My Concern for Human Life
Project 1
In this project I took a look at the Elijah McClain case, law enforcement, neurodiversity and smaller details.
ARTMy art project consisted of Elijah McClain's last words, a portrait of him and other symbolic elements. The piece itself was hard to create without facing the cruel truth about the end of this young man's life. Such a pure and innocent soul could not be captured by professionals let alone a 16-year-old high school student. I tried my best to show him. I feel as though his last words while getting arrested truly showed his innocence. Those were not the words of a guilty man, a drugged up man, or a man with "excited delirium." Excited delirium is the reason officers use for injecting a suspect with ketamine. Elijah drew attention to this problem. I wish it didn't take tragedy to call for change but sadly that is how the world works a lot of times. My art piece took real emotion and time. I wrote the words individually while holding back tears and I don't think I need to explain why. I made a rainbow background to show awareness for neurodiversity (differences in the brain). As for the little flowers I wanted them to show innocence. Daisy's I found were a way to symbolise pureness and innocence. Lastly the burnt paper was to show how they treated Elijah McClain's rights. It truly showed the inhumane treatment a human being can inflict on another person. I created this with a heavy heart during each stroke and movement. My prayer goes out to his family and many others that have dealt with the injustices this world has offered.
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This project made me look deep into the Elijah McClain case to point out the many errors that occured. It was an emotional project because of the inhumane treatment of this young beautiful soul. Elijah McClain was a 23-year-old, massage therapists who died after an incident with the police. In this incident he was put in a carotid hold and then injected with 500mg of ketamine. Elijah McClain then went into cardiac arrest and by the time they were at the hospital he went brain dead. He loved playing his violin and wanted to change the world. He was a gentle spirit and vegetarian, who enjoyed running and putting a smile on people's faces.
CIVICSFor my social studies aspect I looked at the bill of rights, rights of the accused, and rights of arrestees. I created a website to inform people about Elijah McClain, their rights, and overall my concern for human life. I explained how Elijah was doing nothing wrong and how the officers barely had reason for a stop let alone an arrest or any physical contact at all. I feel as though his 4th amendment right was violated. This fourth amendment is supposed to protect citizens from random searches and "stop-and-frisks." His 8th amendment was also violated. He was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment while he was simply trying to go home. I tried to show this aspect of his rights being disrespected by using a burned version of the bill of rights in my art piece to reflect this idea that police targets minorities and in particular African American men. I tried to explain his rights and how important the rights of the neurodiverse are because in the world we live in one wrong move could mean the end. This case is truly about a neurodiverse individual who was trying to get home and in the process was robbed of his innocence the moment police arrived. Elijah McClain deserves to be alive and that is why I devoted this project and my time to back up these claims. No man deserves to be held down by three officers getting choked and still be told they're resisting. Investigations proved that these officers had no right to do anything they did. They did not ask the rights question. They did not wait for responses. They immediately used physical contact. This is a reason people protest. Nobody deserves to be killed by the people who are supposed to be protecting them. For more details and information please visit my website down below.
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