Colorado cops detained a Black family after mistaking their SUV for a stolen motorcycle, and outrage has ensued over the incident. According to ABC affiliate The Denver Channel, the Aurora officers ran the SUV license plate, and it came back as a stolen motorcycle. Seemingly not noticing that the two vehicles are quite different, the officers pulled up behind the family in a parking lot, drew their weapons, and forced the mother and her children to get out.
The incident was caught on camera by several witnesses, with one, Jenni Wurtz, speaking to The Denver Channel later. “That makes me very mad, because I am not anti-police. I’m anti what happened yesterday, and that was ridiculous,” she said. The Aurora interim-Police Chief has defended the situation by saying, “I totally understand that anger, and don’t want to diminish that anger, but I will say it wasn’t a profiling incident. It was a hit that came through the system, and they have a picture of the vehicle the officers saw.”
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Notably, the Aurora Police Department has been under heavy scrutiny over the death of Elijah McClain, a young black man who was stopped by police for suspicious behavior, and later died after being administered a large dose of ketamine. The case of the mistaken vehicle did not turn fatal, thankfully. Still, the sight of a group of police officers keeping a Black mother and her children handcuffed on the ground has reignited a lot of anger, with many people expressing themselves on Twitter. Scroll down to read what they are saying.
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Mistook an SUV for a motorcycle?!?! When will it end??? https://t.co/DxRBByotld
โ Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) August 4, 2020
Wow! This innocent Black family was detained at gunpoint by @AuroraPD officers today โ down on a hot concrete ground for a mistakenly identified stolen vehicle. Were pulled over and all placed in handcuffs, even their 6-year old child!! #DrivingWhileBlack pic.twitter.com/LxB2qFQMLr
โ Vonnie932 (@Vonnie932) August 4, 2020
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The same way you choose to handcuff a 6 year old child.
โ Colin Hicks (@colinenpraxis) August 4, 2020
Even if it was I think the real problem was how it was handled. They family shouldโve been placed on the sidewalk and the mom question inside a cop car! Not forced on the concrete like animals
โ ะะฐะบัััะปะป (@lilmaxivert) August 4, 2020
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I donโt want to generalize about the Aurora Police Department, but it seems like this sort of thing keeps happening there.
โ Brian Kieffer (@bckieffer) August 4, 2020
This is what happens when you train the police like soldiers, they now view citizens as the enemy and take no risks when dealing with them.
โ redir (@redir) August 4, 2020
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And none of these cops stopped to think that if a mother can fit herself & her 4 kids on a motorcycle, it just might not BE a motorcycle?
โ Amanda ๐จ๐ฆ๐บ๐ธ (@ShooguhLipz) August 4, 2020
That’s not really even an issue. They mistook an SUV for a motorcycle? If you’re going to make up lies at least make up some that are halfway believable.
โ Tilton, Jerry (@TiltonJerry1) August 4, 2020
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Oh good, they’re going to do an “internal investigation” to determine whether they did anything wrong. I’m sure that will put everything right.
โ Nicklas Johnson (@spatula75) August 4, 2020
Hate to make it worse, but that is another child holding her hand. They took the mother to another spot.
โ Old Mama Speaks (@OldMamaSpeaks) August 4, 2020
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I can see why theyโd get them mixed up ๐
โ Not My Prez ๐๐ณ๏ธโ๐ (@SawyerJerry) August 4, 2020
SUV (left) vs motorcycle (right). pic.twitter.com/FLnfkhZaqW
Yea right, this happened under her watch, as did the picture scandal.
โ David Brown Eyes (@Istagi) August 4, 2020
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“…mistaking their SUV for a stolen motorcycle” is quite the sentence.
โ ๐๐ก๐๐ซ๐ฅ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ก๐๐ง๐๐ง (@CRobertBuchanan) August 4, 2020
These officers should be fired immediately. Being able to distinguish a motorcycle from an SUV should be baseline qualification for being a cop.
Now lets’ talk about common sense and empathy…#copolitics
How TF does someone mistake this for this pic.twitter.com/2cb4gfyXvX
โ TheTacFro | BLM (@TacFro) August 4, 2020
