LLG Coast to Coast for NAACP - Day 8
The team has made it to our final state! Our #coasttocoastforchange virtual ride is in Palm Springs, California. We’ll continue to highlight stories of racial injustice and police brutality this weekend as we wrap up our fundraising challenge. Thank you to everyone who helped us get this far by donating. There are still two more days to give!
On August 24, 2019 Elijah McClain, 23, was walking home from a convenience store in Aurora, Colorado while wearing a ski mask because he was cold. McClain supposedly resisted arrest when police approached him, and in the short time that followed he was placed in a carotid hold and injected with a dose of ketamine that was significantly too much for his body mass. Elijah was taken to the hospital by ambulance where he had a heart attack and passed away a few days later after being declared brain dead. Elijah had committed no crime, but was reported to police for looking suspicious, during the arrest he pleaded with officers saying he was not doing anything wrong and that he could not breathe.
Elijah was described as a kind man. He was known to go to local animal shelters to play violin for the cats and dogs as he believed it would help to soothe their anxiety. His death did not originally spark outrage, but since the death of George Floyd and the civil rights movement being started the officers associated with Elijah’s death have all been terminated and a petition signed by over two million people to pursue legal action against those officers has risen. This is aligning with the movement in Colorado to reform the police department.
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