While the infinite number of situations that occur during policing must include the justifiable possibility that sometimes an unarmed person is shot, it is hard to imagine what such a justifiable situation might look like. Certainly none of the women shot in the circumstances described in this article rise in any way to a concept of threat and in most of these situations it is clear that a reasonable person would not have shot them. Which makes their deaths the result of unreasonable and therefore illegal force. The obvious response of any legitimate justice system would be the immediate arrest and charging of any police officer involved and subsequent long prison sentences when convicted. That coupled with an apology from the chief of police along with a healthy settlement paid to the survivors by the city would be a demonstration of good faith by the justice system.
But it is painfully clear that is not the result that we see in American cities. Unlike other countries, we give immunity to even the most unreasonable lethal actions of police, a veritable power of summary execution with little oversight. The only way to change this reality is to raise the stakes in the minds of the police officers, to create the possibility of retribution by unofficial groups if the official system is paralyzed. I am not advocating violence but history shows that vigilante justice was once the last resort when people needed protection. We should be able to solve this before that is thinkable.
3
Thank you for seeing black women. Pass it on.
6
I am glad someone is covering the police violence direct toward black women. It seems like we are going back in time to the Post-Reconstruction period when the Klan was terrorizing black communities. The police have revealed themselves to be racist cowards who prey on black and brown people for a living. At some point they need to be held accountable for their many crimes against humanity in the US.
6
First, as to Intersectionality, I get the idea reading this article that I can trust the author to use that idea to call attention to issues that decent people should pay heed to, and to critique unwarranted and unjust categories and hierarchies. When I read stories about campus protests at elite universities I get the idea (rightly or wrongly) that the students are using the idea of Intersectionality to create new hierarchies. So that’s intriguing.
As to how quickly policing can escalate to unwarranted deadly force against women of color, that’s hard for me to understand. There were also those upsetting and hard to understand stories a few years ago about 12-15 year old girls who were black or Hispanic being body slammed by police at a pool party or disciplined harshly at middle schools for no apparent good reason.
It seems women of color are at risk of being policed the way people who are perceived as dangerous (for whatever reason) are policed, even if there’s no objective reason to think the women will act violently.
“Before you can read me you’ve got to learn how to see me.” I think that’s a lyric from “Free Your Mind.” And it takes more than a half second to respond to unexpected police commands.
Thanks for this.
5
Thanks Professor Crenshaw for also revealing the corrupt "women's march leaders" -- none of whom had any substantive feminist experience and some of whom were just fronts for the Nation of Islam.
My heart goes out to the families who were denied a platform at the march for what should have been for women and girls. Thanks especially for noting the girls.
2
Bookmark this article for the next time someone says "Racism doesn't exist" or "THOSE PEOPLE are just paranoid."
Let it be a conversation starter...
18
Citing Michael Brown as an example of a name known because of unwarranted police violence is like citing Donald Trump as an example of a name known because of personal probity. It undermines Dr. Crenshaw's entire thesis, self-impugns her credibility and thesis, and makes countless millions of Americans scratch their heads about whether left wing politics have wrecked her judgment.
2
Thank you so much for this very necessary column, Professor Crenshaw. But what if the lightbulb doesn't want to change, to apply an old joke with what I mean to be very serious intent? It certainly looks as though a very large number of people in law enforcement not only don't want to learn de-escalation and sensitivity to people of all backgrounds and genders, but that they'd probably prefer to be "unleashed" as ICE has been. How do we work successfully with such people? You probably know better than I do, Professor Crenshaw.
1
Catalyzing. I am sorry to learn this truth.
absolutely disgraceful-won't change till cops involved in these incidents are arrested, convicted, and jailed....
22
"As we watched people file by the coffin, we thought, “This can’t keep happening.”"
First, no one "forgets" these women. The fact that you presume they are forgotten is a false premise.
Do you remember Justine Ruszczyk? If so, it is difficult to tell. She is not mentioned in your op-ed piece. Justine Ruszczyk was killed by a Somali-American cop, who was later convicted of her murder. She was white. She was killed in 2017.
It appears your feminism is selective.
But that's alright. These days, the folks who complain most about "racism" are the same folks who build victim narratives and support efforts to separate us based solely on race, in academia, in the work place, in social interaction.
I don't forget Atatiana Jefferson or Justine Ruszczyk.
The way to honor them is to remember that we are imperfect. Cops, both black and white, are also imperfect.
I'm fairly sure that the black and white cops who killed these women didn't get up in the morning with that thought in mind.
But folks like you use these tragedies to make thesis points instead of progress. You can do better.
4
@Jubilee133
The cop who killed Justine Ruszczyk was a person of color who was convicted of killing her and is now in prison. Additionally, her family received a settlement higher than any settlement to a family of color to date. Cops, both black and white may be imperfect, but unfortunately so are the outcomes of the trials, if the cases go to trial, which in most cases they do not.
3
Male suffering is considered a far more important issue than is female suffering.
When black men as well as black women in S. Africa were abused and had their freedoms restricted ("Apartheid"), the entire world was outraged at what it called human rights abuses, and it boycotted that country in order to effect change.
When Saudi women are enslaved (can't see a doctor without their owner's permission, can't get a job without their owner's permission, can't travel abroad without their owner's permission, can barely show a millimeter of their bodies in public without being beaten by "morality police", can't hold property since all of it belongs by default to their owners, can't drive even with their owner's permission), well, these aren't human rights abuses! No, no, no: these are "cultural issues--and, after all, who are we to judge another culture?"
The hypocrisy is stunning--whether we are talking about the enslavement of Saudi women or the unjust deaths of black American women.Suffering on a societal scale that involves men is always a human rights abuse. Suffering on a societal level that involves only women is always, always a "cultural issue."
But, don't hold your breath for change. The old men of ancient times wrote idiotic stories about women's role in life being to suffer: see the punishments meted out to Adam and Eve respectively in the book of Genesis. Adam had to work (big deal--most of us get plenty of fulfillment from work), but Eve had to suffer and cry.
6
This is a great injustice, but there won't be any stopping it until we demilitarize the police force. Before we can do that, we need to demilitarize our society which is a much bigger task.
Unfortunately, many high crime areas are often African-American majority so the risk of police conflict is disproportionately greater. We need to support these communities to help bring these people out of poverty and provide a path to success so we can reduce these crime rates. In short, too many guns in the hands of too many desperate underutilized people.
25
Lock them up. Until average Juries are willing to imprison police criminals, NOTHING will change. Nothing.
101
I completely agree. The way to do that is for public protests to force the prosecution of the killers.
4
@Phyliss Dalmatian-There are many paths to change; holding police to account who break the law is important as is embracing reforms proven to work; many launched under Pres. Obama which have been curtailed under Trump. Among needed reforms: is to train America's police in de-escalation procedures and to make such training an annual job performance requirement.
https://www.cfr.org/blog/toronto-shows-what-better-police-training-looks
Crisis Intervention and De-escalation (Atlantic Police Academy)
https://www.cpkn.ca/en/cid_apa
3
@Phyliss Dalmatian
These cases seldom get to a jury. The DA usually refuses to prosecute or settles the case out of court. The very few times that they have gone to court the officers have been convicted.
3
If we train law enforcement personal in an entirely different way than how we train soldiers, we don't have to specifically focus on the gender of the victims, because all people in contact with them will be safer.
The police often have an us against them attitude when their authority is in any way questioned- the way thousands will gather at funerals even though almost none of them knew or cared for the dead cop- the way they are often known to lie to protect other police officers, or to make a case- the way they routinely let off duty police officers get away with drunken driving and other traffic violations.
The list goes on but it would be unfair to suggest all or most cops engage in such things, but when you are trained to consider your fellow officers as separate and different than the rest of the population- your brothers and sisters- it isn't the best way to cultivate the humility of a good public servant.
It also encourages a shoot first and ask questions later approach to law enforcement. After all, the public is the enemy and your fellow officers are your family- they are your priority.
84
@alan haigh-Policing is a high-stress job as you rightly point out. Unfortunately Trump and his DOJ have scaled back effective programs inaugurated under President Obama to reform police departments--even as police departments were asking to participate. These include the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program created during the Obama administration to help reform police departments after controversial incidents such as police-involved shootings. According to CNN, the DOJ "will no longer issue audit reports of police departments or suggest reforms; instead it will focus on assisting local law enforcement agencies with specific grants aimed at fighting violent crime."
5 Years After Ferguson, The Justice Department Has All But Ended Federal Police Reform
The Trump administration has sharply curtailed the department’s ability to rein in troubled police departments.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ferguson-justice-department-police-reform-trump-pattern-or-practice_n_5d4b18b3e4b0066eb70bad87
https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/15/politics/doj-police-program/index.html
Trump administration steps in to kill police-reform plan
https://www.apnews.com/7e337c8ea5bc4de6a3e0cb21b5732341
12
@Ann, Trump is a symptom of the systemic white supremacy that has become opaque but remains pervasive in our country.
While all whites are not equally culpable (and I'm white), we at least tend not to support anything that substantially threatens our economic advantages over black Americans as a group.
This is an instinctive reality that will always exist and can only be fixed when we fully understand it- it occurs in different forms all over the world between dominant and minority tribes and groups.
If we really want to change this we have to start off by investing much greater resources in the education of disadvantaged children who happen to be disproportionately black and brown.
Ultimately this requires a level of economic sacrifice most whites reject politically, whether they admit it or not.
Quotas don't work but they are relatively cheap.
8
@alan haigh
Almost all police today are trained using paramilitary techniques used in clearing houses in Iraq. They are trained this way because it provides profits to military connected training companies and because such tactics require the use of expensive war related equipment that cities are encouraged to buy. Police oppression has become a for profit business. If you want to change that you must take the profit out of police work. Create interest groups that advocate for sane policing and advocate for the removal of military uniforms and equipment from police. Cities can generate income from selling superfluous military equipment and old fashioned "serve and protect" police training is cheaper than the paramilitary kind. And DA's and police chiefs who don't get it can be targeted at the polls. Eventually a sane slate of police supervisors can be installed who can immediately reduce a large percentage of the fear and the unjustifiable shootings by the police. Once the citizens start cooperating with the police again the entire community, including the police, will be safer. But the people must take up this solution in their own hands, the profiteers are never going to go away voluntarily.
3
It is a sad state of affairs when an "encounter with the police" must be seen as a "risk factor" in being killed by the police.
I have encountered police in many countries. Even while being white it rarely is pleasant in the US and much more tense than in any other country I know. I cannot even imagine what it would be as a black man.
2
Every time an unarmed human is killed by a police officer in the circumstances described in this article, each one of us is put at risk, black, white, male or female or other. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old. When police officers literally don’t care and chose violence and there are no consequences, all of us should worry.
I’m not saying that minorities don’t suffer more but I’m saying we all better wake up because you could be next!
4
I have zero fear of being shot by a police officer. I obey the law, am polite and do not instigate officers. Why would they be anything but helpful and kind to me, when I have given them no reason to do so? Answer: they will be kind and nice.
4
@EWG , you have the kind of innocence born of inexperience and good fortune. And perhaps the "right" demographic, as well. But actually, every profession has bad actors in it, and those with power to compel their fellow citizens, a temptation to abuse which has been yielded to many, many times.
3
@EWG Do you ever sit in your house at 2 am minding your own business?
4
There is a cultural problem in America right now where too many people think the use of deadly force is justified in far too many situations. This cultural problem is reflected not just in the amount of gun violence in the country, but also by our legal system, where we are passing open and concealed carry laws and stand your ground laws, where the Courts are making gun control ever more difficult and, in Heller, creating an expansive right to self-defence, and where our juries tend to acquit killers if the killers are police or citizens who can claim they felt threatened. This creates a particularly dangerous situation for minorities and other vulnerable groups as prejudices against them make many people see them as threatening or unstable. With our legal system being so permissive of the use of deadly force if one merely feels threatened (whether the threat is actual or not), this essentially makes our legal system very permissive of shooting black people.
8
@617to416
Exactly!
1
Ms. Crenshaw, Thank you for writing the article and giving voice to the women victimized. Your decision to not only name, but provide links to these women is powerful. I looked at them to remind myself that these ladies had lives, had plans, and we're loved, but this was violently taken from them the very people who are to protect us. We have much to learn and changes must occur. Your piece and the comments made by readers changes abstract killings into human potential and lives lost due to criminal and racist actions of the police.
3
Law enforcement officials practically enshrine the assault of women of color. In FL George Zimmerman’s paranoia about blacks is validated by way of acquittal, and there was a black woman in FL who gets sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot against an abusive ex-boyfriend turning up at her doorstep, both invalidating her real fear and sending a message it’s OK to beat women.
More recently in the context of the Atatiana case I read about a black woman whom police assaulted for calling the cops on a white neighbor who hit her son. The child had ostensibly dropped raisins in front of the neighbor’s house and the police agreed with him that the kid shouldn’t be littering. The whiteman is arbiter and enforcer of rules with a police force at his disposal ready to escalate.
2
Thank you for this piece, Professor. These women deserved so much better.
46
How many of these women would be alive if they simply complied with the lawful instructions of the officer involved? All of them.
Police are not the problem; the issue is mistaken entitlement by minority groups to behave poorly and be immune from the consequences of their decisions.
When I see a police officer, I thank them for their service. Every citizen ought to do so. I have never been afraid of a police officer; I am always glad to see them.
Try changing your point of view; embrace law enforcement and thank them. Lives will be saved and society better for it. Electing to act otherwise does not make black lives matter. It makes black lives end too early and too often. Try it my way. Let’s all save black lives.
10
@EWG Ms. Jefferson was shot through a window while playing a video game. Please explain to me how she "...would be alive if they simply complied with the lawful instructions of the officer involved" applies in this case? Please have several seats.
9
@EWG
@ EWG
What crimes did John Crawford III, Philando Castile, Tami Rice, or Botham Jean commit? Neither one was given time to follow lawful instructions. Incompetent, racist, and fearful men and women are hired by police departments all across this country and innocent people of color pay the price. Instead of admitting that this is, indeed, a serious problem, people such as yourself justify these killings by blaming the victim.
8
@EWG What lawful instructions did the killer of Atatiana Jefferson issue to her before he shot her dead through the window of her own home?
7
I've encountered a lot of rookie cops that should've never been hired. I don't know why these people become police officers, but I doubt it is because they want to 'protect and serve.'
Older cops aren't as trigger happy, and aren't as likely to assume you are a criminal. The younger cops seem to be doing it for all the wrong reasons.
If the police work off of fear and intimidation, then please tell me, what separates them from a terrorist? (Besides, the badge.)
4
Killing these women was horrifying, unacceptable. Also very, very sad. The policemen who killed them need to be held accountable, and they need to go to jail at minimum. Police management needs to take a day, or a week, to retrain their officers to emphasize that shooting or stunning just because you're feeling nervous is not OK. And they need to do a better job of weeding out the few bad cops who apparently join because they think it gives them a license to shoot people. I think 99.9% of police are not like that, but clearly a few bad ones are getting through.
My this makes me so sad. I didn't know their names.
All over this crazy world women are killed in all kinds of ways and then just forgotten. Honor killings, femicide, female infanticide.
We in the US should know better. We can't let our murdered women be forgotten. Thank you for writing this. I too wish there were more comments to suggest more readers.
I hereby promise to forward this article to at least 5 people. And I will work to remember the names of:
Natasha McKenna
India Kager
Korryn Gaines
Aiyana Stanely-Jones
Kathryn Johnston
Margaret LaVerne Mitchell
Pearlie Golden
Michelle Cusseauz
Kayla Moore
Atatiana Jefferson
Sarah Bland
Surely that list is far too long and yet likely incomplete.
2
@kathleen
*Sandra* Bland?!
1
The author lacks credibility when posting that Michael Brown was an innocent bystander, not a criminal wrestling to take a police officers weapon to kill him, and Tamar Rice did not appear to everyone with eyes to be a grown man waving a 45 pistol around. We all see the nervous trigger killings by police of innocent people that are horrible, they reflect a violent society awash with guns. However to conflate these with other justified shootings you fail your cause.Ignore truth and your fight for justice will fail.
6
@BackHandSpin
Ohio is an open carry state so Tamir Rice’s size only matters to individuals like you who like to blame the victim but fail to call out the incompetent policeman.
3
Excellent reporting! Sad news.
2
The murder of black women by police – indeed, all non-violent individuals who are shot by officers for non-threatening behavior – indicates a serious national problem with applicant selection and training by law enforcement agencies.
Hiring preference is frequently given to military veterans. But today, the percentage of honorably discharged vets returning home with often undiagnosed and untreated PTSD and TBI (Tramautic Brain Injury) is higher than it's ever been (11 to 20 percent, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs). Is anyone studying the effect of battlefield incidents on individuals who now carry a badge and a gun? When body cameras fail to back up the officer's claim of “immediate threat”, perhaps what sounds on the surface like lying may instead be misperceptions resulting from severe service-related trauma.
For an even more heart-wrenching reminder of how many *additional* lives are destroyed when a black woman's life is taken by the police, I highly recommend this podcast, in which Rhanda Dormeus describes the events leading up to and following her daughter's killing. http://aapf.org/ep1-korryn-gaines
This issue is not "news" to me, but this interview, conducted by Professor Crenshaw, underscored why we can never ignore or become inured to these killings.
Please tell me why police instinctively go to a lethal weapon. When I can spray high pressure police mace over 20 feet or shoot a taser dart even further, why are police killing anyone? Police want to take away guns from everyone, despite little evidence that public safety is improved, e.g., Chicago. And, yet, they do nothing to improve their confidence with non-lethal weapons.
I think police officers who are scared are extremely dangerous. Surely, there is a some way these officers can be identified before they are given a gun and let loose on the streets with this "shoot first, ask questions later" mentality.
Here's an idea - if you are a person who is easily angered, highly anxious or downright cowardly, be a good public servant in a different arena. Your help can be used elsewhere, we will all be safer and you may never end up in prison for murder.
@M.K. Ward
It’s a bit more complicated than the mindset of individual officers. It’s that their training centers around transferring the risk of the job (a very real risk) from themselves to all the rest of us. And the courts (and juries who can be convinced that scratching one’s nose, or reaching for one’s wallet, or even standing in one’s window at night is somehow a threatening gesture) go along with it.
1
There is no silence around the killing of this woman. It was immediate news. The officer was immediately fired. The Chief denounced it. Prosecution has begun.
That just isn't silence.
This was a horror that should never have happened, and must never happen again. It is not silence.
41
@Mark Thomason - But how many of those other women did you ever hear about? How many of their names, including that of Atatiana Jefferson, have become fixed in public awareness in the same way some of those of black men have been?
4
@Mark Thomason If it continues it is silence and it goes on ....
2
@Mark Thomason And yet it keeps happening, doesn't it?
4
If you want to greatly reduce the number of such killing the answer is simple: minimum of $5,000,000 for each killing. Let towns and cities and rural counties pay that and they will quickly learn how to reduce the killings. If the women be pregnant, $5,000,000 for each child killed.
“Consider Natasha McKenna, who died in early 2015 days after six sheriff’s deputies in Fairfax County, Va., shackled her outside her jail cell, wrestled her to the ground and then shocked her with a stun gun over and over. “You promised you wouldn’t kill me,” she pleaded.
Those words should have become a rallying cry. Instead, most people have never heard them.”
We would quickly have the officers and chiefs and mayors attention.
The tragic death of Atatiana Jefferson had nothing to do with the color of her skin.
It was a huge mistake on the part of the police officer in neither announcing himself nor knocking on the front door. (Maybe he feared being shot by burglars, but that doesn't justify it.) And there was Ms Jefferson with a gun aimed at him. The officer didn't want to die on the job, so he shot her.
Ms. Jefferson is dead because the copy messed up, and that she had a gun.
This tragedy has nothing to do with skin color.
Please don't use Ms. Jefferson as a political tool.
9
@Kevin Brock Go back and read what I wrote. I'm not justifying the cop's behavior, far from it.
1
@Kevin Brock
Are you saying a black family can't live in a gated community? You are describing the difference between policing a poor, high crime neighborhood and a rich, low crime neighborhood. It's got nothing to do with race.
1
@Astrochimp If the police officer were responding to a non-emergency report of an open door with lights on in a gated community, would the officer have sneaked around the house without announcing and identifying himself? And then would he have fired into the house through a window?
Please, please, please, keep on attempting to justify this officer's behavior.
6
Michael Brown’s name on a list of victims shows a Trumpian disregard for the truth.
President Obama’s Justice Department was forced, against its desires, to conclude that Officer Wilson shot in self defense and that “hands up, don’t shoot” was a lie.
8
White men, under cover of authority as police officers, sometimes commit violence against black girls. Why is that?
Why is this sick phenomenon not widely studied or discussed in college psychology or sociology classes?
Why does this country tolerate it?
Police officer slams sobbing black 11-year-old girl into wall after she brushes past teacher
‘You’re not going to use excessive force to get this done,’ says school official
• Zamira Rahim @ZamiraRahim
• 4 days ago
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/black-girl-police-officer-zach-christensen-mesa-view-middle-school-a9169611.html
‘That is my child’
Video of police pointing gun at crying 11-year-old black girl ignites outrage in city
By WITW Staff on December 14, 2017
https://womenintheworld.com/2017/12/14/video-of-police-pointing-gun-at-crying-11-year-old-black-girl-ignites-outrage-in-city/
Chicago police to pay out $2.5 million to family after a cop 'pointed a gun at a three-year-old girl's chest' as he arrested her mother
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5893873/Chicago-police-pay-2-5-million-cop-pointed-gun-three-year-old-girls-chest.html
3
Excellent piece. Thank you. That the mothers were ignored at the Women's March is shameful.
77
@Virginia Yes, and it was something I was not aware of until now.
1
This is one of the few articles I have read that has a reasonably balanced view of the problem of US police killing civilians. The problem with many social ills is the pendulum swings to far to the other side, yes we need to properly punish Police for flagrant abuse of use of force , but to politicize this issue means it wont get solved only manipulated by demagogues and politicians. The solution is better training, more diversity among law enforcement, and also better relations between police and the communities they serve.
Thank you, Dr. Crenshaw, for this piece.
I hope more people living their lives with the privilege of being white women, such as myself, will read this piece and genuinely take it to heart.
I am extremely saddened to know the Women’s March did not include these mothers onstage, where I would assume they deserved to be front and center — if not there, then where?
44
I teach at a large urban university and recently had a conversation with a German foreign exchange student. He said in Germany in x year the police had fired 8 bullets. I stopped him and said you meant shot 8 people. He said no, 8 bullets. He said they know how many bullets their police fire because it is a number they monitor, and that they are trained not to automatically fire, to de-escalate, to negotiate, to gather strength in force before going in after a suspect. I asked why - he said they looked at everything post WWII and decided things would change.
American law enforcement are often ex-military, trained to demand instant authority rom everyone, and given the authority to use deadly force should an order not be obeyed. They are trained to escalate every confrontation.
This is not an unsolvable situation. It is our stated public policy for our police to shoot a suspect down in cold blood. It's a choice, and in a country with the largest military by far, not hard to see why.
Choose.
5
@AG
Germany = a predominantly homogenous, well-educated, well-employed nation with a population of 80 million.
The U.S. is none of those things, at 330 million and increasing by nearly 2 million per year - nearly 40% are immigrants, it is in the 20th global education percentile, with half of America underemployed and economically struggling. WITH a constant 5 million males circulating the criminal justice system over the last 40+ years.
If Germany will take in about 100 million of our sketchy folks, then we can talk.
2
@Maggie
So that’s it? We are prone to killing black women because they are here? And they are sketchy? Bill Shockley would be proud.
1
A police officer, responding to a non-emergency call, sneaks around a house without identifying himself, and then shoots the occupant of the house through a window.
This is literally "shoot first and ask questions later."
There are just so many things wrong with this police officer's actions, on so many levels.
11
No matter how you look at it, this is a heartbreaking story. I do find the reference to the statistic that "black women make up less than 10 percent of the population and 33 percent of all women killed by the police," while likely true, to be disingenuous.
To gauge the real scale of racism, we have to relate the percent of black women killed by police to the percent of crimes like murder, assault, and robbery committed by the subject group.
1
Thank you, Prof. Crenshaw, for your academic work and political activism. We, that is, white people, like to forget Black women, we always have. All the comments in response to this and other similar articles in the NYT that passionately defend the righteous police officers, that affirm that "there are good ones" fail to recognize what Prof. Crenshaw and other Black feminist scholars have repeatedly pointed out: Racism is a social system, it describes a set of consciously and unconsciously held beliefs, values, stereotypes, and attitudes that inform our social structure and constitute a society stratified by privilege, dominance, marginalization, and oppression. Police brutality against Black women is just one of the many ways in which our society and white people benefit from the oppression of Black women. As a white woman, I have to worry about all sorts of things but police brutality, "shoot first and ask questions later," is not among them. Education about intersectional violence, targeting Women of Color, must include not just police officers but everybody: teachers, administrators, clerks, counselors, health care professionals, politicians, etc. We white people must examine our attitudes, stereotypes, and beliefs about Black women, we must, paraphrasing Kirsten Gillibrand, "talk to white people explain to them what white privilege actually is.” #SayHerName: Atatiana, Natasha, Korryn, India, Aiyana, Kathryn, Margaret, Pearlie, Kayla, Michelle, Sandra.
4
My deepest sympathy and sorrow to Atatiana Jefferson's family, friends and community. These disgusting acts seem to be happening more frequently. For those of us who lived through the battle for civil rights, we hoped these days were behind us, but we still have a long way to go. The one bright spot in this tragedy is the arrest of the police officer who shot Atatiana Jefferson, on charges of murder. At least some communities are finally indicating they have had enough of these perverse and disgraceful police actions. It is the case of the few rotten apples demeaning the reputation of all officers, the large majority of who serve and protect their communities professionally and honorably. However, until the police community in general, make it the top priority to weed out those among them with violent and racist dispositions, these tragic killings will continue to be all too frequent.
Why is no one mentioning the elephant in the room? The obvious reason that police officers have twitch trigger fingers? Consider yourself as a policeman. You go out into a country, flooded with guns. Every potential interaction could turn deadly for you, unless you draw first. I'm sure that none of these policemen get up in the morning and plan on killing someone. They feel guilt. They might lose their jobs. They will be called killers. Their life would be changed for ever. Racism might play a part, but, the biggest is GUNS. It has become such an accepted situation, the proliferation of guns, that we dont even think of it as being a factor. Yet, it is. In Europe, which has minority populations, killing by police is a very rare event. For instance, in Athens, Greece, a student was killed by a bullet that ricocheted off the pavement, from a gun, fired by the police, in 2008 and there are still marches to commemorate him 11 years later.
What shocks me an dismays me, is that most policemen, still consider the easy gun availability as a "good thing" It seems that the propaganda of the gun lobby has blinded them to the truth. Atatiana was at home, pointing a gun. If she didn't have access to a guns, but, being Texas, that's an impossibility, this young woman would still be alive. Which makes a mockery of the NRA's assertion that guns make us safer.
33
@bob karp
The guns piggybacked on the massive and sustained upsurge in illicit drug profiteering, which is entirely the result of the broad-spectrum "zero tolerance" approach to prohibiting/restricting/regulating drugs of various sorts.
I realize that the solution requires more restriction and regulation than "legalize everything." But the lessons to be drawn from the experiment in Alcohol Prohibition have been ignored for decades. One of the most important lessons being that Federal Alcohol Prohibition only lasted 13 years, instead of somewhere between 50 and 90 years (depending on where one marks the beginning of the law enforcement campaign against the array of other illegalized substances.) 50 to 90 years allowed for a level of entrenchment of the criminal economy unmatched by Alcohol Prohibition. The illicit drugs markets took off in the 1960s, but it took until the 1980s for mass quantities of automatic weapons to show up on the street in connection with the proliferation of drug dealing gangs in the same era.
Another of the lessons is that even in the years of most intensive enforcement of Alcohol Prohibition, the users themselves were never criminalized for simple possession of forbidden alcohol, and thus were never in jeopardy of having their lives derailed by arrests, criminal court cases, convictions, and records. That suggestion was brought up in the Alcohol Prohibition era, but it was dismissed, because it would have criminalized a generation.
Think.
4
@bob karp In spite of such a high number of guns in the USA, there is not a high rate of fatality against officers.
However, the guns create a high rate of fear. So yes, the proliferation of weapons could be playing a role.
10
@bob karp I am dismayed you apparently fault Atatiana for her death. Atatiana was shot by men peeping from outside her window. She was not in a shootout with the police, resisting arrest, or committing any other action that warrants a bullet.
You also seem to gloss over one of the article's main points - that 57% of black women were unarmed when the police killed them. You cannot take away guns from the unarmed. While I am against the right to bear arms, I am honestly dismayed to see your comment attributing Atatiana's death to her actions. This horrible incident was entirely the policemen's fault. Atatiana is purely the victim.
6
@Sharon,
White women really shouldn’t insinuate themselves into this issue. Comparing black women’s deaths (in their own homes) at the hands of police to their perceived pay inequity is a dangerous misdirection. White feminists of today (just like white suffragists 100 years ago) rarely demonstrate allyship with black women. (White women also usurped #MeToo and made it about pink hats and Alyssa Milano.)
If white women are truly concerned, let them reach out to black women’s groups immersed in social justice (on Facebook, at churches) and ask these women on the front lines how they can use their immense privilege to help.
2
Thank you for this piece. It's heartbreaking that there are not more comments.
113
Heartbreaking is a culture which raised these women to act so foolishly as to cause their own, entirely avoidable, deaths.
Try ‘yes, officer’ and ‘thank you, officer, for your service’.
Or act as you like, and as the death toll rises, blame the person responsible; you.
3
@Ada Puches
It’s not the writing and submission of comments. It’s the arbitrary, glacially slow and frustrating moderation process. But that’s just my opinion.
3
@EWG
Police officers are never to blame your in part of the world? Should John Crawford III or Philando Castile thank the officers for their service?
2
Thank you for your work. And I'll remember this and do anything I can to bring this injustice before others.
13
It is dispiriting to see a portion of the comments here off-topic. The comments themselves perform a double, triple, quadruple, form of erasure and miss the exact point that Crenshaw is making. The prominence of black women's names, exactly how they have been disproportionately violated and killed, and the empowerment, social cohesion, and necessity that their recognition provides in the fight to eradicate racism and end state-sanctioned violence are of key importance. It is only through identifying injustice and articulating it repeatedly in the public sphere that social change can occur.
1
Thank you NYT for re-opening comments on this article. Please share to your Facebook page as well. By its very nature — being about women whose lives don’t seem to matter enough to the public and even the organizations that purport to support Black women — this article will receive less attention tonight than, say, the gender reveal self-explosion. That means it’s worth sharing more broadly, not less so.
3
@Melissa
Please get off Facebook and close down your account. American democracy and free elections depend on it.
Thank you Kimberlé Crenshaw for trying to bring truth to bear in a country that isn’t listening and that doesn’t want to reveal to itself that we built our country on the backs of Black Americans who we continue to violate, ignore, incarcerate, murder and erase. We are fools. And we will self-destruct for our foolishness.
To the families of slain, forgotten Black women around this country, I am sorry for your loss and for the inescapable feeling that the lessons of your loved ones’ deaths pass by unheeded. Your daughters tonight are remembered.
47
Nothing is as simple as it seems. Prof. Crenshaw has taken a collection of totally independent cases, conveniently stripped them of any context (to include the circumstances of the encounter, the race of the officers, etc.) and boiled it all down to racist white police officers who apparently shoot African American women without justification. She even recklessly lobs in the hand grenade of Michael Brown for good measure. As a law professor with a duty to educate, I expect more. This article is nothing more than a conclusion.
11
@Spiral Architect The race of Thebes police officers is irrelevant. As a law professor, I assume you are familiar with the concept of internalized racism.
@lunanoire If this article is purporting to conclude that all black women who have died during an encounter with police were the victims of internalized racism and gender bias, I'm certainly open to the idea. However, it's of no use to make such a conclusion without a discussion of how you got there. What does Prof. Crenshaw tell me about any of the cases cited that I could use to form an intelligent, reasoned conclusion about why this particular person was killed by police? Assuming that every deadly encounter between police and a particular group can be blamed solely on explicit or implicit bias is silly and counterproductive.
1
So sad. Apart from dealing with the entrenched, systemic racism and a media/culture that either ignores or promotes it:
Disarming your regular beat cops so they have to learn to actually do policing, and not act as mercenaries above and outside the law would be a good starting point....
In the UK where there is no shortage of crime and well-armed criminals, the fact that regular police are unarmed means that situations simply don’t escalate this way. Only the serious tactical teams have access to firearms as a matter of course. And they have training and are called out for a specific reason... criminals still get caught. You can’t outrun a radio, or a well-run investigation. It simply doesn’t have to be escalated on the spot by someone without adequate training to control the situation. Like a door knock, apparently.
Same here in NZ, and long may it stay that way. Most police do have access to a pistol or rifle -locked safely in the patrol car. If armed response is required, the Armed Offenders Squad, helicopter or the special tactical teams are called in, who are actually trained to deal with serious armed offenders....
One hopes that it might become apparent that the ‘suspect’ is simply an unarmed woman of colour and not a serious threat to by the time they would arrive.
But that’s giving the benefit of the doubt to the police. Do they deserve it?
45
@R while I’m not against disarming police officers, trying to equate uk to us crime rates is so silly it renders the argument moot.
1
I hadn't heard of Natasha McKenna before reading this article so I googled her and then read the formal report of her incarceration and eventual death. While tragic, her death seems to have had everything to do with mental illness and nothing to do with her race. I'm not sure how the author gets to anything resembling profiling or a racial component to her tragic fate. I am certainly not an expert on how and when a taser is used to subdue a person who is harming themselves or others, but it seems like someone who is still resisting after being tased multiple times is either very ill or in such a state of rage or confusion that safely subduing them is very difficult.
7
Until we have police departments that are manned by people that resemble the people they serve we will have a law enforcement that operates with an "us vs them" mind set. The "blue wall" culture is what holds us back from the devastating police abuses and the way forward.
49
That might have been a question before the civil rights movement. For decades now we have had Black cops and politicians and nothing has changed on police brutality. That is because it remains fundamentally a class question. The Black bourgeoisie fears and detests workers of any color just as much as their racist white brethren. We can and must build fighting unity between workers of all colors against a common foe, the brutal police who serve the rich. The first step in that direction is for workers who are white to step forward and champion the struggle against racism and police brutality. The conditions have never been better as we increasingly face similar conditions and challenges than ever before. This is not to deny the brutal racism that exists but to say we can fight it.
3
@w. evans davis It seems to me that a lot of police officers join the force, out of fear. They join because they are scared and they want to 'put the hurt' onto those people that scare them. A lot of white men are afraid of black people, and thus, they don a badge in order to exercise their prejudices, and be on the offense instead of the defense.
These men are not joining the police force to make the world a better place, they are doing it because they want to legally terrorize those who they are afraid of. They want to 'exact revenge' under a legal framework. They want to break the law, in order to enforce it. They want to get away with murder.
And, it seems like there's nothing to stop them from being empowered to kill.
5
@w. evans davis Susan Sontag declared, “The white race is the cancer of human history; it is the white race and it alone—its ideologies and inventions” that “threatens the very existence of life itself.” This problem of white racism will fade out as in a generation or two whites will be very scarce in the world. They are only 11 percent of the world population and dropping and the US population will mirror the world population.
4
Thank you for this, Professor. I will assign it to my Gender Inequality class next week. The study you linked is also fascinating, chock full of valuable data on police violence.
This makes me so mad about the Women’s March in DC, which I also attended. It’s more reason for me to resent the people who took over our grassroots movement.
A wise woman once coined the term “intersectionality.” It continues to be relevant in every aspect of American life.
We see you, and we appreciate you.
56
@Human-At the most recent Women's March in San Francisco, the names of native American girls and women who have "disappeared" were read out-loud; both to recognize their loss and also (I think) to shock us awake. These tragedies are going under-reported and under-investigated. They are happening in front of us and in native communities. This is relevant to all of us, as you rightly point out, no matter where we come from or who we are or the culture and community we identify with. We can't look the other way.
29
@Human
A spot on reply to a spot on article. It beggars belief that the points made by Professor Crenshaw still need making.
5
How many ways does the world show women that we don't matter? We don't matter enough to be paid equally, we don't matter enough to be equally represented on boards and committees, we don't matter enough to have our personal space respected, we don't matter enough to be able to make decisions about our own bodies, and we don't matter enough not to be killed by men trained and pledged to protect us. And women of color have and have had it much much worse. And it's not getting better, it's getting worse.
207
"more than 57 percent of black women were unarmed when killed." How is killing any unarmed person justified? Maybe one has to become a cop to avoid risking one's own life, shooting first without thought with backing of the state.
"fueled by race-based fear" AND cowardice or plain old fashion hate that ESCALATES to murder - no different than state sponsored murder of those already on death row, which includes innocent people.
Many of these eager overzealous shootings of unarmed human beings could have been avoided without any risk whatsoever to the cop had they paused or backed away in order to get a better picture of the situation. The shooting of Ms. Jefferson reminds me of another shooting where a cop yells "show me your hands" just as he shoots a fraction of a second later. Both instances of unarmed civilians with the cop in a safe position and location. Who knows how long that other cop gave the guy watching TV in HIS apartment to show his hands to a stranger barging into his home before being murdered.
Are citizens now forced to shoot first in order to protect themselves in their own home? Cops are paid to take the risks on behalf of the citizenry they're paid to protect - not the other way around, where unpaid citizens take the risks to their lives around and on behalf of cops.
At what point does the citizen have the right to protect body and limb from police assault as we are frequently seeing on video lately?
It is "to protect and to serve" themselves, now.
4
@PAN
Because in the larger view, nearly half of the women WERE armed.
When it comes to men shot by cops, the number of fatal shootings skyrockets to roughly 90% armed and in the commission of a crime, often also then attacking police who arrive on the scene.
3
It was the Black women in Alabama who kept ray moore out of office. It will be Black women who will be the key to changing our country. No, we cannot forget these women. This white 63 year old Jewish white woman weeps for these murdered women and their families. Please know there are many of us who are listening, hanging our heads in shame, and going to the polls, schools, protests, and our grandchildren’s hearts with the hope and need to effect change. We are so, so sorry. We will act. We will not forget.
15
This article was extremely eye-opening. Police officers must face the same consequences as any other person for murdering innocent people. When the legal standard becomes balanced these officers will start to think twice before being so eager to pull that trigger. Sad world
3
All minority women especially black ones need to work together and stand up in every city and zip code.
Nothing will change till we all take action. We have more than enough black female lawyers, doctors, nurses to represent us and it is about time we take control of this very racist scenario. Black women are being murdered, we have no hospital, urgent care in black cities, we are treated as animals. Enough is enough. We all can chew gum, walk and do numerous jobs and as we fight for democracy we need to fight for minority right's
This is a wonderful/ sad/ tragic article but it should inspire women to take charge and give our stories and force out city councilors, political representatives to represent us and we are not going to allow anyone to force us in the background anymore
Thank you for the research and repeating the information we may already know but we must take action
2
Not to detract from the point of the column, but: "black women make up less than 10 percent of the population and 33 percent of all women killed by the police" is not comparing like with like. It's an apparent statistical sleight of hand, undermining the point being made.
Maybe something like: '... less than 20 percent of all women and 33 percent of all women killed by the police' would be clearer and the point still stands out strongly.
4
These deaths are a moral outrage. The Sandra Bland case was jaw-dropping. These recent deaths equally horrifying.
It's been my observation as a dumbfounded white woman that the majority of whites in this country simply do not care about their black and brown compatriots who do not look like them and mistake public police as private armed guards to "protect" whites.
2
The title of this piece makes me so very,very sad.
Imagine these being the last words of your daughter or son ever spoke......absolutely painful
1
"You promised you wouldn't kill me"
The most chilling words ever spoken to men who uphold the law.
2
Ever since the forced arrival of the Africans in United States African American have seen at best little justice. The native Indians went almost extinct with Bison and today are restricted to their reservation where they toil every day in poverty, despair and helplessness.
The only Justice that African American can expect is if they are given most of the Southern States to be ruled independently only by Blacks, yes their own Congress comprising of only African American, their Senate comprising of only African American, their Judicial System, their Law Enforcement etc. Anything less will bring more injustice to them.
If anyone reading this thinks I am out of line, see no further how Judicial ranks are being filled with ultra conservative who have bias against people of color. It appears that even if people of color are in majority the white want to rule through their Judicial system which will pass every opinion that favors the white who in this new system will get richer, powerful and an elite ruling class while people of color will continue to suffer.
1
Ha! A call for less police interaction with African-Americans, considering where urban African Americans live these days, it's like a call for an urban crime wave. What do you think gangs and criminals would rather have, more policing or less policing? You are inviting a Ferguson effect on steroids.
6
My black friends are not afraid that their daughters will be Atatiana Jefferson. They are afraid their sons will be Tyshawn Lee.
4
@Snowball -- They should be afraid of both. I can't imagine this kind of constant fear, but I try to imagine it.
5
There are so many obvious criticisms to be made about this piece. Isn't it worth mentioning that Korryn Gaines had barricaded herself in a room with a shotgun which she pointed at the police? You say that the "families of these women often suffer in relative obscurity." But the families of the vast majority of police shooting victims suffer in relative obscurity - how many names of black people shot by the police can we, ny times readers, name? And how many white people shot by the police can we name? It seems to me that the family of a white person shot by the police is much more likely to "suffer in obscurity" than that of a black one. The officer who shot Jefferson has been charged with murder, which of course doesn't bring her back, but is a first step towards justice. You mention Sandra Bland who, as you put it, "died". But she committed suicide. Without knowing the name of every woman mentioned here, I am left with the impression that if I look into the individual cases, I'll find that there's more to the story than simple police brutality or murder. I notice this pattern in general - throwing a bunch of names in together under the banner of police murder of black people, regardless of the fact that some, or many, of these incidents may have been justified. Michael Brown, another name mentioned here, was justifiably shot. There is an "ends justifies the means" mindset here, where distortion of the facts is considered par for the course.
13
@Neil F Sandra Bland committed suicide while in police custody. After a traffic stop on a deserted street in a small town for not signaling a lane change, where then she was detained for "resisting arrest" and held on an exorbitant cash bond.
2
@Kevin Brock
Bland spent her short life constantly tangling with law enforcement, arrested numerous times since the age of 18 in Chicago, where she grew up, as well as then several arrest in Texas. Her relatives were tired of bailing her out, so they refused this time.
BTW, she was drugged up to beat the band when the cop pulled her over for an illegal lane change. The coroner's toxicology test showed Bland had high levels of THC in her blood system - and this was not only when she was dead but had been jailed long enough for any she'd smoked prior to arrest to begin dissipating and not be at such high levels. i.e. Bland either was wasted when arrested or somehow ate some pot in her jail cell, where she was the only inmate and with an overhead camera on.
2
When, oh when, are we ever going to leave the particularism that is based on race? Race is such an artificial concept, especially in our society that is rushing to break down the barriers between "black" and "white" and all the other iterations of human. We need to stop putting one group up on a pedestal for special treatment to the detriment of the others. We are all just one threatened species now.
1
It is unfair to use Atatiana's murder to paint all cops as evil. And the title, "You promised not to kill me" is misleading because it fails to give context; the woman who screamed it was mentally ill, had a history of violent attack and was attacking the policemen tasked with moving her.
11
@methodan
Mental health providers deal with individuals like this on a regular basis and somehow manage to do so without using/needing a firearm. If they do so, why not police? Just because a police officer is given a gun and the license to kill with impunity doesn’t mean every situation warrants it.
4
@Vanessa
By the time cops are called in, the mentally deranged and/or perp's family has failed for 20+ years and often walked away, as have the schools and churches and any friends or support group they had. Cops are, literally, the last resort.
2
@Maggie
So we just kill these individuals, is that it?
Ms. Jefferson was murdered or daring to play video games with her nephew in her own home, late at night. Yes the so-called peace officer was fired, but it seems all too likely that next week someone else will be killed because an armed white man in a uniform decides that is the appropriate thing to do.
1
This is a tragedy. But it is also an anecdote and does not represent what is happening except very rarely across the country. The fact—and it is an overwhelming one, is that young black men and women are at risk from young black men. That is what we need to address.
7
@ehillesum
Fortunately, some of us are intelligent enough to address both issues at the same time.
4
Thank you, Kimberle, for bringing awareness of this situation to a broader audience.
I did want to highlight something odd in this statistic, though:
"But black women make up less than 10 percent of the population and 33 percent of all women killed by the police."
It doesn't seem to be comparing apples to apples. The first half references the percentage of black women relative to the *whole* population (all genders) and the second half references the percent of women only.
Would it make more sense to say that "black women make up about 20 percent of the female population but 33 percent of all women killed by the police"?
7
The police are out of control and have been for decades. A friend's son called police because her 19-year-old son, who had suddenly manifested a mental illness, was running around naked in the street in the middle of the afternoon and she needed help to get him to a hospital. To her utter shock, they immediately shot him in the stomach. He was not expected to survive--it was a miracle that he lived. The takeaway for all of us was, don't call the police unless you want someone to be shot. This was in a small California town in the 1980s, and the family was white.
12
So then, maybe space limits precluded mention of Ms. Jefferson pointing a gun at the officers. She acted sensibly; the cops acted sensibly; tragedy ensued. Who’s at fault here? Violent criminals who break into homes making everyone fear for their lives, that’s who.
The police lack our virtue. If a man who has shown himself to be a criminal with an intense desire not to be arrested pointed a metallic object toward us, we’d be willing to absorb a shot or two, just to be sure that he wasn’t, you know, unarmed.
Of course we’re not in that dark back yard, so we’re going to have to ask the cops to be brave for us.
5
@Robert M
Still Robert M, wasn't Ms. Jefferson's gun worth a mention?
3
@Charlierf Police by not identifying themselves did not act sensibly, under any possible rendering of this scenario,
@Charlierf
Are we also supposed to pay with our lives because of incompetent police? Why is their incompetence excused?
1
Being the devils advocate, statistically, black men commit a lot more violent crimes in the United States than any other group. This can’t be overlooked as some kind of non factor. The reasons for that are probably based on historical oppression, but the average cop on the beat isn’t really concerned about that as much as he is his own life. This isn’t an issue that can be addressed with better training only. The fact is that the police make up a minuscule percentage of black deaths in comparison to other things like assault. We should be addressing poverty and inequality if we’re really going to expect positive changes.
9
@Tim Phillips , one other note: the author's point that the deaths of women are invisible, or unnoted, certainly finds its evidence in your comment. Baldly so.
2
@jb The fact that these things being discussed in an international newspaper and multiple media outlets is proof that they are far from invisible. As a matter of fact, it’s taking up space for many more serious issues. This is a country that has 350 million people of which an infinitesimally small percentage of women have been victims of this. I wonder why that is?
2
@Tim Phillips What does any of that have to do with a police officer shooting a woman in her own home through a window without identifying himself?
3
Thank you for this pointed and heartfelt piece. We all need to be aware that women, particularly women of color, are often treated beneath the law. This should not be.
10
it has been years-decades-since I routinely was exposed to the activities of police-both plainclothes and in uniform, on a daily basis. Living in NYC makes me something of a privil;eged person- histortially, at least since ther 60-70's, our cops have neem slow to draw-and rarely to shoot, considering what a big and often crowded place we live in.
However, one thing I see from afar is that most of the "dumb violence"-the shootings by thoughtess cops seesm to have increased since police-in a fit of artificial paranoid delusion-demanded the issue of newr, automatic pistils, with huge , almost preternaturally sized magazines-usually 21 bullets-compared to the old standard 6 shot Police Specials most cops in NYC carried without ever shooting them in anger. I recall a time when cops made arrests without ever making threats and once even -when criminals didn't provoke responses.
Our growing "lead posioning" problem is acompqanied by a sharp reduction in police deaths-especially from guns not their own.
I am positive, that returning to 6 shot revolvers will force many loose cannons in forces to think three times before using their 6 bullets-instead of the tendency today to empty 20 bullet magazines into cars or at kids uttering forbidden four letter words.
The annual number of police deaths last year (and before) was about 100 -for the whole USA, and most were car accidents.
Something needs to be done- the police are not nor have been in any danger from the public.
14
@meloop You are correct. Roughly, the statistics are that there are about 700,000 active duty officers (police, highway patrol, etc.) in the USA. 114 died on duty in 2018. 52 died in firearms related incidents (4 with their own firearms). There are extremely few ambush attacks of police in the line of duty. So they do not need to have the fear that they have.
The 1930s were the era when the police experienced the highest rate of fatality on duty. There is a marked decline to the present, in spite of my higher firearm possession.
16
To offer some perspective on the statistics in this op-ed, let me point out that the FBI recently released its 2018 national crime statistics. Strikingly, among closed homicide cases, blacks made up 54.9% of "murder offenders."
With blacks making up only 13% of the population, that suggests that the average black was about 8 times more likely to be a "murder offender" in 2018 than the average nonblack.
To check my math, please see:
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-3.xls
17
@Steve Sailer
Still riding that hobbyhorse, are you? Consider the history of the approximately 100% European population of Europe over the past 500 years:
"...New data presented at the conference by a Dutch scholar, Pieter Spierenburg, showed that the homicide rate in Amsterdam, for example, dropped from 47 per 100,000 people in the mid-15th century to 1 to 1.5 per 100,000 in the early 19th century.
Professor Stone has estimated that the homicide rate in medieval England was on average 10 times that of 20th century England. A study of the university town of Oxford in the 1340's showed an extraordinarily high annual rate of about 110 per 100,000 people. Studies of London in the first half of the 14th century determined a homicide rate of 36 to 52 per 100,000 people per year.
By contrast, the 1993 homicide rate in New York City was 25.9 per 100,000. The 1992 national homicide rate for the United States was 9.3 per 100,000..."
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/23/us/historical-study-of-homicide-and-cities-surprises-the-experts.html
There is no theory of biological evolution or medical advance to account for declines as steep as those over the span of only a few centuries- or decades, in the case of New York City.
The 2018 murder rate in NYC was 3.5/100,000. The US rate was 5/100,000.
https://www.thetrace.org/2018/04/highest-murder-rates-us-cities-list/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/04/03/londons-murder-rate-higher-than-new-york-citys/480860002/
8
@DC Reade I don't see where Steve claimed that the homicide rate is due biology or genetics or anything of the sort. You're attempting to make his argument into a racist one in order to discredit it. But the crime rates are what they are, regardless of the reason. Perhaps it has more to do with a racist history, poverty, etc. It still stands to reason that in places with more gun violence, there will be more incidents where lethal force is justified. Ignoring the crime statistics and pretending that only a racist would point out such things, while simultaneously attempting to decipher the policing statistics, will inevitably lead to false conclusions.
6
@TT I don't think it is worthwhile engaging in a logical argument with Steve. The article is about extrajudicial state violence, specifically from police against black people, specifically black women. I don't know what this red herring is supposed to mean other than don't tell me things I don't want to hear.
2
Thank you for researching this and publishing.
It's horrifying, and so unjust.
27
@jazz one There was no research. It's on opinion piece. No value statement here, but there no research presented, just anecdotes. I actually fully agree with the conclusion (i.e. training is insufficient, penalties are needed), but there is no research or other evidence offered that supports it. It's of course fine to have a pure opinion piece. Nothing wrong with that i n a section called "Opinion"
10
@CS You may be focused on research but this piece offers evidence, even if it’s anecdotal, of police murders of black women. Your comment is like saying that as the rain falls on your head, you’ll need a meteorologist to provide data about the weather, otherwise the statement that you are getting rained on is just opinion.
@CS Perhaps jazz one is referring to the research needed to discover all these women and their stories.
"It happens even in spaces created for them. When I and a group of bereaved mothers who lost daughters went to the 2017 Women’s March, only mothers of men killed by the police were invited on stage."
If this is the way that supposedly liberal and progressive women,some of whom are women of color, treat bereaved black women whose daughters were killed by police, then you have a far bigger problem than creating penalties and disincentives around excessive force.
23
Thank you for this powerful story.
The NYT needs to keep their names on the front page.
Their names, their faces, their voices cannot be forgotten because their deaths, at the hands of the police, were senseless.
I will remember their names:
Atatiana Jefferson and Korryn Gaines.
Rest in Peace.
69
The only "reforms" that cops and their rich overlords understand is jail time. All the so-called reforms are just PR cons to take the wind out of protest movements on the streets. We need more public protests as part of a new civil rights struggle for all working people. Cops do what they are supposed to do, terrorize and intimidate working people, and maintain and exacerbate any divisions that help the rich rulers maintain control. Police brutality is inherent to this social system. We need to stand up for our fundamental dignity and worth as human beings.
22
@AR They have been jailed but it still happens. Until the law suit and punishment hit their bank account, saving, properties, retirement account, pension, trust funds only then they will get the message.
The beast only understands when it hits and it hurts terribly bad,
2
Wow! I have a Black son and daughter. I fear for my son every day. This essay woke me up to the danger facing my daughter. I will share with my family and friends to bring more visibility to the names of women lost and the statistics you provided. I know Sandra Bland and now Atatiana Jefferson. But Tamir Rice, Philando Castile and other Black boys and men stand out in my mind. I now know India Kager, Korryn Gaines, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Kathryn Johnston, Margaret LaVerne Mitchell, Pearlie Golden, Michelle Cusseaux and Kayla Moore. Thank you! #SayHerName
158
I sympathize with your concern as a father myself, but the chances your son or daughter will be killed by the police, particularly if they are generally law abiding, are vanishingly small. Basically zero.
Unfortunately, it seems media driven fear and a misunderstanding of statistics have confused some readers about the realities of police brutality.
4
@Mark
The reality is there should never - never - be a case of police mistakenly killing anyone.
That's the message that must be conveyed to all police departments so that it never happens to anyone. There should be training that emphasizes this as well as severe punishment.
That's the reality.
5
@Mark
What crime did John Crawford, III, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, or Botham Jean commit? They were all Black, all killed by police, and all law abiding. The father’s concern that his law abiding son or daughter may be killed by the police is not “basically zero.”
4
The problem with police killings is they, like much, follow the whims of crowds. Atatiana Jefferson & Natasha McKenna were killed by poorly trained police, and no one focuses on how we train our police. Int raining they watch officers get shot while on duty, instilling in them the old adage, better judged by 12 than carried by 6. No thought is given how to fall back, assess the situation, or even simply assonance themselves
Then there was Freddy Grey, who died in a police van. Mr. Grey had a history of cash for crash insurance claims, and tho other prisoner, uninjured, oringally reported hearing banging.
We will never solve this, or any other problem, unless we look at things objectively.
8
"But if history is any guide, the masses will not recognize her name, as they do Eric Garner, Michael Brown or Tamir Rice"
Michael Brown was a criminal who decided to go for an officer's gun in his vehicle and then ultimately charge at him. The Grand Jury interviewed dozens of witnesses and found no wrongdoing by Officer Wilson. After the Grand Jury's findings, Eric Holder's DoJ conducted their own investigation, which also interviewed dozens of witnesses confirming Wilson's testimony (along with corroborating forensics reports).
19
It may be that Michael deserved his fate. In bringing it up in this context, you are saying that making sure the cops are excused for that death is more important than making sure they are held accountable for deaths like that of Tamir Rice. Those cops decided to charge in, leaving themselves no room to negotiate or even understand the situation they were facing, and they killed a boy who was playing with a toy gun. Their consequences? One was fired, and even he is working as a cop again.
19
@Louise Cavanaugh
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office autopsy says Rice was 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m) and weighed 195 pounds - and he was displaying a completely realistic gun, not something that would be perceived as a toy.
2
@Louise Cavanaugh I'm not excusing cops who acted improperly and should be punished. I'm only pointing out what I see all too often, and all too often in these very pages: that Michael Brown was somehow a victim when he was really a criminal. Any publication continuing to print this myth of Wilson somehow being in the wrong should be ashamed of themselves. How can you accuse cops of wrongdoing when you won't even recognize the wrongdoing of common crooks like Brown?
2
Senseless killing by cops is a mostly color and gender blind practice. Cops become cops because they have mental problems that lead to control mania and over reaction.
12
No bullies and thugs are recruited to be cops by the government of, for and by the rich to keep working people in fear and terror. It's not a problem of sick sadistic individuals but a sick sadistic system.
This comment - in response to a piece calling out the way we erase slain Black women’s lives - is ironically (and mistakenly) attempting to erase the obvious bias toward Black Americans in our country as a whole not to mention the police force.
Being abusive and controlling as entryway points to policedom doesn’t mean it’s a color blind or gender blind rendering of said traits. If anything these traits tend to magnify existing pre-disposed bias’, xenophobia and misogyny.
Need statistics? As reported August 2019 by CityLab: “In the U.S., African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white people. For black women, the rate is 1.4 times more likely. That’s according to a new study conducted by Frank Edwards, of Rutgers University’s School of Criminal Justice, Hedwig Lee, of Washington University in St. Louis’s Department of Sociology, and Michael Esposito, of the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.“
And in 2018 by VOX: “An analysis of the available FBI data by Dara Lind for Vox found that US police kill black people at disproportionate rates: Black people accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the US population.”
In an attempt to compose a description of an unstable personality within the police force, please don’t - again - erase the victims.
#sayhername
2
Eleanor Bumpers. #SayHerName
32
Police attitude toward black women begins early, when those women are girls. A black girl has a tantrum in elementary school. A cop is summoned. He throws her to the floor, handcuffs her, and takes her to the precinct house. White kids aren't treated that way.
I first saw that attitude when I was in 7th grade. I'd returned to class a week after an appendectomy. A black girl that I'd had a quarrel with punched me. She had no idea about my surgery. Since I couldn't defend myself, I told the teacher. Ms. Schanz, the dean of girls was called in. She chewed out the kid who hit me, and then punched that child hard, in the belly. The dean was a big woman, 2 or 3 times the size of the girl she hit. I knew she never would've done that to a white kid, and was horrified.
108
@Martha Shelley
Here is a relevant look at school violence (and yes they are talking overwhelmingly about black kids) that showed in the Reader Picks' comment:
"[d]iscipline is one thing we don’t have in the NYC public schools where I teach. In my elementary school, children are allowed to do what ever they want because the schools are penalized for reporting violence, both student-on-student and student-on-teacher (And, the children know this) The mayor and chancellor can sugar coat it with publicity visits and photo ops, but that’s not what’s happening in the real world of our schools.
We have children (five years old) screaming in the halls, rolling on the floor, hurting other children, and six adults trying to get them calmed down. We’re not allowed to say anything or do anything. And those children, by law, must be admitted to the school [unlike in some charter schools or any athletic program]. Parents refuse responsibility for their children’s behavior and teachers are unable to teach. It’s heartbreaking for those children who do have respect for education and want to learn."
Baltimore school system recently averaged of 4 assaults on teachers and staff a day.
Look up the specifics on the Atlanta case.
For a relevant overview including police violence,
https://townhall.com/columnists/jackkerwick/2016/07/22/racially-incorrect-facts-a-truly-honest-discussion-of-race-n2196401
2
@Martha Shelley
What state did this happen in?
This article, like most on police brutality, ignores the statistics of the violent crime which plagues this country, particularly in the inner city as it relates to people of color.
Thousands of black men and women are murdered each year, most often by other black civilians. Very seldom is law enforcement responsible. Very seldom like struck by lightning type odds.
Making matters worse, in dangerous cities like Chicago and Philadelphia, less than half of homicides are solved. For shootings, the percentage of cases solved is even lower. You can basically shoot at people several times and the chances of receiving even a slight reprimand approaches zero.
Police brutality against any race is a vicious crime, which should be addressed. But we must maintain a holistic perspective if we want to save the lives of our my vulnerable citizens. Having a candid conversation about the crime rate is an important start.
23
That is correct and police should be held to a high standard. But human life, whether lost at the hands of police or a civilian, is just as precious. And, when you consider a mere fraction is lost as a result of police brutality- though it receives outsize media coverage, that is troubling.
I sense you might have some anti police bias which motivates your “concern” about police brutality and discomfiting refusal to engage in a broader conversation about violence, particularly considering the statistics I have cited.
5
I think improved training, as you note is important. However, police brutality is definitely correlated with violent crime in these areas.
Police are tasked with making split second decisions and are on high alert in these areas.
4
@Mark First, people who campaign against police brutality generally also do quite a lot of work about reducing crime in high-crime areas. Indeed, police reform is a vital part of that, because until the police are worthy of the community's trust, they cannot be as effective as they need to be. And misapplication of police resources is a part of the problem.
Second, there's no "anti-police bias" in focusing specifically on police brutality. They are supposed to serve the community, and they harm citizens with impunity with disturbing frequency in America. This especially correlates to the victim being a minority, poor, mentally ill, or some combination of the aforesaid.
Important initiatives to reduce crime would include increased anti-poverty initiatives and much stronger gun control.
14
Thank you for reminding us. To have lost these incredibly smart and talented women is nothing short of a tragedy. Atatiana was a cool aunty who did nothing wrong. My heart breaks for her and her family.
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@Marian
objection, assuming facts not in evidence
1
@Marian
It is not a tragedy, it is a crime that has not been punished. There is a difference.