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> Police stopped Elijah McClain on the street in suburban Denver last year after deeming the young Black man suspicious. He was thrown into a chokehold, threate
by aazaa 6y ago
> Police stopped Elijah McClain on the street in suburban Denver last year after deeming the young Black man suspicious. He was thrown into a chokehold, threatened with a dog and stun gun, then subjected to another law enforcement tool before he died: a drug called ketamine.
From the very beginning this story makes no sense. Suspicious is not a crime.
An earlier story makes things seem even worse:
> While McClain was making his trip to the store, someone had called 911 to report a suspicious person. Referring to McClain, the caller described him wearing a mask said he looked "sketchy" but added that "he might be a good person or a bad person." When asked, the caller told the operator that there were no weapons and that no one was in danger. The operator advised him that officers were on their way to check it out.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/happened-elijah-mcclain-protests-bring-attention-death/story?id=71523476 https://abcnews.go.com/US/happened-elijah-mcclain-protests-b...
Wearing a ski mask in public during the summer, although odd, is not a crime, either.
- gwright 6y ago> Wearing a ski mask in public during the summer, although odd, is not a crime, either. I don't know much at all about the McClain case, but your statement seems to have a flawed assumption that a crime is required before police can legitimately get involved. Policing doesn't only occur after a crime is committed. A big part of policing is about deterrence: being visible, talking with people in the community, investigating suspicious activity, double-checking that nothing is wrong, etc.
- aazaa 6y agoFrom the story I linked: > When officers Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt and Randy Roedema stopped Elijah McClain on his way home, one telling him that he was "being suspicious," according to police body camera video. McClain responded, "I have a right to go where I am going." > The officers immediately grabbed McClain, who repeatedly told them to let him go. This has nothing to do with being visible, talking with the community, investigating suspicious activity, or double-checking that nothing is wrong.
- gwright 6y agoI wasn't responding to the specifics of that case. I was responding to the implied assertion that a crime is required before police interaction is justified, which is wrong. I tried to make that clear but apparently I wasn't clear enough. Using that flawed assumption to argue that the police did something wrong in the McClain case is just noise. It distracts from understanding the facts of the matter.