Mar 3
Philly's Top LGBTQ+ Official and Husband Accuse State Cop of Excessive Force in Traffic Stop
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
A firestorm between Philadelphia city officials and state law enforcement is brewing after an incident on Saturday.
"A Pennsylvania State Police trooper detained and arrested a top Philadelphia official and her husband on Saturday after a traffic stop on the Vine Street Expressway, state police said, in an incident captured on video and posted on social media," reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Celena Morrison, Philadelphia's LGBTQ director and her husband Darius McLean were the alleged victims of 'excessive force'' by a cop during a weekend car stop– with the controversial encounter caught on video, wrote the New York Post.
In the video Celena Morrison, the 51-year-old executive director of Mayor Cherelle Parker's Office of LGBT Affairs, shouts "That's my husband!" at the unidentified trooper as he stands over her spouse, Darius McLean, 35, lying on the ground, according to the footage posted on Facebook. "I work for the mayor! I work for the mayor!" she yells. She is the first openly transgender person to head a city department, the Post added.
In the exchange, the trooper responds, "Shut the f–k up'' to Morrison.
"At one point, McLean claims that he is being abused because he is black, prompting a flat denial from the cop," the Post wrote.
"In the video, posted to Facebook Reels on Saturday afternoon, the person whom Morrison identifies as her husband is seen lying on the ground on the highway's shoulder as the unidentified trooper grabs the husband's wrists and restrains them behind his back. At one point, Morrison's husband pleads and screams, 'Please! Somebody help,'" wrote the Inquirer.
McLean is chief operating officer at the Philadelphia-based William Way Community Center and director of the Arcila-Adams Trans Resource Center.
When the news outlet called the Philadelphia headquarters of the Pennsylvania State Police on Saturday they were told the couple was being held at the Police Detention Unit (PDU) in Center City. The Inquirer was unable to reach Morrison on Saturday.
In a follow-up report, the Inquirer wrote the couple will not face charges.
But the political ramifications are far from over.
"Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker confirmed in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that Morrison was involved in a traffic stop by a state trooper. Parker described the 90-second video clip as 'very concerning.'," reported the Enquirer.
"A video circulating on social media that depicts a portion of the incident is very concerning to me, and I will have no further comment until the investigation has been completed," Parker said.
The video was loaded to Facebook Reels at this link, but may be currently inactive.
