Elijah McClain Was A Sensitive Black Man

Littleton CO

Description

Elijah McClain believed in the healing power of love, he played violin for kittens, and none of it was enough to convince police that he wasn't a bad person. Suspicion...That’s all three Aurora, Colorado, police officers had the day they encountered the 23-year-old. On Aug. 24, 2019, McClain was leaving a convenience store when someone called police to note that the unarmed young man looked “sketchy.” Didn’t matter that McClain was at the store getting tea for his cousin, whom he lived with. Or that he was dancing to the music in his headphones before three Aurora officers stopped him, pouncing on his back and using a chokehold that is now banned. They tortured McClain. For 15 minutes. They kept him restrained. McClain vomited several times, but he was such a kind soul that he apologized to the officers for doing it. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to do that,” he said. “I can’t breathe correctly.” The police never let up. They kept him cuffed. Despite McClain’s crying. They choked him to the point he passed out, with one officer saying in body camera footage that he “put him out” at least twice. They threatened him with their dogs and eventually called paramedics, who shot up the 5-foot-6-inch, 140-pound man with ketamine. His whole body went limp. Because Elijah McClain was different. Somehow it seems like he’d found the peace that many of us look for. He was content in being himself. He led with love. He was quiet and introverted but left a positive impression on all he met. He loved animals. McClain wasn’t killed because he was dangerous or threatening or violent. He was killed because he was Black, and there is no explanation that will make that make sense. “Elijah danced to the beat of his own drum. He was a unique human being who brought light and joy everywhere he went, according to everybody who interacted with him,” the civil rights attorney Mari Newman, who is representing McClain’s family, told The Guardian. She added: “One of his signatures is he would give a gratitude bow when he came into a room and when he left a room, and we can see a couple of videos of that, including the video from the convenience store where he bought the iced tea very shortly before he was killed.” I am still sickened over the officers smiling and posing for a selfie while mocking the killing of this young man! Doesn't that tell you everything you need to know? Equally sickening is the way cops honor a fallen cop while ignoring the ones they kill. Where were the masses of cops honoring Elijah? Or John, the heroic young man they shot who had just taken out the cop killer? Or the young woman left on the train tracks? The police do not care about these innocent lives taken. The question is do you?