Member-only story
Justice Is Slow for the Young Man who Serenaded Homeless Kittens
“I am an introvert… please respect boundaries that I am speaking… Leave me alone”
I can personally recall the indignation I felt the first time I read about the senseless death of Elijah McClain. Elijah was a 23-year-old black man that was walking home one night in August of 2019 in Aurora, Colorado. Walking with headphones on listening to music and wearing a ski mask. 911 received a call reporting a person that looks sketchy and acting on that alone, police approached the young man. A police body camera video shows an officer getting out of his car, approaching McClain on the sidewalk, and saying, “Stop right there. Stop. Stop … I have a right to stop you because you’re being suspicious.” Additional officers would then join in to restrain the young man. At one point the sound goes off the body cam video. But we know that Elijah in restraint indicated that “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? I don’t do guns. I don’t even kill flies. I don’t eat meat. … I am a vegetarian,” he said. As we have heard too many times now the young man told can be heard trying to explain himself and sometimes crying out or sobbing. He says he can’t breathe and was just on his way home.
