Protests are across the country over the death of Elijah McClain at the hands of police in Aurora, Colo. Now, frustration is also building over local law enforcement鈥檚 use of force this past weekend at a vigil in Aurora honoring him 鈥� frustration that was visible at a city council Tuesday night dedicated to the response.
McClain died after Aurora officers stopped him on the way home from a convenience store, where he bought iced tea. He was unarmed and wore a ski mask. The officers forced him to the ground and put him in a chokehold. A medic later injected him with ketamine. The 23-year-old had a en route to the hospital and went into a coma. McClain was a violinist and played for animals at a local shelter. Enough and other musicians performed Saturday night that, as a city council member at Tuesday鈥檚 meeting , the demonstration was more a 鈥減op-up orchestra concert鈥� than it was civil unrest.
But then, as videos posted to social media show, police officers in riot gear moved in to disperse the crowd.
Aurora PD breaking up the peaceful violin vigil for the very kid they murdered. 鈥� Jessie B (@jessiedesigngal)
Another video shows officers spraying pepper spray on attendees.
Police officers use what looks to be pepper spray to clear the area. Lots of people coughing and gasping for air. 鈥� Marc Sallinger (@MarcSallinger)
Another shows a violinist insisting on nonviolence 鈥� with music.
As police in riot gear were spraying protesters with pepper spray and using batons to push them back at the protest in Aurora today, this man began playing the violin. One of the most surreal scenes I鈥檝e ever seen. Music is powerful. 鈥� Marc Sallinger (@MarcSallinger)
Aurora鈥檚 interim police chief Vanessa Wilson told councilmembers that officers were responding to concerns from undercover police, who heard attendees talking about 鈥漴ushing鈥� police headquarters and 鈥渟aw people passing out rocks.鈥�
The department confirmed it used a smoke canister, pepper spray, bean bag shotgun rounds and foam bullets to disperse the crowd.
鈥淭his was dictated by what the agitators were doing,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淎nd then I was going off of history just recently in Denver, of when nightfall hit, that is when really chaos hit. And so I had that in my mind as well, with everything that we saw that was escalating, passing out rocks, those types of things.鈥�
Wilson said she had intelligence, including from Facebook posts, that 鈥減eople that identified with antifa鈥� were planning 鈥渢o cause issues鈥� and 鈥渋ndicating that they wanted people to riot.鈥� During the event, the police said they noticed protesters wearing protective gear like helmets and goggles, and that a number of people had weapons, including rocks and a handgun.
Wilson also said windows had been boarded up at the Aurora municipal building in preparation for Molotov cocktails, which 鈥渋n the Denver riots to start fires.鈥� As the Denver Post , police dispatch notes show that county officials 鈥渂elieved a person had a Molotov cocktail, though it turned out to actually be a squirt bottle.鈥�
Following Wilson鈥檚 presentation, council members questioned why smoke canisters weren鈥檛 considered enough of a deterrent, and why pepper spray was necessary, including a direct hit in a protester鈥檚 face.
Juan Marcano, a council member, said he was at the vigil site 鈥渂asically the entire day.鈥� Police kept warning protesters to keep away from a specified boundary, he said, 鈥淏ut no one was beyond the fencing, and every time that order was issued, the crowd got more riled up and angrier鈥he most effective thing y鈥檃ll did, earlier in the day, was pull back. That de-escalated people and the agitators got bored and left. So, I need to see more of that.鈥�
Council members also pressed for the release of as much body camera footage as possible.
鈥淎bsolutely, it鈥檒l all be given,鈥� said Wilson.
Benjamin Levin, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Law School who has represented plaintiffs suing police officers over misconduct, said the Aurora Police Department鈥檚 response highlights exactly what protesters have been fighting to prevent.
"It highlights a lot of the issues that are leading for calls to defund dismantle or abolish the police,鈥� Levin said. 鈥淥r, at the very least, to shift away from using police as the solution to so many issues."
Levin said the use of undercover officers at this type of event is 鈥渁 dangerous thing.鈥�
鈥淔irst of all, I think it runs the risk of really treading on people鈥檚 rights,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut I think it invites these kinds of situations, where a stray comment here and there 鈥� or maybe more than a stray comment here and there 鈥� leads to really massive escalation and massive response.鈥�
He said the presence of riot gear can have a similar effect.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a move that signals that something bad is going to happen,鈥� Levin said. 鈥淚t tees up and invites the kind of fear and the kind of nervousness that leads to these kinds of overreactions.鈥�
As the city debates the actions of local police during recent demonstrations, multiple state and federal investigations into McClain鈥檚 death remain active.
In late June, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis a special prosecutor to probe whether officers should be given criminal charges for how they treated McClain. The move came months after a local investigation determined officers had done nothing wrong. Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman 鈥渢here was too much bias, quite frankly, towards law enforcement by the individual doing the independent investigation.鈥�
On Monday the city is to vote on moving forward with a new local investigation.
Meanwhile, several Aurora officers are now by the department after posing for photos, reenacting the chokehold, at the site where McClain was forced onto the ground. The Denver Division of the FBI it continues 鈥渞eviewing the facts for a potential federal civil rights investigation鈥� and is now also collecting information about the photographs.
This post was updated July 1, 2020 to reorder certain paragraphs and clarify that Benjamin Levin has worked with plaintiffs on use-of-force cases in the past, but does not do so currently.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, 九色网 in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the .
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