Three officers have been fired over photos showing them re-enact a chokehold used on a 23-year-old black man who died after he was stopped by police on a street in Denver.
One of those sacked is Jason Rosenblatt, a white officer who helped stop Elijah McClain in August last year for wearing a ski mask and “being suspicious”.
Police put Mr McClain in a chokehold, paramedics injected him with a sedative and he suffered cardiac arrest before later being taken off life support.
Aurora interim police chief Vanessa Wilson told reporters that officers sent the photos to Rosenblatt and others two months after Mr McClain died to “cheer up a friend”, without explaining who that was.
Rosenblatt responded with a text saying, “Haha”.
Officer Nathan Woodyard, who put McClain in a chokehold, also got the photos but he was not disciplined because he did not respond.
“We are ashamed, we are sickened, and we are angry,” Ms Wilson said. The officers may not have committed a crime, but the photographs are “a crime against humanity and decency”, she added.
Mr McClain’s death has become a rallying cry amid a national reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice, with the state reopening the case for possible criminal charges and federal officials looking into a civil rights investigation.
In several places, the chokehold has been banned and other police reforms passed after nationwide protests.
Mr McClain’s family, friends and community activists noted during a rally that justice was swifter for the mocking photograph than the use of force that led to Mr McClain’s death.
The two other officers who stopped the young man are still on the force as authorities look again into possible criminal charges after clearing them last year.
“Rosenblatt got fired not for killing Elijah, not for murdering Elijah, but for making fun of Elijah,” said Terrence Roberts, a community organiser and family friend.
“That is the culture that we’re fighting, where a police officer can murder a black man, a black child, and keep his job and stay on the force so he can go make fun of this child.”
Officers Kyle Dittrich, Erica Marrero and Jaron Jones — none of whom confronted Mr McClain in August — smiled and mockingly placed each other in a chokehold in the photos taken in October near a memorial for Mr McClain.
An officer reported the photos to a sergeant late last month, and an internal investigation began.
Rosenblatt, Dittrich and Marrero were fired for conduct unbecoming of an officer. Jones resigned earlier this week.
The Aurora Police Association called the investigation “a rush to judgment”. The union for officers said on Facebook that the investigation took nine days, while a standard internal affairs case takes months.
Several police agencies have taken swift action to punish officers, including those involved in George Floyd’s death on May 25 in Minneapolis that ushered in global demonstrations.
For Mr McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, “it was just devastating to see that people were mocking the murder of her son”, family attorney Mari Newman said.
“The fact that three on-duty, in-uniform police officers thought that it was appropriate to reenact the murder, jokingly, shows that the department is rotten to the core,” she said.
Facing increasing pressure as celebrities and others on social media called for justice, Colorado Governor Jared Polis last week ordered the state attorney general to reopen Mr McClain’s case.
The officers stopped Mr McClain, a massage therapist, after a 911 call on August 24 reported him as suspicious because he was wearing a ski mask and flailing his arms. He begged them repeatedly to let go of him, according to body-camera video.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel