Say His Name: Police Brutality, Extra-Judicial Killings and Achieving Racial Justice in the American Legal System
With the Black Lives Matter Movement in full swing, I wanted to write an essay about police brutality and the gravity of what we are fighting for. We are not fighting against one incident, we are fighting against centuries of injustice. While there has been an acceptance of responsibly for the slave trade and Jim Crow laws by governments, a minimum acceptance is all there is. I do not focus heavily on the positives of the Civil Rights Movement, most school textbooks have a very poor teaching of racism after the movement. I try to discuss ways in which the governments could take action and how we ourselves can change things (protesting, educating and harnessing white privilege). They did it in the Civil Rights Movement, we can do it now. Note: I am not a scholar, I am just an angry law student; forgive any errors. I also know this is shoddy referencing work but everything has been cited - just not beautifully.
With the Black Lives Matter Movement in full swing, I wanted to write an essay about police brutality and the gravity of what we are fighting for. We are not fighting against one incident, we are fighting against centuries of injustice. While there has been an acceptance of responsibly for the slave trade and Jim Crow laws by governments, a minimum acceptance is all there is. I do not focus heavily on the positives of the Civil Rights Movement, most school textbooks have a very poor teaching of racism after the movement. I try to discuss ways in which the governments could take action and how we ourselves can change things (protesting, educating and harnessing white privilege). They did it in the Civil Rights Movement, we can do it now.
Note: I am not a scholar, I am just an angry law student; forgive any errors. I also know this is shoddy referencing work but everything has been cited - just not beautifully.
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Women are not safe either. The death of Sandra Bland (fig 3) is another example. In 2015, Bland had a ‘confrontation’
with Officer Brain T. Encinia at a traffic stop which led to her being arrested on a charge of assaulting a public servant.
Encinia claimed that his ‘safety was in jeopardy at more than one time’, 16 a video taken by Bland herself of the arrest
indicated no behaviour whatsoever that would reasonably cause such fear. 17 Cannon Lambert, the Bland family
attorney, agreed. 18 Three days later, she was found hanging in her cell. 19 The injuries found in the autopsy of Ms Bland
were consistent with suicide, lacking signs of a violent struggle. The issue here was the seemingly intentional
negligence as Bland was not placed on suicide watch. At the time of entering the jail, she had informed the police that
she had once tried to kill herself after a miscarriage, that she had battled depression and that she was feeling depressed
at the time. Curiously, hours later, another questionnaire was filled out that claimed that Sandra Bland had never been
depressed, nor was she depressed at that moment, although it did mention her previous attempt on her life. Encinia
was only charged for perjury, committed if one ‘makes a false statement under other or swears to the truth of a false
statement previously made and the statement is required or authorized by law to be made under oath’. 20 This would
have carried the sentence of a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. 21 All charges were dropped after Encinia agreed to give up
his police license and never seek another job under law enforcement. The Sandra Bland case was not sentenced
correctly, this was not a simple case of false statements but a case of neglect with the result of death, which should
have been considered. As well as this, considering the social context of the death of Ms Bland, more should have been
done. Bland taking her life was a very real possibility that the reasonable person would have seen. This was a case of
manslaughter, a second-degree felony in the state of Texas, 22 with a sentence of 20-2 years jail time with the fine that
will not exceed $10,000. 23 The injustice here made this case a turning point in the Black Lives Matter movement
Cases are mounting, on the 27 th of May 2020, Emerald Black, a visibly pregnant black woman was pulled from her car
by California officers for ‘bad registration tags’, despite asking to stay seated in the vehicle. 24 Her doctor had informed
her earlier in the day that she was at a high risk of miscarriage. 25 Regardless, the officers ‘yanked Ms Black from the
car, taunted her, piled on top of her and stomped on her stomach, leaving a shoe mark’. Black had a miscarriage three
days later. She had not committed any crimes and was simply the passenger of the car, yet they treated her like she had
committed a violent felony. 26 This is identical to another case in 2014 where a woman claimed that New York City
officers ‘battered’ her during an unlawful search and seizure, leading to a miscarriage. 27 To go through all the most
distressing cases would be an endless task, but the cases above should illustrate how dire the problem is. 99% of
killings by the police from 2013-2019 have not resulted in officers being charged. 28 Things need to change, and they
need to change now, but that is more easily said than done. The fight for freedom did not end when slavery was
abolished, it did not end with the Civil Rights Movement. This is barbaric and must be treated as such.
16
David Montgomery, ‘The Death of Sandra Bland: Is There Anything Left to Investigate’ (May 8 2019, The New York Times)
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/us/sandra-bland-texas-death.html> accessed 30 May 2020.
17
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGnENyG3Aq4> accessed 30 May 2020.
18
David Montgomery, ‘Sandra Bland, It Turns Out, Filmed Traffic Stop Confrontation Herself’ (May 7 2019, The New York Times)
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/us/sandra-bland-video-brian-encinia.html> accessed 30 May 2020.
19
n 15.
20
Texas Penal Code § 37.01(1)
21
ibid
22
Texas Penal Code § 19.04 (b)
23
Texas Penal Code § 12.33 (b)
24
NOTE: This is a pending law suit, all facts have not been found.
25
Paul Blest, ‘A Pregnant Black Woman Miscarried After California Police Allegedly ‘Stomped’ on Her Stomach’ (May 27 2020, Vice News) <
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dzbyb/a-pregnant-woman-miscarried-after-california-police-allegedly-stomped-on-her-stomach> accessed 30
May 2020.
26
ibid
27
Frank Donnelly, ‘Lawsuit: Woman miscarried after cops 'battered' her during 'false' arrest’ (1 February 2016)
<https://www.silive.com/northshore/2016/02/lawsuit_woman_miscarried_when.html> accessed 30 May 2020.
28
< https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/> accessed 30 May 2020.
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