Dominating the local news is the story of the death of Raynette Turner, a 43 year-old African American woman, while in police custody. Ms Turner was being held while awaiting arraignment for shoplifting, a crime which does not merit the death penalty in any jurisdiction I am aware of in the US.
This case is an eerie echo of the death of Sandra Bland while in police custody.
I used to live in Mount Vernon, and occasionally blogged about it, and I currently live a mere three blocks from the border. Mount Vernon is a pretty rough town, but I can't recall an incident like this occurring there. So far, an investigation hasn't taken place, but the statistics for death while in police custody are appalling, as is the long duration of pre-arraignment jail terms. Cruel and unusual punishment is supposed to be considered unconstitutional, but it seems to be altogether too common.
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It's worse than that. Since mid-July, at least 5 women, all coincidentally black, have died in jail. It's not quite the end of July, so we are talking about 5 in a matter of a couple of weeks.
Incarceration itself is inherently unnatural to free people. But there is a callousness to tending to life of incarcerated individuals--when the duly authorized authorities hear "I can't breathe"--they don't think this is the time to help a perp--oh no. Perps ain't people. We need to reintroduce the idea that any citizen awaiting signing in for jail, in the midst of the bail process, or even under trial, is still not yet considered guilty of anything. Their lives are therefore to be treated like precious gold. No jail cell hanging. Every watchful eye should be preventing what apparently does happen to too many incarcerated people.
As most of you know, in my younger days I spent my share of time 'behind bars'. These are institutions built on meanness and cruelty - not just disregard or lack of care, but an active, relentless process of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual violence. Everyone is a predator, and everyone is prey. It is all justified by the sense that you're there to be punished, and there should never be a moment when that punishment is relaxed. There are a profusion of signs, the most common of which reads "What part of NO don't you understand?" Asking for anything - access to a lawyer, a doctor, a newspaper, a pair of underwear - is weakness, and is gleefully exploited by being savagely and unequivocally denied. On top of that, everyone is sick all the time due to the proximity and the lack of medication/treatment. Temperatures are always either freezing cold or brutally hot. It's never quiet, it's never dark, there's never a moment of safety or peace.
And it will never change...
Unfortunately, the badge and gun combo tends to attract people who should have neither.
~
I admit quite openly, I am now, for the first time in my life, more afraid of the police than whomever they are supposed to protect me against.
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