Brenda on Arrested Justice

One of the most compelling points Richie talks about in Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence and America's Prison Nation, is the way in which the undercover police officers harassing Ms. B consistently abused of the power of their badge to illegally search her home, humiliate her and destroy her property. Although horrifying, Ms. B’s story about her encounters with the police are reoccurring especially in neighborhoods predominantly consisting of people of color.

This particular story Richie shared regarding Ms. B led me to think about all of the people who have experienced this type of abuse from the police in our own communities and yet we never hear about. I believe that the reason we don’t collectively hear about these types of situations on the news is precisely because most of these instances occur in low-income, minority-filled communities. In addition, I believe even if these stories were talked about with much more frequency, there would be some sort of justification as to why people were being searched illegally or harassed by the police in these ways because there is a stereotypical expectation that these communities are more likely to be of danger not only to its residents, but to neighboring ones as well. In addition, much like Ms. B’s community –which was justifiably being destroyed by the city of Chicago–, other places in which the police feel authorized to terrorize residents are also commonly neglected and forgotten. This lack of interest from mainstream news perpetuates a cycle which makes the police feel as though they can do whatever they want and get away with it because nobody, not even the city cares.

The fact that this story was not only about someone living in a low-income neighborhood, but was also African American, and on top of that a woman created a perfect opportunity for the police officers to exert not only their dominance as white people, but as men as well. Although men of color in these situations are also likely to be subject to violence, threats of planting false evidence, destruction of property, etc. they rarely worry about sexual harassment which was something Ms. B had to additionally be worried about in the 6 times this occurred to her. Due to these encounters in which the police threatened Ms. B with planting false evidence, they forced her to perform sexual acts in order to avoid them doing so. I think these situations depict exactly how even encounters with law enforcement leave women of color in vulnerable situations not only because of the communities in which they live in, but because of their gender as well.

            In reading about the threats and the absolute lack of respect towards Ms. B as a human being from the Chicago police through their constant harassments reminded me of Anna Chambers who was raped by two police detectives in Brooklyn, New York after being arrested for possession of marijuana. Both of the officers asked Anna what she would be willing to do to not get arrested and proceeded to make her perform oral sex on them before raping her. Despite the fact that these grown men were in a position of power and undoubtedly exerted it by their decision to rape a teenager, they argued that Chambers had a financial motive to lie about the whole thing. This further illustrates that being a woman from a community with a bad reputation can even serve as an advantage to law enforcement officers in justifying their actions in order to not deal with the consequences deriving from them. This further creates negative experiences with police, consequently placing women in a vulnerable position –especially women of color.  

Have you or any women in your life had any negative encounters with law enforcement? How have they affected who you would seek for help in times when helps needed?