cumbler-tumbler:
dariasroom:
micdotcom:
Kamilah Brock, a former New York banker, has filled a suit against the city after she was detained for eight days in a mental health facility against her will. Brock says she was committed after trying to pick up her BMW, which skeptical police did not believe she owned. To add insult to injury, Brock was then charged a hefty sum by the hospital.
WHAT THE FUCK
WTF!!!!!!
While this is a slightly older case (September 2015, the court ruled in her favor) I do want to use this as a chance to say something. And while this may be incredibly obvious to some, it may not be to everyone.
The odds are exceedingly slim that the officer in question genuinely believed that she was mentally ill. And even if she had, claiming to have a nicer car or better job than she really did would not make her a danger to herself. Nothing Brock said would justify having a person detained for even 72 hours, let alone 8 days.
These were eight days when she was forcefully medicated, held against her will, and likely denied any contact with the outside world. Aside from the unfair medical bills, that 8 days could have cost her her job, her car, relationships, and led to a lifetime of trauma.
This was a deliberate effort to destroy a black woman’s life. Because she looked too happy, too carefree and too successful, a group of police officers made the decision to ruin her in any way they could. And this is common.
Even setting aside their racist and misogynistic biases, police who arrest and harass black people over frivolous infractions are not doing so in good faith. By which I mean, it is not a case of their bias misinforming their decisions (such as when someone “fits the description” of being black). It is not a case of upholding the letter of the law more strictly with regards to black people (such as arrests for weed possession). While those are both serious issues in their own right, that’s not what’s happening in cases like these.
This is a case where the police made a conscious decision to do harm first and came up with the justification after the fact. And all too often, it works. As tragic as this story is, Brock is one of the lucky ones.
This was about putting her in her place, and about a bunch of racists taking out their frustration re a black president on a random black citizen who was just living her best life.
