Trigger Warning
India: So horrific, two harassers stabbed a 19-year-old woman 35 times, killing her, as she entered a market because she protested their actions. Her mother was injured while trying to protect her. She filed a case against the men in 2013 several times, but the police did not do anything. So sad. So enraging. Our thoughts go out to her family.
USA: Sandra Bland just moved to Texas to start a new job when police pulled her over for failing to signal that she was changing lanes. The situation quickly escalated and two officers physically hurt her, slammed her to the ground, possibly broke her arm, and then arresting her for the vague offense of “assaulting an officer.” Bland was in jail for a few days and then allegedly hanged herself. Her relatives don’t believe it and neither do many people in the USA. Whatever the truth is about her death, everything leading up to it is certainly racism and police harassment. And if she was killed by police, which seems probable, there just are no words.
Today people have made #IfIDieInPoliceCustody a trending hashtag on Twitter, imploring people to never believe that if they die in police custody that they committed suicide. It is sobering and sad that Black people feel they must say this because the justice system is not to be trusted. And death is not so unfathomable.
In a recent online video Bland posted, she said, “What I need you guys to understand is that being a black person in America is very, very hard.”
