Warriors' Klay Thompson makes plea for justice for Elijah McClain

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Klay Thompson called for justice for Elijah McClain Wednesday night in an Instagram post.

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Elijah McCain,A gentle soul who played violin to lonely kittens in his spare time. Was murdered by Aurora CO police officers ( who still roam free ) for looking “suspicious” on his way home from the convenient store. Now remember, this is the same police force that apprehended James Holmes after slaying 12 people and injuring 70 others at an Aurora movie theatre midnight screening.They subdued him without a scratch on his body.There is no debate that men , woman and children of color are “policed” to a much harsher and catastrophic standard than white america .Waking up to the news of another murder of an unarmed brother, sister, mother, father or friend is so mentally draining and demoralizing and sometimes feels like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.But there is ✨....it will take so much work and effort from conscious citizens across the globe. So many institutions need restructuring ( voting rights, police procedures , minority representation in politics )Let’s help bring justice to Elijah and his family. As well as so many others who will never be forgotten and rest in powerFollow @grassrootslaw to see how we can all impact real change

A post shared by Klay Thompson (@klaythompson) on Jun 24, 2020 at 10:00pm PDT

McClain was a 23-year-old Black man who was killed in Aurora, Colorado police custody on August 24, 2019. McClain was stopped by three white officers as he walked home from a convenience store after a 911 call alleged there was a suspicious person in the area. According to police reports, a struggle ensued after McClain resisted officer contact. According to CNN, McClain can be heard telling the officers, "I'm an introvert, please respect the boundaries that I am speaking," through their body cameras. The footage then shows McClain telling the officers he was trying to stop his music so that he could listen to them.

One of the officers then can be heard saying, " "He just grabbed your gun, dude," according to CNN.

The officers then wrestled McClain to the ground and at one point one of the officers threatens to sick a dog on McClain, per CNN.

The officers then place McClain in a chokehold and he loses consciousness. According to the report, they released the hold and the struggle resumed. When paramedics arrived on the scene, they gave him some ketamine to sedate him. McClain suffered a heart attack while in the ambulance and was pronounced brain dead three days later, the district attorney claims.

The coroner's report did not list a cause of death, but labeled intense physical exertion and a narrow coronary artery as factors. The district attorney declined to press charges at the time of McClain's death.

Thompson's plea for justice came Wednesday as a massive social media outcry asks for the Colorado government to re-open the case and prosecute the officers involved in McClain's death.

On Thursday, Colorado governor Jared Polis announced that his administration will reexamine the case.

The call to reopen McClain's case comes in the wake of widespread protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement across the country and around the world following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man was killed in police custody when Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck of almost nine minutes.

Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman was shot and killed by Louisville police who were serving a no-knock warrant in March, which allows police to enter without knocking or identifying themselves. The warrant was signed because the police believed someone had received drugs at Taylor's house. No drugs were found on the scene. While police claim they knocked and identified themselves before Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker started shooting at them, Walker disputes the claim and said he only started shooting once the police entered without identifying themselves as he feared for his life. One of the officers has been fired for blindly firing 10 rounds through the patio door, while the others have been placed on administrative reassignment.

The F.B.I is investigating the case.

Arbery was an unarmed 25-year-old Black man who was chased, shot and killed by three men while jogging near his home in Georgia. It took a New York Times article, video of the confrontation and calls from activists and celebrities for the three men to finally be arrested months after Arbery's murder.

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Thompson recently took part in a peaceful protest in Oakland that was organized by teammate Juan-Toscano Anderson. Steph curry also took part in the protest and took his daughter, Riley, to a protest in Palo Alto.

Over 2 million people signed the petition to reopen McClain's case. The city of Aurora is planning to have its own independent investigation of McClain's death.

The officers were placed on administrative leave but were reinstated once the district attorney declined to press charges.

Last week, Gov. Polis signed a new police accountability bill into law that bans chokeholds and other dangerous tactics.

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