4/12/2023 0 Comments Shush better call saul![]() ![]() This is not an easy conversation to have, even in the Black Lives Matter movement, which was started by three African American women. So while #BlackLivesMatter may focus on police misconduct, Rape Culture, the theory that certain environments can normalize or facilitate rape, must be an equal part of covering this case. Intersectionality is simply the acknowledgement that different overlapping identities experience oppression and discrimination differently. However any conversation about this case in the press, or in public without intersectionality is a passive assault on black women’s lives. They start checking their phones or having flashbacks to that long winded grad student neighbor who ruined every dinner party. Usually when someone types or says the word ‘intersectionality’ people’s eyes begin to glaze over. Why didn’t that sound the alarm? Why didn’t the mere accusation of a white cop raping a middle aged black woman cause an investigation? Why did it take a second woman, a more ‘respectable’ woman before Holtzclaw was held accountable? #BlackWomensLivesMatter But there had already been a report earlier that year from a woman claiming that a police officer matching Holtzclaw’s description had assaulted her. had no record, he couldn’t threaten her with jail in exchange for future access and abuse and she broke the case. These were women he knew were invisible to the justice system, whose lives and stories would not be believed over his, whose sexuality would not be protected and defended in society at large or by the legal system in Oklahoma. ![]() went to the police immediately and turned out to be the first of 13 black women in East Oklahoma City to testify about sexual assault, rape and stalking on the part of Daniel Holtzclaw.Īssistant District Attorney Gayland Gieger told the court that Holtzclaw targeted black women in their 40s and 50s usually poor, but he always made sure to choose women with drug, prostitution or petty crime records. Sue Ogrocki / AP The Perfect VictimĪccording to prosecutors Holtzclaw had gotten sloppy. Daniel Holtzclaw, second left, is escorted from the courtroom for a lunch break as prosecutors continue their case in the second week of his trial in Oklahoma City on Nov. When he was done, he ominously followed her home, making sure she knew that he knew exactly where she lived. She pleaded with him, “Please don’t do this, you’re not supposed to do this,” but Holtzclaw, empowered by his race, his gender and most importantly his badge and gun continued his assault. with jail if she did not perform oral sex on him. ![]() Eventually, according to victim testimony, Officer Holtzclaw threatened J.L. In her testimony to police J.L says the officer demanded that she get out of her car and strip naked, while he allegedly pointed his flashlight at her with one hand, and fondled his exposed penis in the other. At this point most harassment may stop, perhaps a threat or an unwarranted ticket but what happened next distinguishes Holtzclaw's actions from our common narratives about #BlackLivesMatter and police brutality. hadn’t been drinking, speeding or doing drugs and told the officer she was on her way home from a friend’s house. “But if you don’t tell me about it now, and I find something, then I’m gonna take you to jail.”Īny conversation about this case in the press, or in public without intersectionality is a passive assault on black women’s lives. “If you have something on you and you tell me now, then I won’t take you to jail,” officer Holtzclaw allegedly told J.L., according to OKC detective Kim Davis’s testimony months later. The interaction started with phrases all too familiar to many African Americans that have had encounters with the police: Late at night on Ja black woman in her late 50’s (identified in court documents as J.L.) was driving home through the east side of Oklahoma City and was pulled over by 27-year-old Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw. Daniel Holtzclaw listens to testimony as prosecutors continue their case in the second week of his trial in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Nov. African American women carry the added burden and fear associated with sexual violence from police, something few black men consider in their daily lives and something that rarely is included in police misconduct narratives.įurther, while men and women face the reality that offending officers may never face justice, legal research shows that sexual assault convictions, especially in the cases of white men against black women are next to non existent in America's legal system. ![]()
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