Where is The Love?

"But if you only have love for your own race,

Iesha Evans confronting Baton Rouge police 2016

Then you only leave space to discriminate.
And to discriminate only generates hate,
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah.
Madness is what you demonstrate.
And that's exactly how anger works and operates.
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight.
Take control of your mind and meditate.
Let your soul gravitate to the love

-Black Eye Peas

"I'm human. I'm a woman. I'm a mom. I'm a nurse. I could be your nurse. I could be taking care of you. You know?" Evans said. "I'm here. We all matter. We don't have to beg to matter. We do matter."

Iesha Evans in a CBS interview last year, explained the reason for her face-to-face confrontation with the police in this now famous picture. She had watched the killing of young men like Philando Castile by the police, even when they had the upper-hand. Moments like these need to be remembered because we see Iesha trying to give an answer of non-violence to (what appears to be) an epidemic of rising police brutality, and yes, sexual assault.

Sexual misconduct among police officers is the second most common complaint. However, sexual abuse by officers may be underreported because of flawed or absent reporting procedures or the victims’ unwillingness to come forward. Hence, officer sexual misconduct is sometimes referred to as a “hidden crime.”

Esmerelda Rossi 

In Chandler Arizona, Officer Doug Rose enters the home of Esmerelda Rossi on the pretense of investigating a domestic dispute complaint by Rossi's ex-husband. When her daughter interrupted her mom's shower to announce the police were there, the woman wrapped a towel around herself and asked the office to please wait at the door. He refused to do so. Rose then tells Rossi that she was under arrest. The cop grabs her arms causing the towel to drop while you can hear hysteria from both the mom and daughter. After giving the traumatize woman a lecture, both Rose and his partner leave. It was quite evident Rose had entered the home illegally, and conducted a perverted act. Also note Rose's body cam was not turned on. It would have been a true "He said, she said" situation if Esmerelda's daughter had not turned on her cell phone.

According to the Atlantic Black Star: Black women have a high risk of being victims of this abuse. During a frisk, officers may pat down any areas where they think a gun might be concealed, including intimate areas. Many women report feeling extremely humiliated during these experiences, particularly if the officer is male. Because Black women are more likely to be stopped by the police, and also more likely to be frisked during these stops, they are at higher risk for being sexually assaulted during a stop.

Some rogue cops may use racist tactics to conduct a search on women of color such as looking for drugs. When Charnesia Corley was a 20 year old college student in Texas, she was pulled over for allegedly running a stop sign and failing to use turn signals. Corley was made to stand, handcuffed,

Charnesia Corley

outside her car while two officers look inside. She underwent an illegal body cavity search on the premise that the police detected the smell of marijuana. Corley was then put on the ground, naked below the waist, and examined for about 11 minutes by a female officer using a flashlight. The incident happened in the parking lot of a Texaco garage in Houston late on a June evening in 2015. At first Corley wouldn't comply with the officer's demands for the cavity search, until the police officer threaten to break her legs. This was a similar tactic Daniel Holtzclaw used in Oklahoma City to conduct a reign of Terror on 13 black women. He would pull black women over, run the suspects driver's license. Some of the women had outstanding warrant's or priors such as possession small ounce of Marijuana. Holtzclaw would threaten his victims with being locked up, or performing a sex act on him. A big factor seemed to play in Holtzclaw's favor is that many people question the credibility of a black woman against a police officer.

These Houston officer's who pulled Charnesia Corley over for a traffic violation escalated the situation into a sexual assault. You can argue all you want to about the police doing their job, but this was a humiliating experience for the victim. “When you stick your fingers in somebody without their effective consent, that’s rape in any state that I know of,” said Sam Cammack, an attorney for Charnesia Corley. -The Guardian August 15, 2017
I've been amazed by some on social media who can look at a video of a act of abuse, or murder, and dismiss it. Please note no charges against Charnesia Corley were pressed. 

I pause to say, it's not fair to paint all cops with the same brush, but the bad cops reputations are proceeding them. Most of you saw the video of a frighten female motorist who was stopped by Lt. Greg Abbott in Atlanta GA. She was afraid to move or use her cell phone because she had seen way too many videos of cops. Abbott then retorted the dumbest comment since Jim Crow.

“But, you’re not black. Remember, we only shoot black people. We only kill black people, right? All the videos you’ve seen, have you seen the black people get killed?”

There is no excuse for sexual assault or sexual misconduct by the police. Both Rose and Abbott were given retirement pay and quietly slipped out of sight. No criminal charges were ever filed. Because sexual assault has gone unreported for a long time, that has been my focus. I usually leave mainstream civil rights to others. But I continue to see evidence of racism and sexual assault joining forces, and it's mind- numbing to me this we live in a society, where there are predators among the protectors, and we can't tell one from another.

"The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept." 

-David Morrison Former Lt. General, Australian Army 

Special thanks to: 

Barbara Jackson @Nyota_nuru on Twitter for passing on the story of :Looking at How Black Women Are Policed in America

Related Article:

The Times They Are A Changin 

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