Get ready for a HUGE SHOCK!
In case you missed it, the Colorado State Attorney General Phil Weiser announced yesterday that the Civil Rights Investigation begun over the outrageous and unnecessary death of Elijah McClain in August of 2019 at the hands of the Aurora Police Department has determined that the Aurora Police Department has a long pattern of racially biased policing.
What?
The Aurora P.D. has a long pattern of racially biased policing. Investigation confirms it!
According to the AP article, AG Weiser said the investigation found the department has long had a culture in which officers treat people of color — especially Black people — differently than white people. He said the agency also has a pattern of using unlawful excessive force; frequently escalates encounters with civilians; and fails to properly document police interactions with residents.
23-year-old Elijah McClain
APD’s race problems didn’t start In August 2019, when Elijah McClain, a gentle 23-year-old Black massage therapist, was simply walking home from a convenience store in Aurora. He was wearing a ski mask and listening to music on his headphones when he was tackled by the local Aurora cops. A 911 call had reported a “sketchy” person in the area. This led to the incident with police who handcuffed Elijah and put a hood on him, causing a panic attack and vomiting. This led to his being “sedated” by rescue personnel with such a large dose of ketamine that he went into cardiac arrest and died a few days later.
It wasn’t just McClain’s death that made the Aurora P.D. look shady. Within six months this:
Three Aurora, Colorado, police officers were fired Friday for taking part in a disrespectful selfie-photo session near the memorial site for Elijah McClain, who died after being in a police chokehold, the interim chief said.
The officers involved in the photos, which show three of them smiling as one is in a mock chokehold, were identified by interim Chief Vanessa Wilson of the Aurora Police Department as Jason Rosenblatt, Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich. A fourth officer, Jaron Jones, resigned Tuesday.
www.nbcnews.com/...
The Aurora Police Department came under fire again just last year when officers put four Black girls/one young woman on the ground in restraints for allegedly being in a stolen SUV cuz it had the same plates as a stolen motorcycle in another state or in other words for no good reason, but to traumatize young Black children.
Many, many years ago, I was a brand new teacher in Aurora. I don’t live there now, but my brother does. I have 4 Black nephews who grew up in there. One did not survive. I pay pretty close attention to the goings on there. There have been TOO MANY stories like this over the long years. Stories that weren’t noticed.
Andrew Boryga for The Daily Beast wrote an excellent comprehensive article about the investigation:
A large protest movement around McClain’s death put pressure on police, and—buoyed by the national wave of rage after Floyd’s murder—helped push lawmakers to pass a sweeping police accountability bill giving the state AG new power to go after local cops.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, two Aurora Police Department officers, an ex-officer, and two paramedics were criminally charged for McClain’s death by Weiser.
Regardless of how that case plays out, Weiser’s report on Wednesday found that the department’s problems go well beyond one disturbing incident. And it suggested local officials faced a long road to getting out of the national spotlight.
Weiser’s report detailed the results of a 14-month investigation that included ride-alongs with officers, analyzing troves of police records and body-camera footage, and hearing from community members and police officers. It found that the police department has a pattern and practice of racially biased policing, using excessive force, and failing to document dubious investigative stops as required by the new police accountability measures put into place.
The Daily Beast — Andrew Boryga
(See the full article for more details about the investigation’s findings.)
The murders of Elijah McClain and George Floyd are not going unnoticed. Their work is done, but ours is just begun.
So now we know (again) what most of us knew all along.
Cops have it out for Black people waaaaaaaay more than they do for wight people.
So now we know that they know we know and that there is (again) evidence:
The full findings reveal that the police department uses force against people of color nearly 2.5 times as much as they do against white residents. According to a review of use-of-force reports, nearly half of the residents that the department used force against were Black, even though Black residents account for 15 percent of the local population.
The Daily Beast
Does that make them want to change, or make them even more dangerous?
My guess it does both, depending on leadership and community, and, obviously, individual cops.
But the laws that changed after George Floyd died are part of why this investigation even happened.
The investigation, announced in August 2020, was the first of its kind launched under a sweeping police accountability law passed in Colorado the month before amid protests over the killing of George Floyd.
The accountability law made it unlawful for police officers or other employees of government agencies to deprive people of their constitutional rights and gave the attorney general the power to enforce it. Under the law, if the attorney general finds an agency has “a pattern or practice” of violating people’s rights, the attorney general must notify the agency of the reasons for that belief and give it 60 days to make changes. If the agency does not make changes, the attorney general can file a lawsuit to force them.
www.kktv.com/...
Special shout-out to Colorado State Representative Leslie Herod, who helped draft the 2020 accountability bill that led to the probe. (I saw her introduce now VP Kamala Harris to a crowd in Denver a few years ago and was very impressed.) Herod said that the report “affirmed” that her bill was “doing exactly what it’s supposed to be doing.”
The Daily Beast discusses some of the possible solutions, etc. going forward. Honestly, it’s a great article. I’d be guilty of something if I copy and paste anymore — read it yourself.
Now the findings of the investigation must change the laws by which the police operate.
That’s accountablilty.
The murders of Elijah McClain and George Floyd are not going unnoticed. Their deaths were not in vain. Their work is done.
Ours is just begun.
