PHILADELPHIA. — The arrest of two of Philadelphia’s LGBTQ leaders by a state trooper during a fraught highway traffic stop is “very concerning,” the city’s mayor said after a video showing some of what happened circulated on social media.
Celena Morrison leads the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs and is a top aide to Mayor Cherelle Parker. Morrison’s husband, Darius McLean, runs a community center. Both are Black, while the Pennsylvania state trooper appears to be white.
“I don’t know why he’s doing this,” McLean cries to his wife Saturday morning as she records him being handcuffed, lying on his side, on the shoulder of the elevated highway during a rainstorm. Cars pass by a few feet away.
“It’s ‘cause I’m Black,” McLean says.
“It’s not ’cause you’re Black,” replies the trooper, who leaves McLean handcuffed on the highway shoulder and then moves to arrest Morrison.
“Turn around! Give me your hands or you’re getting Tased!” the trooper tells her as she says she works for the mayor. She apparently drops the phone at that point, and the video shows only the gray sky above.
Both Morrison, 51, and McLean, 35, were detained on obstruction and resisting arrest charges after the 9 a.m. traffic stop. However, District Attorney Larry Krasner did not immediately file the charges while he investigates.
