The image only shows a portion of his last words, complete audio transcript from the police body cameras:
“I can’t breathe. I have my ID right here. My name is Elijah McClain. That’s my house. I was just going home. I’m an introvert. I’m just different. That’s all. I’m so sorry. I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do any fighting. Why are you attacking me? I don’t even kill flies! I don’t eat meat! But I don’t judge people, I don’t judge people who do eat meat. Forgive me. All I was trying to do was become better. I will do it. I will do anything. Sacrifice my identity, I’ll do it. You all are phenomenal. You are beautiful and I love you. Try to forgive me. I’m a mood Gemini. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Ow, that really hurt! You are all very strong. Teamwork makes the dream work.”
After he was forced to vomit, he added: “Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to do that. I just can’t breathe correctly.”
These words paint an even more heartbreaking picture of his gentle nature - apologizing for being sick while being restrained, expressing love even in his final moments, and maintaining his compassion until the end. The body camera footage preserves his complete final statement, showing his remarkable character even in such a traumatic situation.
This is just heartbreaking. It hurts me when someone gets killed and it turns out they weren’t exactly A+ material, but I grew up around people like that and experienced the world that made them firsthand so I empathize with them.
This dude though, this just crushes me.
how old was Elijah?
23
I remember Elijah.
The paramedics injected him with Ketamine. I’m a paramedic. I initially felt that the crew had done what they were supposed to do, but after the details came out in court, it is clear to me that they neglected important duties as healthcare providers. They should be (and were) held accountable, and the fact that the whole damn system of cops being able to request Ketamine didn’t get its legs blown off after this is a miscarriage of justice.
What does ketamine even do?
As a Brit, hearing the disgusting way American law enforcement treats people is genuinely something I would only expect of 3rd world countries.
I once heard a German call the US their favorite third world country, and that has never left me.
How often is ketamine used? Isn’t there other better alternatives? I’m curious since from what I understand, K holing is really not enjoyable and it seems like quite an extreme sedative, almost bordering on torture. How often do paramedics use it over a year?
Just in case my tone comes off as accusatory, I’m genuinely curious. Thank you for doing such a tough job, I know it isn’t easy.
Well, it’s come into much more wide usage over the last five years as a non-opioid alternative for pain management and non-benzo sedative. For stuff like burns, I understand that it’s much more effective than opiates for pain management. As for how extreme it is, I suspect that that’s dose dependent. I’ve never administered it, as my service doesn’t carry it. Generally, EMS Medical Directors are overly conservative (imo) and usually won’t put stuff that’s SUPER dangerous out in the field, so I’d be pretty surprised if that were the case here. That is, we absolutely carry stuff that can kill you if we fuck up, but it’s usually stuff where it would have to be a pretty significant fuck up (as these guys did here), not “whoops I got the dose wrong by 0.001 mg”
this is simply an extension of how y’all treat Neuro divergent people in hospitals and psych wards. I assume the fact that it happened in the open made people outraged compared to when it happens behind closed doors
I’m neurodivergent, too. I know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen how people get treated in hospitals and psych wards. I’ve seen some really nasty behavior from other paramedics. We’re sadly not a bunch of paladins; we’ve got a lot of washed up cop wannabes in our ranks for starters. There’s a lot to unpack here, and it’s deserving of criticism, but I don’t think I agree that’s what happened to Elijah.
obviously the main factor was cops and paramedics being racist against Black people but Black Neurodivergent people have way higher murder rates.
I don’t wish my initial comment to be interpreted wrong, people were rightly furious that a Black man was lynched.
I disagree with your initial statement that the lynchers were brought to justice as 2 of them escaped conviction
I’m specifically referring to the paramedics here. As I recall, they were both convicted. Are you talking about the cops, or the non-medical firefighters that were also present?
both of them got probation which is just a sick joke. if it were a Black man killing cops or paramedics he probably would’ve gotten a life sentence, if he survived the encounter
Oh, crap, I thought they got jail time
What a bullshit inflammatory comment.
How was he injected with ketamine?
Syringe by paramedic, urged by police who didn’t like that he was struggling against an illegal search.
Illegal searches tend to include violent restraint as well, because cops love to call someone that falls over when shoved ‘resisting arrest’.
Damn, paramedics are pigs too?
Can be
Unfortunately, the police complex is coopting a lot of stuff it has no business coopting.
I’ve had cops (and firefighters, for that matter) help me control aggressive patients until we could get them restrained or medicated so I didn’t get my ass beat. I’ve taken over from cops when they determine that it’s a medical call rather than a legal concern. Chemically sedating people for the cops, though? That should have never been happening, and IIRC it was official FD policy in Aurora.
there’s no co-optation here, western medicine was founded upon white supremacy and colonialism. this is just the modern presentation of it
Okay, I’ve worked in medicine for fifteen years. I’m not sure I would agree with you on that from where I’m standing now, but I’m open to learning new things. I’d like to invite you to make your case, either for yourself or by pointing me to the appropriate resources.
it’s really concerning you’ve worked for more than a decade in healthcare and you haven’t put 2 and 2 together. but I guess that’s just HCW privilege for you.
I recommend Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington
I saw a lot of injustice because I work in the US healthcare system. The company let old white people die just the same as anyone because they were on Medicaid; dude needed dialysis, and some goddamn bean counter decided that the costs after gas and crew wages didn’t pencil out. If you want to be a dick because I didn’t come to the conversation already seeing things your way, I guess that’s your right. I’ll make my way around to your source, but what I’ve seen, and I suppose what I am blinded to all other considerations by, is that our system of medicine is nothing short of direct class warfare. All other criticisms seem to arise as a direct consequence of that.
all the paramedics that don’t wear respirators for COVID are cops
Sometimes. Paramedics deal with a lot of people who react to life saving stuff with violence. Sometimes this is because the person is afraid and in fight mode, sometimes it’s drugs sometimes it’s because they face consequences after they get better. Anytime you mix violence with other stressors, low pay, overtime, threats of legal or financial censure for not dealing being proactive with violence when you have to prioritize something else more than running away, PTSD from bad experiences… Even good people get hard hearted.
The same pressures that turn cops into monsters are present in paramedic work, it’s just there’s different priorities. The same initiatives that change laws to be more health focused and the movement to defund and demilliterize cops in favour of using those resources to provide communities with additional compassionate supports and services for wider multitude of different responses also benefit paramedics. The problem with cops isn’t always that they exist. If someone is trying to murder someone then it is kind of nice to have someone you can call - it’s what the design of the system turns people into and how they become tools of oppression and an escalating force of violence. To not become a jaded paramedic willing to solve problems “the easy way” takes sustained willpower that some systems make into a superhuman feat.
it’s always been ACAB not some cops are bastards. exemplified by the paramedics being gleeful at getting to do a lynching
If you want to oversimplify it into a slogan sure.
“The systems of law and systemic oppression currently in place mean that it is virtually impossible to be a net good to society while trying to serve it in the capacity of cop even if you are well intentioned and want to stop violence.” doesn’t fit nicely on a shirt.
Problem being is when you take the slogan as nothing but axiomatic truth you kind of miss the point the slogan was made for. The cops whether some or all were never the point. It’s the overlaping systems we have to dismantle.
Plenty of them aren’t. Some are just jaded from overwork and low pay. Others couldn’t hack it as cops or firefighters and still need something to feel big about, and are pigs.
I disagree, all medics are bastards until they unilaterally separate from the police and abolish the healthcare industrial complex
Paramedics came and gave him more then a therapeutic dose to sedate him.
Why was he sedated with ketamine? Surely, there are better options?
I don’t think, “Dont harass innocent people.” is on the list.
Of course that would ideal, but IF someone should be sedated, why use ketamine?
Are paramedics allowed to do that?
They were convicted in court. I followed up on some of the details, and I believe that they neglected important duties as healthcare providers. I can go into it a bit, but basically they are allowed to give Ketamine for combative patients that present a hazard to themselves or others, and it’s a weight based dosage. Elijah was alert and oriented, which should have been a contraindication AFAICT, and they gave him basically double what they should have.
Why did he say, “Try to forgive me. I’m sorry.”?
Edit: Why downvote an honest question?
Because he was panicking as he was being murdered.
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