It was a few days before Cedric Lofton’s 18th birthday. But after his foster father called 911 during a mental health crisis Lofton was experiencing, the young man never ended up making it back home to celebrate.
Eleven Wichita, Kansas police officers arrived – “cussing,” “fighting,” and acting like “bullies” – and forced him out of his house, bound him, and drove him to a local jail INSTEAD of a mental health center.
Why? Because by resisting being forced into a restraining device, Lofton could be charged with “battering an officer.” But it gets worse.
There, jail employees held the struggling teenager face down in a cell for 45 minutes. Lofton lost consciousness, his heart stopped, and he died.
The District Attorney refused to prosecute anyone for foul play. Under “Stand Your Ground,” everyone who helped kill Lofton acted in “self-defense!” Do you see who was criminalized and who wasn’t?
“It’s not a crime to be a foster child,” said his family’s spokesperson. “It’s not a crime to have a mental health crisis. It’s not a crime to be Black. But all of these things worked against Cedric to his death.”
Had Lofton been provided sufficient mental support, he could still be alive. But the criminal legal system works to both kill and defend itself. These laws and institutions aren’t designed to protect us, or grant Lofton the justice he deserves.