Breonna Taylor's name, like most Black women, is missing in the fight for justice against police brutality and anti-Black violence due to a lack of intersectionality.
Police face criticism for their use of ketamine in the arrest of individuals they mislabel as "aggressive" following the death of Elijah McClain.
The death has been referred to as an “accidental discharge.” But there is nothing accidental about the death of an unarmed Black man by law enforcement. Our system is designed to maximize interactions between Black and brown people and police officers, which all but ensures that harm will happen. This is enforced through the practice of over-policing, initiatives that have justified increased levels of policing for the sake of the greater good, but often with adverse consequences (Scientific American).
For the past month, Derek Chauvin has been on trial for the murder of George Floyd. Finally, the verdict is out. Chauvin faced three charges: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. To convict Chauvin, the prosecution needed to show each charge beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution did not need to prove that Chauvin intended to kill George Floyd to convict him of the charges.
No-Knock warrants allow police to legally break into people's homes unannounced, often resulting in fatal outcomes like the deaths of Amir Locke and Breonna Taylor.
The memeification of Breonna Taylor aims to keep Taylor's name in the media but is often perpetuating the same systems that harm Black women.
But behind each hashtag is a person. This time, his name was Jonathan Price. He was a 31-year-old from Wolfe City, Texas, a small town outside Dallas. He was a “motivational speaker, a mentor to student-athletes in the area, and a frequent participant in community service activities” (Yahoo News). He was beloved by his community. And on October 3rd, he defused a fight he witnessed between a man and a woman at a convenience store. For his intervention, he was killed. To be more precise: on October 3rd, a police officer, a Texas Ranger, murdered an unarmed Jonathan Price as he walked away from the scene (Washington Post).
The death has been referred to as an “accidental discharge.” But there is nothing accidental about the death of an unarmed Black man by law enforcement. Our system is designed to maximize interactions between Black and brown people and police officers, which all but ensures that harm will happen. This is enforced through the practice of over-policing, initiatives that have justified increased levels of policing for the sake of the greater good, but often with adverse consequences (Scientific American).
For many marginalized communities in America, being patriotic means ignoring a history of violence and oppression that continues to this day.
Defunding the police allows communities to reinvest in other forms of community support while dismantling a system rooted in racism and white supremacy.
