It is incredible that during this time of heightened public awareness of police brutality, cops continue to behave with impunity. In the aftermath of Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson, Mo., many police departments decided that the solution was for officers to wear body cameras, and although many tax dollars have been spent on that, there is, strangely, almost never body-camera footage when we most need it. In Gaines’ case, Baltimore County officers did not, at any time during the five-hour standoff, choose to turn on body cameras they were apparently wearing. First they were “not sure” there was body-camera footage, and then the police declared that the cameras had not been turned on. It was in Baltimore, not far from where Gaines was killed, that Freddie Gray died in police custody last year, setting off days of rioting. Gray, whose only “crime” was to look at police officers, was treated so brutally during his arrest and subsequent transport that he died of his injuries. Although six officers were charged in his case, every single one has been exonerated by a system that Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby denounced as a result of what she saw as “an inherent bias that is a direct result of when police police themselves.” Now Mosby, another strong black woman who has done her best to demand police accountability, is facing a police-led effort to have her disbarred. In an apparent effort to repair their poor image, some police departments are making vain, misguided attempts at winning people over. A video that has gone viral shows a white police officer in Halifax, Va., pulling over an African-American woman, only to offer her an ice cream cone instead of a ticket. But as many have pointed out, “If police officers want to do something kind for black people, they can start by not killing us.” In discussing Gaines’ case with Marin on my show, “Rising Up With Sonali,” I found myself choking back tears as my guest asked the important rhetorical questions we all need to be asking: “Who’s going to make that up to her son? What kind of reparation is he going to get for losing his mother?” Only a few weeks ago, a white neighbor called the Pasadena police on me after I used a dog-training audio device on his vicious, barking dog that made my daily morning walks a stressful affair. A police officer showed up at my door, demanding to know my name and asserting that a complaint had been filed against me for “disturbing the peace.” The officer’s hostile attitude and willingness to believe an older white man over a lone brown woman made it very clear whom he worked for and how far he might go to get what he needed. All I could think of was that my young son was playing in my backyard, and that I was suddenly in a potentially life-threatening situation with an angry, armed officer whose vocation is known for irrational violence and being above the law. Although I am not African-American and understand clearly that black Americans are subject to the worst forms of racism in my society, I knew I was brown enough to warrant undue suspicion from the snarling officer on my doorstep. I remain traumatized by that brief brush with the law and can only imagine what a lifetime of being in the crosshairs of a powerful institution can do to one’s psyche. Gaines, Marin, Mosby and all the bold, outspoken, black women in American society are seen as threats to a system designed to preserve elite power. It is no coincidence that most of the principled leaders of the current movement for justice against police brutality are black women, as are the three co-founders of Black Lives Matter. Police—and American society in general—need to stop killing and threatening black women and start listening to them. Your support matters…

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#african american#america#baltimore#black lives matter#facebook#freddie gray#instagram#marilyn mosby#michael brown#philando castile#police#reparations#td-original#united states