Several hundred people gathered in Aurora on Saturday evening to demand justice for Elijah McClain and to stand in solidarity with protesters who for days have faced off with federal law enforcement agents in Oregon.
As night fell, protesters were on Interstate 225, having marched there and blocked traffic after hearing speeches at police headquarters. Several loud bangs were heard about 7 p.m. and Aurora police told The Denver Post a woman was injured when she jumped out of the way of a vehicle and that at least one driver was shooting something. Police said on Twitter that they were aware of vehicle driving north on I-225 through the protesters and were investigating.
Police had been directing traffic but were otherwise not engaging with the protesters, many of whom were chanting, “Say his name: Elijah McClain.”
Speakers at the event, organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, noted it’s been about 11 months since McClain died.
“We are coming for everything killing us,” anti-gang activist Terrance Roberts told the crowd. “We are going to continue to agitate, we are going to continue to occupy space until we get justice.”
Aurora protesters have shut down 225. Many more are streaming onto the highway, chanting Elijah McClain’s name. pic.twitter.com/Yzvh9Z3kf0
— Alex Burness (@alex_burness) July 26, 2020
The crowd paused on I-225 for a call and repeat: “We hold this highway in unflinching solidarity with the movement for Black lives … and all victims of police terrorism. We will continue our resistance to the racist U.S. regime and its occupying forces as long as they exist, until the empire falls. It is right to rebel! It is right to rebel! It is right to rebel! Solidarity with Portland.”
The Aurora Police Department posted an advisory ahead of Saturday’s event, warning attendees not to bring “sticks, poles, pipes, bats or similar objects.”
The advisory stated, “Please be advised the use of using bullhorns, noisemakers, and like devices cause actual physical pain, or bodily injury, to attendees, which is unlawful.”
It also warned against certain speech: “‘Fighting Words,’ or words that are inherently likely to provoke a violent reaction or a breach of the peace through retaliation, are not protected by the First Amendment.”
Denver has been relatively calm since an extended initial wave of protests following the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. But Floyd’s death, and those early protests, brought the story of Aurora’s Elijah McClain into the national spotlight, and protesters have lately been active in Aurora, marching, chanting and playing music in his honor.
McClain was a violinist, and protesters around the country have been holding violin vigils in his honor. That movement began in Aurora on June 27, when police in riot gear deployed chemical agents on a crowd that included many violinists. Aurora community leaders on Thursday filed a class action lawsuit against the city for its response to the event.
The protesters are demanding that the officers who violently arrested McClain last August — he died at the hospital a few days after that arrest — be fired. McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, has said she wants the officers imprisoned.
Two of the officers, Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema, still work for the Aurora Police Department. A third, Jason Rosenblatt, was fired earlier this month for texting “ha ha” in response to a photo of other Aurora cops mocking the stranglehold officers had placed on McClain. Rosenblatt is suing the city over his termination.
Referencing that Roberts told the crowd, “We have had the Aurora police pretty much make fun of this with a carotid chokehold at the site of his homicide.”
There are now three separate investigations into McClain’s death, at the city, state and federal levels.
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Hundreds gather in Aurora to protest death of Elijah McClain - The Denver Post
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