. “But it has a police department with no conscience.”

“When I think about what happened a few weeks ago with those children on the ground, I just can’t imagine how that must have felt for the family,” said Hiltz, who lives within minutes of the parking lot where the episode occurred. “And I also realize that the likelihood of that ever happening to my son are slim to none.”

Hiltz, who was elected in November 2017, is focusing now on how the department hires its recruits. The council-appointed Civil Service Commission manages the hiring across departments, giving department heads and elected officials little say in a process designed originally to prevent nepotism and cronyism.

But the department’s failure to adapt its force to the changing demographics has brought more focus on officer recruitment. Hiltz, for example, has begun to study the questionnaires used as part of the process to determine how much bias is built into hiring new officers.

“Why are people getting kicked out of the process here and getting picked up by neighboring forces?” Hiltz said. “And why are our outputs largely White and male? I want to know where and why we are losing people.”

Pastor Thomas Mayes encouraged his first daughter, Genesis, to become an Aurora police officer more than a decade ago. He believed that as a black woman, she would be an asset to a department out of sync demographically even then with its community.

She followed his advice. Eighteen months later she left the force.

“It was all about intimidation, how you had to be mean if you wanted anyone on the street to listen to you,” Mayes said. “She didn’t want to be a part of it.”

Mayes is pastor of the Living Water Christian Center, which shares its sanctuary with several other churches just off Colfax Avenue. He has been active in the civil rights community here for decades.

He is both a plaintiff in the lawsuit concerning the violin vigil incident and a member of the Citizens Police Oversight Committee, which many of its members consider toothless. Mayes said that “it doesn’t matter if you have a seat at the table if you don’t have a voice,” a sentiment echoed by Bailey and Minter, who also serve on the board.

Mayes, 67, uses his voice from the pulpit.

“What the city of Aurora has done year after year is to pay off those the police department has harmed,” he said. “I tell people I know you are struggling economically, but we can’t go around with a price tag around our necks.”

A Vietnam veteran, Mayes is on one side of a generational divide over how to reshape policing, believing that funding cuts are the wrong course to take. Enhanced accountability and a public willing to push consistently for change across the local government, he said, are the direction to take.

“I tell my parishioners that I don’t believe the Lord is pleased with you if you are inactive, until the problem falls on you,” he said. “If we don’t do anything, we cannot stand on His word that all will work together for the good.”

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