About That Pennsylvania State Trooper Video That Has Everybody Talking

A video showing a Pennsylvania state trooper and Darius McLean during an incident in Philadelphia on Saturday. McLean’s wife, Philadelphia official Celena Morrison, captured the footage.

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About That State Trooper Video That Celena Morrison Shot

By now, you’ve probably seen the viral video everybody is talking about. If not, here you go:

This chaotic scene unfolded Saturday morning on the Vine Street Expressway. The man lying on the ground is Darius McLean, executive director of Philadelphia’s William Way Community Center. And the woman recording the incident is his wife, Celena Morrison. She’s the head of City Hall’s Office of LGBT Affairs. She’s also reportedly the first openly transgender person to sit at the helm of any city department.

Celena Morrison / Photograph via City of Philadelphia

As with many cell-phone videos, they don’t show all of what happened. So here’s what we’re told took place before Morrison hit “Record,” according to Pennsylvania state police.

A trooper pulled Morrison over while she was driving an Infiniti. According to state police, the car’s registration was expired, its headlights weren’t on in the rain, the car’s windows were illegally tinted, and the car had been tailgating another vehicle.

Just after the trooper pulled Morrison over, another car — a Dodge sedan — pulled up behind him. And any cop will tell you they go on high alert when a car pulls up behind them during a stop.

State police say the trooper approached the man in the Dodge, who turned out to be McLean. They claim that McLean became “verbally abusive” towards the trooper. He allegedly refused to do what the trooper asked. The state police say that McLean resisted arrest. It’s at some point around this time that Morrison begins recording.

In the video, you can hear Morrison repeatedly tell the trooper, “That is my husband.” McLean keeps reassuring her, “It’s okay, baby.” Soon, Morrison starts screaming, “I work for the mayor!” Then McLean says this is all happening because he’s Black, which the trooper quickly denies. Then the trooper approaches Morrison, who appears to drop the phone. You can hear the trooper telling her, “Give me your hands, or you’re getting tased.” After that, you’ll hear Morrison say, “He punched me!”

The trooper arrested McLean and Morrison and released both on Saturday night, several hours after Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker tweeted that the video was “very concerning.” They aren’t currently charged with any crimes, and the investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Got a Lot of Junk in Your Trunk? (Or Garage?)

The History Channel show American Pickers is coming this way, and you can get in on the action. Maybe it’s finally time to part with your life-size replica statue of Frank Rizzo.

Local Talent

Remember Mare of Easttown, the big locally-shot HBO crime series starring Kate Winslet? (If you haven’t seen it, you most definitely should!) Chester County native Brad Ingelsby, who wrote, directed and co-produced Mare, moved his family from the West Coast to the Main Line not long ago. And he’s written a follow-up HBO crime series, starring Mark Ruffalo. Though he’s co-producing this one, Ingelsby has given up his director’s chair in favor of the also-local Jeremiah Zagar, who gave us Adam Sandler in Hustle. So far, the cast and crew have been spotted in Delco. Ingelsby tells me they just started shooting on Friday and expect to wrap in August. You can read my interviews with Ingelsby and Zagar here and here.

By the Numbers

$15 million: Amount Philadelphia’s Offices of Homeless Services overspent. “Sometimes you have to choose: Am I going to be a good bureaucrat, or am I going to save people’s lives?” the department’s former director told the Inquirer in defense of the office’s out-of-control expenses and “questionable accounting practices,” as the Inky put it.

4th: Ranking of Pennsylvania among all of the states in overall wine production. We were the fifth biggest producer of wine in 2018. Now, I know what you may be thinking: Bigger isn’t always better, and Pennsylvania wine sucks. But that’s really not the case.

35: Days you have left to register to vote in Pennsylvania before April’s primary. Or, notably, for Democrats to change their party to Republican to cast a protest vote against Donald Trump and in favor Nikki Haley. Yes, that’s a thing. Why? Because Pennsylvania is still one of a handful of states that have closed primaries.

And From the Two-Straight! Sports Desk …

On Friday night, Buddy Hield, the slumping Tobias Harris, Mo Bamba, Tyrese Maxey and Kyle Lowry were the Sixers’ starting five at Wells Fargo, facing the Hornets. Our guys had an 8-0 run in the middle of the first quarter, which ended with us up 32-27 and Tobias finally heating up; he had 13 points. Charlotte then pulled ahead by as much as 12 and had a 63-58 lead at halftime. The Sixers battled back and traded leads through the third, ending it up 88-84. In the fourth, with two minutes to go, the Hornets were within two, but Harris hit a big three — he had 31 points overall — Hield got a vital offensive rebound, Lowry hit two FTs, Maxey had a miracle block …

TYRESE MAXEY WITH A RIDICULOUS BLOCK FROM BEHIND TO ICE THE GAME FOR THE SIXERS WOWWWW

WHAT A PLAY! pic.twitter.com/wr0o1CUoZo

— Philly Sports Sufferer (@mccrystal_alex) March 2, 2024

And it was play the song, 121-114. Hey, it’s a team sport! On Sunday afternoon, the Mavericks were hosts in Dallas to the same slate of starters and leaped out to an 11-0 lead, as Luka Doncic was lucky (or talented, I guess). But our guys regrouped and found their footing to go ahead 14-13, and we were on the old seesaw till Maxey went off; the Sixers led 32-22 after the first quarter.

https://twitter.com/ClutchPoints/status/1764360063550947481

We were up at the half, 56-51 (though Maxey had cooled off considerably) and stayed healthily in front for much of the third. Then Maxey slammed his head going up for a shot with four minutes to go in the third and headed to the locker room. He came back in the game, everybody stepped up, and the lead stretched to 19 in the fourth. Dallas cut it to five with 1:24 left as Philly went chilly. A big Harris trey, key foul shots by Maxey, Batum and Kelly Oubre Jr., and we held on — barely — for a 120-116 win.

How’d the Phils Do?

On Thursday, they beat the Blue Jays, 5-0. Cristian Pache had a two-run homer — and it was a shutout for the pitching staff! On Friday, we lagged the Marlins for seven innings before scoring two in the eighth and one in the ninth to force a 6-6 tie. Starter Aaron Nola went three innings and gave up (gulp) seven hits and four runs; we got homers from David Dahl, Scott Kingery and Cam Gallagher. The Phils also had a game with the Tigers that they lost, 4-2. But! Ranger Suárez, starting in that one, went three scoreless innings. Homers by nobody, alas. On Saturday, the Phils got by the Twins, 3-2, despite starter David Buchanan and his successor, Jose Alvarado, allowing a run each in the early going. Nick Castellanos homered and rebuked a familiar (familial!) batboy.

https://twitter.com/Phillies/status/1763995818749559233

And on Sunday, the Phils took an early 2-1 lead on the Braves, then lost it in the sixth as Atlanta went up 3-2, and that’s where it stayed.

Any Doop News?

Sporting Kansas City struck early in the Union’s Saturday-night away game, and it was way early — but it was also offsides, so no worries. There were no problems with the next SKC goal, alas, in the 19th minute. Oliver Semmle was in goal again for injured Andre Blake, and there were a lot of other shakeups in our lineup as well; Julián Carranza was among the unavailable. We had our shots, especially in the second half, but they were all off the mark. Well, up until the 94th minute, that is, when Alejandro Bedoya finally did this.

https://twitter.com/MLS/status/1764133118158442999

Unbelievable. Okay, okay, it really was unbelievable — the (substitute) refs missed two calls against us that would have prevented the goal. But mistakes happen, right? The game marked the first MLS start for the Union’s Delran-raised Jeremy Rafanello.

And in College Hoops?

Thursday night, Drexel trailed and trailed and trailed Stony Brook in University City before finally pulling ahead midway through the second half on a cray-cray 15-0 run. The Seawolves got within three on a wild three-pointer with 18 seconds to go, but the Dragons held on, 90-86, thanks to killer foul shooting by Luke House at the end.

On Friday, Penn jumped out to a 12-0 lead over Cornell at the Palestra and was up 46-34 at the half, but the Big Red stormed back, outscoring the Quakers 51-34 in the latter half for an 87-81 win.

On Saturday’s busy slate, in chronological order, Villanova (now 17-12) took another step forward in its quest for an NCAA tourney berth with a 70-61 win over Providence (18-11), thanks to a comeback in the second half; St. Joe’s (also 18-11) had their way with the Fordham Rams (12-17), 82-69; the Temple Owls (11-18) fell to the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (15-14), 72-67, despite their second-half comeback effort; the Drexel Dragons (20-11) brushed back the Northeastern Huskies (12-19) in West Philly, 73-59; La Salle (15-15) topped George Washington (14-15) despite the Colonials’ attempt at a second-half comeback; and Penn (10-17) took an early lead vs. Columbia (13-12) and never looked back in an 84-72 win.

The Flyers also played. Several times.

All Philly Today sports coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.