Deliriously Excited White Wash

 

 

 

Recently, this author did a reporting on the Elijah McClain case from Aurora, Colorado, a young African American male, who had been stopped for essentially wearing a black ski mask in the month of August, while walking home from a convenience store. On the cool summer night of August 24, 2019, Elijah McClain was stopped by three (with more to follow) Aurora police officers. The young man did not stop walking immediately, even though an officer repeatedly asked him, “Stop. Stop. Stop,” approaching Mr. McClain from the side, while he had been listening to his music with ear buds that were underneathhus mask. The officer is finally in face view, as he yells again,” Stop! I have a right stop you because you’re acting suspicious!!” as he puts hands on the young male.

Elijah McClain pulls back naturally as the officers rush him; he says “I am introvert. Please respect my boundaries…” The officers grapple with him as body cameras fall into the grass for two of the officers – and the third camera  jostlies. out of focus. It is in these moments that we hear the struggle with the eventual take down, and, the officers ear testimony that Elijah McClain was going for one of the officer’s gun.

The sounds of the struggle grow more pronounce, “Relax. Don’t tense up” could be heard repeatedly over and over by one of the officers. The next body camera video(s) show an officer on top of the 140-pound Elijah McClain. At one point, an officer states that McClain air pathway is clear, but you can hear that he is struggling to breath at points.

When the EMS personnel arrive, an officer relays how Elijah McClain nearly did a push up with all three on top of him. The officer also says, “that he was definitely on ‘something’.” Another officer threatens to sic a dog on him, because the young man’s feet are moving, while an officer sits a-top of him fully restrained. The EMS informs the supervisory officer on scene that he is going to give Elijah McClain a shot of ketamine. The EMS catches Elijah McClain in a fugue state, where he appears to be catatonic, and not answering the medic’s question. The EMS takes this as a refusal to answer, but in actuality, the young man is clearly traumatized—and is no longer communicating with anyone.

 They get Elijah McClain on the stretcher after shooting him up with 500 mg of ketamine—and place him into the ambulance—and soon afterwards coded (nearly dies at the scene); fortunately, the medics were able to revive him.

Elijah McClain never regains consciousness and was in a coma, later declared brain dead, and taken off life support six days later. The final coroner’s report, nearly three months later, states that McClain’s death was undetermined.  Part of the reasoning for Elijah McClain death being classified as undetermined is that the coroner left room for excited delirium to either be cause or contributing factor.

According to Western Journal of Emergency Medicine,

“Excited delirium is characterized by agitation, aggression, acute distress, and sudden death, often in the pre-hospital care setting. It is typically associated with the use of drugs that alter dopamine processing, hyperthermia, and, most notably, sometime with death of affected person in the custody of law enforcement. Subjects typically die from cardiopulmonary arrest, although the cause is debated.”

In the coroner’s report, one of the possible mitigating factors was the that Elijah McClain had a narrowing coronary artery (less blood flow), in addition to his perceived state of mind known as excited delirium.  

According to the literature, excited delirium is often accompanied with use of drugs, such as LSD or cocaine, dopamine receptors are impacted, which in turn, create an alternate state of behavior. This altered state creates agitation, sometimes paranoia, and the generation of chaotic behavior, even “super strength.” Which may explain why the officers had the perception that Elijah McClain was “on something.” The autopsy proved otherwise, the young man had only THC (marijuana) in his tox-screen nothing more. There is material regarding dopamine receptors and its effect on humans and the altered states that is created but is not usually hypervigilant in nature.

Another factor within excited delirium with the usual suspect of drugs (LSD or cocaine) is hyperthermia—at the time of his arrival Elijah McClain body temperature was normal. The autopsy examination of his revealed many abrasions, scabs, and bruising all over his body, including four in particular:

1.)  A 6 ½ x 1.8 cm zone of hemorrhage involving the fascia of the left sided deep strap muscle over the larynx.

2.)  A 5 ½ x 3 ½ inch zone of scabbed abrasions on the left side of the upper and mid back.

3.)  A 6 x 5 ½ in zone of nonspecific scabbed abrasion was on the right side of the upper back and mid/lower back.

4.)  Three red ½ - ¼ --inch abrasions were on the right lateral chest; and, 3/8 – inch scabbed abrasion was on the anterior right shoulder.

These particular injuries reflect the stress that Elijah McClain was under. For instance, the listed item 1.) may be have reflective of the carotid choke, while items 2.), 3.), and, 4.) are the indicative of the officers being on top of the restrained 5’ ft. & 7” inch McClain. Also, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and American Psychological Association does not recognize excited delirium as a valid mental disorder, because of too many varying mitigating factors tend to white wash policing and EMS technicians “mistakes.”

The body cam videos show the officers positioning and restraining Elijah McClain and is consistent with his injuries. Additionally, the body cam videos show the length of time that the officers had Elijah McClain down on the ground, face down, with his arm twisted behind his back, and the officer on top with his knee in the mid/lower back.

The whole incident from beginning to end was roughly twenty minutes with an officer(s) being on top of Elijah McClain for nearly fifteen minutes, in fact, his body is being compressed face down the entire time. Once the paramedics arrive Elijah McClain is on his side and questioned by the EMS. He is unresponsive, turned over after his subcutaneously shot of ketamine, then strapped down to the stretcher, and then loaded in the ambulance where the young man coded, and shortly thereafter revived.  

Elijah McClain is not the first to be killed in police custody, but he is certainly, the under the radar George Floyd, because there was not any public viewing of his death. The cell phone coverage was not existent, but mostly likely, a cellphone call to 911 started a set of tragic events in motion. All because of a report of “sketchy” black man wearing a black ski mask. Another man of color dead in a system that falls into paranoia, stereotypes, and aggression.

An institutional system of task masters gilded in light and dark plays an Orwellian game of codes, and, agendas. A new vernacular with structures for the hegemony to illustrate progress, yet also, find a communicative way to signal that the programs of new were the same as the old. For instance, the black codes of the Jim Crow era were to be revised within the language of law and order, yet only apply to those who understood cultural meanings and references. Intelligence quotient (IQ) test were rigged only to the culturally relatable terms, or varying terms of meaning, calculus, or algebraic forms, such as: to, two, or too (as in also or much). Or knowing to understand the differences in terms, such as: right (turn), write, or right (correct). Or, what is 8+8/8+8x8-8? Where was Christopher Columbus born?

Alongside the IQ tests, and, the revised code switching of the moment, is the enforcement arm of the revised coding and the popular culture references to entrench the values through subversion. In essence, the code switching sets the boundaries and the popular instills what forms within those boundaries. An example of this would be a stricture that a certain group, whether it be through race, gender, or orientation, the limitations are then proscribed within the popular perceived traditions, stereotypes, and biased structural laws. For instance, when it obvious that Jim Crow laws and black codes were going to be changed the “power at be” shifted the law towards apparent equity—to the colorblindness of justice.

In Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow–Mass incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, she says that the precise ending of Jim Crow era is debated, but generally, the writing on the wall for “the death of Jim Crow to Brown v. Board of Education, although the institutions was showing sign of weakness years before….(p. 35).” Additionally, the combination of mitigating factors as one might refer to as the beginning of “liberal white guilt,” the growth of political power of blacks because of the diaspora to the North, and, influence of NAACP challenging Jim Crow laws had a confluence effect of shaping the Civil Rights Movement, especially after World War II. Alexander presents her point this way,

“Far more important in the view of many scholars, …., is the influence of World War II. The blatant contradiction between the country’s opposition to the crimes of the Third Reich against European Jews and the continued existence of a racial caste system in the United States was proving embarrassing, severely damaging the nation’s credibility as the leader of the “free world.” (page 35).

Additionally, American scholars felt “increased concern” for African-Americans, in that, the lack of equality, as Alexander puts it, “without greater equality for African-Americans, blacks”  may lead themselves down the path of fruitless “communism,” because the magical elixir of Russia’s precepts, at that time, would be appealing. The snake oil of the Russians and communism was the illusory “commitment to both racial and economic equality.” (p. 36)

 In essence, the scholarly elites realized the access to “greater equality” would, could, and did pacify the restlessness within the African -American community, but to a point. The structures within rthe American system are subservient to the hegemony. So, what does this have to do with Elijah McClain? In part, or in fact, the inculcation of culture writ-large is to re-deploy itself in substance and in meaning, although foundational mythos is a lie—All men are created equal.

Equality under the law has long been a fallacy. The principal foundation in the founding of the United State of America is/was that the “rule of law” brought equality for all. The days of kings and queens rule were to be a far distant memory, in that, a system of meritocracy is/was a system that adjoined the populous and the elite together. This, of course, is a flawed mythos perpetuated as the American mantra.

This mythos not unlike most institutional belief systems are to maintain the status quo, in order, to subjugate the disenfranchised in the lower socioeconomic groups and differing ethnicities. Some of the methodology in the rigging biases of late is through drug policy, predictive policing, racial and medical profiling. In the case of Elijah McClain, the latter two biases are in play.

On the scene, where Elijah McClain nearly died and later taken off life support in the hospital, the police officers profiled the young man, and then later profiled by the EMS professionals on the perceptions of black viewed bodies—and even later with the autopsy report profiles Elijah McClain as a possible victim of his own actions unbeknownst to him.

McClain’s agitation is due to officers’ attitudes towards him, the community they patrol, and stereotypes of race. The aggression of the officer’s in which they approached McClain demonstrates, as seen and heard through the body cameras, that they viewed the young man walking down the street as a threat, instead of evaluating the situation through observation and conversation. Justice for Elijah McClain will have to come through the activism of the public discourse and the charging of not only of the officers, but also the charging of the EMS technician. The coroner’s report ultimately appears to be a cover up for the police officers and the EMS technician claiming that the ketamine given to Elijah McClain was at therapeutic level, and that, McClain may have an “undiagnosed mental illness that led to Excited Delirium,” which gives clearance for the undetermined cause of death.