Police disrespected grieving bystanders at scene of crash that killed Daezon Morgan. I was there.
On Monday evening, an alleged drunk driver killed 25-year-old Daezon Morgan. Now, Mr. Morgan’s family and friends protest his death and the gross mistreatment by the Lexington police on the scene of the collision. The police would have you believe that “disorder” at the scene caused a delay in standard proceedings.
I was there. I can confidently deny that assertion. I arrived soon after Mr. Morgan was taken to the hospital where he was later pronounced dead. I saw the blood on the windshield. I saw the mangled motorbike on the street. I knew something horrible, beyond words, had happened.
Beginning with their failure to immediately breathalyze the suspect at the scene, the police continued to disrespect and abuse the grieving bystanders who were Mr. Morgan’s friends and family. In the time after the collision, the suspect was allowed to remain in his car untested and un-breathalyzed for over an hour. He was not breathalyzed until almost four hours after the first officer arrived on the scene. Not only is this timeline extremely questionable, but I witnessed officers lighting the suspect’s cigarettes and several people standing near me saw officers give him water, gum/mints, and peanut butter. While some officers appeared to work on sobering the suspect up, two anguished friends of Morgan’s, a young man and a slight young woman, were forcefully tackled to the ground and restrained when the young man aimed a kick at the suspect’s car. The young man was arrested and removed from the scene before the suspect was even removed from his car. Once finally removed, the suspect was visibly intoxicated and stumbled on step number two of the sobriety test that the police “[could] not continue,” according to the police report. The so-called “disorder” was the grieving of family and friends of the victim. To claim anything but the preferential treatment of the suspect would be to deny the clearest truth.
The alleged drunk driver was white. Morgan, his family, and friends on the scene were Black. This IS about race. The way that the police handled the situation was about race. This was the most overt display of discrimination and racism that I have personally witnessed.
The Lexington police are not the gentle kneelers that you want them to be. The conduct of the Lexington police has made their position very plain: To them, Black lives do not matter. These are not “bad apples.” This is a systemic problem and it exists in the very fabric of the police force, here in Lexington and around the country. Violence is an integral part of policing in America.
This is unacceptable. Do not turn a blind eye to this disgrace. Join me and demand accountability for the Lexington police. Listen to Mr. Morgan’s family. Read the demands of the LPD accountability group, https://www.lpdaccountability.com. Daezon deserves justice. If you do not stop this now, it can only continue.
Lucy MacFarlan is a Lexington native and a graduate of the UK class of 2020.
This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 9:02 AM.