It was another sad occasion on social media when a video went viral showing police officers detaining a mother and four crying children she was supervising on Sunday. Colorado’s Aurora police officers had stopped the family van after they mistakenly identified the vehicle Brittney Gilliam was driving as a stolen car.
Witnesses captured the incident on cellphones as cops surrounded the vehicle with guns pointed at the family, handcuffed two of the children and laid all of them on the concrete.
The scene was horrific as the children pleaded to call a relative and get off the ground. One police officer finally relented to their pleas and sat them upright like humans. It was later discovered that the family’s vehicle had the same license plate as a stolen motorcycle. However, the catch was that the plates on each vehicle represented different states, a detail that the police did not appropriately assess.
Eventually, the family was let go. But, not without Gilliam complaining to the lieutenant. This is not the first time that Gilliam has encountered the goofball accusation from police. She told reporters that her vehicle was stolen in February, but found the next day. However, the car would later be impounded after the police stopped the car for being stolen based on an outdated record. The vehicle was released the same day.
“I’m like ‘this happened months ago, you guys cleared it, we got to pick up the car the next day, the very next day so I’m not understanding what’s going on,” Gilliam said. “There’s no excuse why you didn’t handle it a different type of way. You could have even told them ‘step off to the side let me ask your mom or your auntie a few questions so we can get this cleared up.’ There was different ways to handle it.”
An investigation into the incident has been opened. The chief of Aurora Police Department tweeted about the incident and called for a change to the policy of performing “high-risk stops” when children are involved.
The family is now being represented by attorney David Lane, the partner of Mari Newman, who is currently representing the family of Elijah McClain.
In another high profile case in Colorado, McClain was walking home when police put him in a chokehold and paramedics sedated him with an overdose of Ketamine causing him to go into cardiac arrest and later life support before he died at the age of 23 in August 2019.
One thing is for sure is that the way the Gilliam family was treated was inhumane and despicable. It lacks common sense to treat children this way. Once the police confirmed they were minors, they should’ve been separated from the danger of being in the vicinity of a gun pointing at them.
On the other hand, it’s time that this family get a new vehicle. Maybe a GoFundMe will be started. It just has bad vibes and they need a new license plate number that is not riddled with so many issues.
