Shannen McClain was walking the grounds of the White House on Wednesday morning, contemplating the death of her son Eliza during a violent police encounter and contemplating what she would say to President Joe Biden later in the afternoon, When she will participate in the formal signing of an executive order aimed at creating a national police. improvement standards.
“It’s not enough,” Shannen McClain said of the executive order. “The killing hasn’t stopped. Police officers are still free to kill someone because the law allows it.”
McClain was invited to the White House on Monday without knowing why the invitation was extended and then took the second plane ride of his life to get there.
He and his lawyer, Kusair Mohammadbhai, visited the White House and met other invited guests before waiting to attend the ceremony at 4 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday. She was expected to meet privately with the president, and McClain said she was still collecting her thoughts on what she would say.
According to an overview posted on the White House website, the presidential executive order includes provisions that:
- Create a national database to report police misconduct
- All federal law enforcement is required to wear a body camera
- Ban chokeholds and carotid restraints unless lethal force is necessary
- ban no-knock warrants
- restrict the flow of military surplus to the local police and sheriff
- Requires all law enforcement to revise use of force policies and create de-escalation standards
- Officials prioritize welfare, according to an overview released Wednesday by the White House.
“Police cannot fulfill their role to keep communities safe without the public’s trust and confidence in law enforcement and the criminal justice system,” a White House statement said. “Yet, there are places in America today where the bonds of trust are broken or broken. To recover as a nation, we must acknowledge that black and brown people are disproportionately involved in deadly encounters with law enforcement.”
Biden vowed to implement police reforms as he campaigned for president. Meanwhile, Congress has failed to move a police reform bill in 2020 named after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, and Biden is limited in what he can do.
“He is doing a really difficult balancing act,” Mohammadbhai said of the president. “He’s balancing life against politics and power. It’s a distasteful balancing act.”
On Wednesday, McClain rebuked Congress for failing to move to limit police powers and punish those who kill civilians without justification.
“It’s sad because those people are chosen and placed in those positions, but they don’t represent the people they serve,” she said.
Eliza McClain died in August 2019 after officers from the Aurora Police Department stopped her on her way home from a convenience store. The 23-year-old massage therapist, who plays the violin, questioned officers why they were stopping him, and officers almost immediately took him to the ground.
There, he placed McClain in a carotid control hold as he told them to stop, telling officers he couldn’t breathe and was not the kind of person who causes trouble. Paramedics injected McClain with ketamine, a heavy sedative. He fainted and went into cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital, where he died a few days later.
His last words, “My Name’s Elijah McClain,” became a rallying cry during the 2020 police protest. While demonstrations began nationwide following Floyd’s death, McClain quickly became the face of the movement.
On Wednesday, Shannen McClain met with Floyd’s brother at the White House and said it was inspiring.
“There are so many people who have been hurt by police brutality, and meeting them is very important,” she said.
McClain, a privateer, has been a fierce defender of his son’s name and image. She often declines invitations to attend events in her honor and refuses to allow politicians to use her name in law if she does not approve every measure in a bill.
Describing what happened to her son, she does not hold back her words and demands that no one else be killed by police officers who take an oath to protect their communities.
During the 2020 Colorado General Assembly, she often appeared at the Statehouse to lobby for police reform bills. Many of them were passed by a Democratic-controlled legislature and are nationally seen as examples of other states, even as Republicans blame rising crime rates on the reforms.
Mohamedbhai said other victims of law enforcement violence whom McClain is meeting have praised Colorado’s police reform.
“It’s interesting to hear what people think about Elijah and Colorado,” Mohamedbhai said. “We are seen as a symbol. What we found in Colorado is more than an executive order. ,
McClain often wears homemade T-shirts with her son’s picture and name and slogans such as “Hate racist design” and “Black Lives Matter”.
She said in an interview with The Denver Post on Wednesday that she considered wearing a shirt with the message “America’s divided states have blood on their hands. Do Better” was printed on it, but instead more Opted for subdued blouse and dress pants.
“I’m still honored to be here, but it would have been nice if it had been in different circumstances,” McClain said.
