by Kel Daroe

The New Year is always a time of hope. I sit and create plans to make myself, my community, and the world just a little bit better than it was before. I actively anticipate the ways in which my Black womanhood will unfold, revealing its intricate beauty to my family, lovers, friends, and most importantly, myself. It’s the time for wishes, aspirations, and magic.

by Veronica Maria Brown-Comegys

When I was 10 years-old, a white man parked his truck in the alley behind our apartment building. He grabbed my four-year-old neighbor, Cynthia, who was in the backyard. In the vehicle, he demanded that the child perform oral sex. Her screams alerted the adults. The man shoved Cynthia from the vehicle and fled.

by Leah C.K. Lewis

I actually remember learning about 911 as a little girl. It seemed like some sort of rite of passage because of its weight and gravity. Calling 911 was a very serious matter and not something to do unless circumstances warranted the attention of the police, fire department, or emergency medical services. Dialing those three little numbers demanded sobriety—and it still does.

As the media continues to highlight cases of police brutality, I have been captivated by how 911 calls initiated the events that eventually led the deaths of Black men, women, and children. Particularly, Tanisha Anderson, a mentally ill woman; Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy in Cleveland; and John Crawford III in Beaver Creek, Ohio outside of Dayton.

Recently, I read an article by Shannon Nasah-Miller, Ph.D., in which she describes an incident where her 15-month-old daughter fell off a stuffed lion rocker eighteen inches to the floor while she and her wife supervised. During thrift shopping at Goodwill, her precious daughter was instructed to get off the lion and in typical childish defiance, baby girl went limp in full tantrum mode. As a result of this scene, unbeknownst to the child’s mothers, someone called 911 seeking unneeded medical attention for the toddler. As is typical, police arrived along with the ambulance, and a conversation ensued between an officer and one of the moms. Thankfully, the matter did not escalate into anything violent, but it easily could have.

Then there last weekend’s occurrence at the Craig Ranch subdivision in McKinney, Texas, where video shows overzealous police officer Eric Casebolt running amok, pulling a gun on teens, only corralling the youth of color and manhandling Dajerria Becton, a teenage girl in a bikini. In this case, officers were called to attend to a well populated end-of-school cook-out hosted by Tatiana Rhodes, a resident of Craig Ranch, after two adult white women and one man allegedly engaged African American teenagers with racial slurs and ignorant, lowbrow dialogue (“go back to your Section 8 housing”). A woman named “Kate” is accused of actually slapping Tatiana in the face.

Reminiscent of the Jim Crow era, there is the appearance that callers utilized 911, desirous of a “whites only pool,” as a means to extract the children of color from the recreational facility and the subdivision. One video shows the confrontation involving two aggressive white women, one white man, Tatiana, and her friends. Police were called, ten units total, and an unhinged Officer Casebolt confronts the young people who appeared a mixture of calm, rational, concerned, confused, and fearful.



All the victims I have mentioned were African Americans (with the exception of those involved in McKinney, Texas where people of Mexican and Arab or Persian descent were also accosted).

In the case of Tanisha Anderson, her family called seeking aid. Because of Tanisha’s death, her family deeply, deeply regrets making that call. Presumptions have been made as to the ethnicity of the callers in the Tamir Rice and John Crawford case. It has been presumed by many that the callers in these two cases were also white.

In the extraordinary case of Charlene Cook, we know that the person who initiated that 911 call was a white woman. She was body-slammed by police in Barstow, California while eight months pregnant. This occurred at her second grader’s school after she and the caller had a disagreement and confrontation while in the drop-off line.

Our emergency notification system is becoming a method for executing mayhem and murder in the lives of African Americans. The travesty is further exasperated because there are no consequences for callers who set off the chain of events that lead to the deaths, assaults, and general violations of people’s rights, where the human subject of the call proves to be innocent of the allegations or concerns enumerated by callers.

John Crawford was standing in a Walmart, on a phone, holding a toy BB gun sold by Walmart. Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun in a playground. Charlene Cook was standing at her child’s elementary school and merely refused to give officers her name all while they acknowledged that no crime had been committed. Shannon Nasah-Miller’s fifteen-month-old daughter fell off a toy eighteen inches to the ground. Dajerria Becton was not part of the instigating confrontation in McKinney. Tatiana Rhodes, for goodness sake, simply wanted to have a celebratory cookout in her residential community.

Tanisha Anderson’s family, like so many others of mentally ill people called for aid, not destruction. She was agitated and unarmed. Even so, there was distress. Calls pertaining to mentally disturbed men, women, and children merit a response from specially trained police officers and EMS workers.

There is a part of me that remembers the rhetoric and propaganda of “Officer Friendly.” There remains the knowledge that some good officers do in fact exist. So, when we perceive danger, it is reasonable to seek the aid of police. Yet, we must acknowledge that whenever police are called to a scene, the potential for escalation exists. Where police are, there are guns, tasers, and other weapons. This is a precarious combination. If possible, calling law enforcement should be a last resort.

To be frank, African Americans are tremendously reluctant to call for police assistance due to our understandably uneasy history with law enforcement. African Americans know the history of the slave patrols called “paddy rollers.” Officially, it was U.S. Marshalls that enforced the indignity of the Fugitive Slave Act. Every generation of African Americans can cite examples of police brutality. There is literally no era in American history where African Americans have been able to live peacefully without some major violations of human rights, dignity, civility, or sanctity. From the imposition of slavery and Jim Crow, to the destruction of thriving all-African American communities and economies like Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma and Rosewood, Florida. From the brutal murder of Emmett Till, to the framing of fourteen-year-old George Stinney and his execution for a crime he did not commit, and the plethora of contemporary abuses, African Americans are extremely hesitant to call upon the first-line executors of a legal system that has yet to grant us the basis of justice we ought to be afforded as citizens.

For the greater part of its existence, law enforcement in the United States only served the interest of whites, particularly those who were wealthy or land-owning. Their financial and social interest was, and remains, the sanctity that law enforcement generally seeks to maintain. Today, pernicious whites utilize this historical advantage to terrorized African Americans, other people of color, and poor whites who have also been disenfranchised. They use 911 as a means to exercise white privilege in a manner that exploits taxpayer dollars. Mean-spirited and devilish people of all ethnicities employ 911 to invoke danger, as opposed to stopping or preventing danger. Such a practice is egregious, especially where innocent people are harmed.

Policy-makers must develop protocols and legislators must institute laws that stem the tide of abuse, should the assault on African American lives persist due to ridiculous and unwarranted calls to 911. I already hear the chorus of, “Better safe than sorry.” And, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure.” I agree, but #BlackLivesMatter more than these adages ever will.

Photo: iStockPhoto

Leah C.K. Lewis, J.D., M.Div., D.Min., (ABD), is a minister, councilwoman, author, animation producer, and literary activist. She recently completed her dissertation on sex and sexuality in the African American Baptist Church and a manuscript on legal, religious, and political rhetoric pertinent to “race.” Follow her @HumanStriving and on SoundCloud.com/Reverend-Leah-CK-Lewis. #BlackLivesMatter #StayWoke #HumanStriving #RighteousvRacist

by Leah C.K. Lewis


Remember the old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words?” There was a time when the primary purpose of a camera was to record the highlights and the fun and frivolous moments of our lives. Now, the camera is a lawful and vital instrument of social justice and an implement of our (in)justice system.

REUTERS

A Chicago police officer goes on trial on Thursday on felony charges in the 2012 fatal shooting of a 22-year-old black woman in a case that has drawn attention as the nation debates police use of deadly force, especially against young black people.

Dante Servin, who is Hispanic, is the first Chicago police officer in more than 15 years to be charged in a fatal shooting. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter and other felonies in the off-duty shooting of Rekia Boyd.

by Brittany Dawson


“The American Negro really is a part of this country, and on the day we face this fact, and not before that day, we will become a nation and possibly a great one.” —James Baldwin, The Amen Corner (1954)

Kenya Harris, who was an expecting mother in 2011, has filed a suit against the Albany Police Department in Georgia, alleging that a physical altercation between her and an officer lead to her miscarriage.

It is no secret New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is currently considered a pariah to members of the NYP . Beyond de Blasio’s political affiliation, with a Black wife and biracial children, de Blasio’s former comments on teaching his 17 year old son about the convoluted realm of race in America sparked outrage after the shooting deaths of officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. During de Blasio’s commemorative speech at Ramos’ funeral last weekend, members of the NYPD literally turned their backs to de Blasio.

by Michelle Y. Talbert

Last weekend, we learned that Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, was killed by Cleveland police while holding a toy gun—in a state that ironically has an “open carry” weapons law. It is impossible that this is our reality: 12-year-old Black boys die playing with toys, but grown white men who shoot up movie theaters get taken alive. What is even more disheartening is the way many people use black-on-black crime as a way of justifying this violence and the disregard for black lives.

by Nancy Aroyo Ruffin

All across America people of color are getting killed. This is nothing new. America has been killing people of color since the inception of slavery in the early 1600’s. Less than a month since the Eric Garner police involved death in New York City, and amidst the increasing tension in Ferguson, MO another Black young man was killed this time in Los Angeles, CA. The shooting of Ezell Ford while tragic is not surprising. From Oscar Grant to Sean Bell to Ramarley Graham to Trayvon Martin to Renisha McBride to Michael Brown the news headlines are becoming all too familiar: Shooting Death of ______ (you fill in the blank).

by Sikivu Hutchinson

When a white California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer used 51 year-old Marlene Pinnock’s body as a human punching bag he was continuing a bloody tradition of uniformed thugs who’ve assaulted black women with impunity. The unidentified officer’s attack on Pinnock (who is reputedly mentally ill and homeless) was captured in a horrific video by motorist David Diaz. Pinnock was lucky to have escaped with her life. In 1999 a fiftysomething African American homeless woman named Margaret Mitchell was killed by an LAPD officer after an alleged street altercation over a shopping cart. Mitchell’s murder spotlighted the inhumane treatment of homeless people of color. African Americans are half of the county’s homeless population yet the complex mental health and socioeconomic issues that they face make them more vulnerable to long term homelessness than white transients. Mentally ill homeless African Americans are more likely to be criminalized for their condition. They are less likely to receive treatment, therapy or medication for their illnesses and are often misdiagnosed. Nationwide, African Americans are also more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than are whites. But time and again when mentally ill black people “act out” or “meltdown” in public their symptoms are reductively perceived by law enforcement as dangerous, threatening and criminal.

Dr. Ersula Ore, a professor of English at Arizona State University, claims a police officer used excessive force during a stop last month.

Dr. Ore was stopped by Officer Stewart Ferrin while a crossing a street on the University's campus. The recently released video depicts the exchange. Ore was arrested. During the process, she was slammed on the hood of a car exposing her body. Ore was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer in addition to criminal damage and obstructing a thoroughfare. She intends to fight the charges.

It is important to remember that police brutality impacts Black women too.

On the evening of March 21, 19-year-old Nubia Bowe  and two male friends were approached by cops on a BART train who were responding to a complaint that they were soliciting. Nubia denies the accusations. She was kept in jail for 4 days, and now faces 4 misdemeanor charges and expulsion from her job training program.

After three decades of exile in Cuba, 65-year-old Assata Shakur is once again a wanted woman in the United States. In a joint news conference last week, the FBI and New Jersey state troopers announced Shakur’s addition to the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted Terrorists List. Shakur, formerly known as Joanne Chesimard, is the first woman ever named to the list. Officials made their announcement on the 40th anniversary of the murder of Werner Foerster, the state trooper Shakur is accused of killing in 1973.

I want to trust the police. Actually I need to trust the police. But right now I don't.

As a single woman of small stature I know there may likely come a time when I make an emergency call, and when the officers come I want to be sure of the fact that the men or women commissioned to protect me are going to do so. But my faith in law enforcement is at an all-time low.