Colorado police apologize over viral video of cops handcuffing Black girls in a mistaken stop

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Sunday morning was meant to be a girls outing for the Gilliams, as cousins, sisters, aunts and nieces piled into an SUV to go get their nails done together in suburban Denver.



But before they could even find an open salon, the family’s four children were ordered at gunpoint to lay facedown on the parking lot, and two were handcuffed. The Black girls, who range from 6 to 17 years old, broke down into tears and screams as a group of White police officers hovered over them.

“I want my mother,” one of them can be heard wailing on a video of the incident, gasping for air between sobs. “Can’t I have my sister next to me?”

Aurora’s police chief apologized on Monday night and launched an internal investigation after video of the incident quickly went viral. Police blamed a misunderstanding: The license plate number on a stolen motorcycle matched the family’s blue SUV, and that car had been reported missing earlier this year, too.

But Brittney Gilliam, who had been driving her relatives to the salon, said the mix-up did not justify forcing her young relatives onto the pavement or putting two of them, ages 12 and 17, in handcuffs. She has since filed a complaint.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/colorado-police-apologize-over-viral-video-of-cops-handcuffing-black-girls-in-a-mistaken-stop/ar-BB17xHqX?li=BBnb7Kz

[redstatebluegirl]

1. Sue that department until you own the last baton!

[soothsayer]

2. SUV... motorcycle... easy mixup

I always see motorcycles with giant, car-sized plates.

Lying idiots.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. That's What I Thought

They didn't know they were looking for a motorcycle?
Somebody gave them a license plate number but didn't mention the vehicle had only 2 wheels?
Besides, you know the cops could avoid apologizing?
Quit arresting kids because they're not white.
Simple!

[spooky3]

3. As a white person, I can confidently say that, had those women and girls been white

and apparently middle class or above, and told the police they were on their way to a salon, the police would have worried that there was a mixup before handcuffing anyone.

[CTyankee]

7. then they would apologize and escord them personally to the salon, amid hi fives and cheers!

[uponit7771]

13. Absolutely !!! When is the last time a bunch of grade school girls went boosting minivans !? Its

... cause they're black, no doubt.

[malaise]

4. Racism on steroids

It is deliberate

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. This cannot be reformed. FTP.

[LiberalFighter]

6. Something fishy about the police in Aurora

In a statement Monday, Aurora police said the officers may have gotten mixed up because the family’s SUV had been reported stolen earlier this year. (Gilliam had in fact contacted authorities in February, she told KUSA, though her vehicle was found the next day.)

Police also clarified that another vehicle bearing the same license plate number as the Gilliam’s car was reported stolen on Sunday. That vehicle was a motorcycle from Montana, the Associated Press reported.

From another news source that this one did not include.

Gilliam's attorney emphasized to CNN that when the vehicle was stolen in February, it was returned to her the next day by the Aurora Police.

[Hoyt]

8. While officers on street should be expected to handle a mistake at headquarters, a number of these

"mixups" occur from dispatchers/headquarters getting things wrong.

I think Breonna Taylor's murder was a "mixup" from headquarters. No excuse.

[uponit7771]

12. +1, and when they see the 6 yr old and a 12 yr old there was no questioning of what was going on?!

Its highly unusual for a stolen vehicle to be packed full of grade school kids.

[LizBeth]

9. There is not one rational, reasonable, justifiable reasons the baby is on the ground.

Not a single person in the world can view that as normal.

[uponit7771]

11. No, they mistook an SUV for a motorcycle?! No ... they didn't, this was on purpose ***PERIOD***