Member-only story
Why Atatiana Jefferson’s Father Is Another Casualty of War Against Police Brutality
A deadly year comes to a brutal end
As 2019 winds down, and a new decade peeks from the horizon, we are preparing to bid adieu to another deadly year, that featured the horrifying evidence of how police brutality against Black and Brown communities has become the normalized form of discipline by law enforcement across the nation.
As always, the gathered statistical data never fails to present the undisputed facts, illustrating why as a Black woman, I should be quite wary of the presence of cops in my vicinity, due to the high risk that the very worst will occur without the justified punishment that fits the outcome.
According to the findings of researchers at Rutger University-Newark:
‘Black men are two-and-a-half times more likely to be killed by law enforcement over their lifetime than white men, and African-American women, American Indian/Alaska native men and women, and Latino men also face higher odds of dying at police hands.”
But we don’t need the months-long studies to convince us about the parade of headlines, that present the familiar crime scene, placing dead Black bodies against the backdrop of feckless cops with murderous instincts.
