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Rodney King is the first name I think of when someone says police brutality.  On April 29, 1992, four police officers beat a man with batons and repeatedly kicked him for 15 minutes.  They caused skull fractures, broken bones and teeth, and brain damage.  All four officers that beat Rodney King were charged with excessive use of force.  Almost a year later, they were found not guilty.  This verdict started the South Los Angeles Riots that lasted for five days.  Rodney King even came on tv and said,” Can’t we all just get along” to help stop the riots.
Sastry, A. (2017, April 26). When La Erupted in Anger. Www.Npr.Org. https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/524744989/when-la-erupted-in-anger-a-look-back-at-the-rodney-king-riots

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This is a story of a mother whose son was lynched by the Klan. On March 21, 1981, Nineteen-year-old Michael Donald was picked up on the streets of Mobile, Alabama, by Klan members.  The men who picked him up were Henry Hays and James Knowles.  Both men were part of the largest and most dangerous Klan organization in the U.S. These two men were looking for retaliation after a court case of a black man that was found not guilty of killing a white police officer.  These two men beat Michael Donald, his throat was cut, and he was left for dead hanging in a tree.  This book covers the case and a lot about the lawyer that covered this case.  In the end, the Klan has held responsibility, and Michael Donald’s mom was awarded seven million dollar
Leamer, L. (2017). The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan (Reprint ed.). William Morrow Paperbacks s.

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This is a movie about Oscar Grant III.  He was a 22-year-old Black man who was killed by the police of Fruitvale Bart Station. The day that he was killed started as an ordinary day.  He was an ordinary man trying to take care of his family and please his mother.  He had decided that day that things were going to change. He was going to give up the drugs, find work, try to make his mother proud, and be a great father as well as a great boyfriend.  He had no idea that today would be his last.  He was out celebrating with his girlfriend and a group of friends for New Year’s Eve of 2008 in the city.  His mom had talked him into taking the train so they wouldn’t drink and drive.  On the train, he ran into an old prison mate.  They started to fight.  When the train stopped, they tried to run, but the police grabbed them.  He was handcuffed; shortly after being handcuffed Officer, Mehserle shot Oscar in the back.  Oscar was taken to the hospital and died later on.  Officer Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and not guilty of murder charges.  He was sentenced to 2 years and got out after only serving 11 months.

Coogler,R. (Director).(2013). Fruitvale Station (Film). Forest Whitaker’s Signification Productions.

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Kimberlé Crenshaw, co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, and the #SayHerName Campaign

Black girls as young as 7 and Black women in their 90s have been killed by the police, and for a long time nobody was talking about it.

Wearing a white hoodie with the names of Black daughters, sisters, wives, cousins and community members killed by police, she explained the origins of #SayHerName during a Zoom interview.

Back in 2014, AAPF and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies (CISPS) at Columbia launched the campaign to bring awareness to often forgotten or invisible victims and give their families support.

The following May, "we hosted the first #SayHerName vigil in New York's Union Square," she said. Relatives of at least 16 Black women killed by police assembled from around the country.

Soon after, AAPF and CISPS released a groundbreaking report: "Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women." Co-written by Crenshaw and Andrea J. Ritchie, a lawyer and activist, it outlined the objectives of the movement, providing an intersectional framework for understanding Black women's susceptibility to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence.

Robert Hanashiro, Sandy Hooper and Eve Chen, USA TODAY

"There is an impact in a community in feeling terrorized. The goal of terrorism is to not just harm individuals but put terror in the hearts of a whole community, and that is what police violence like the kind Breonna Taylor experienced does," said Ritchie, author of "Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color." Ritchie, who works independently from AAPF, spoke recently with The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record, part of the USA TODAY Network.

"And of course the community has risen up in resistance and said, 'We are not accepting this; we are not going to be terrorized.' But the reality is, that is the impact."

Historians say Black women have long been terrorized - raped, beaten, worked to the bone - since the first enslaved Africans arrived in the British colony of Virginia in 1619.

"There have always been untold and undocumented stories of violence against Black women and girls," said Karsonya Wise Whitehead, associate professor of African and African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland.

Some incidents foreshadowed the public outrage seen today. Whitehead cited the 1984 case of Eleanor Bumpurs, 66, an elderly disabled Black woman gunned down by New York police as authorities tried to evict her from public housing. The back rent she owed was less than $100.

"It reminds us of the challenges associated with being Black and being a woman in this country. ... We need the space to say their names, push this hashtag forward into our daily lexicon, and remind people that the violence against our people does not stop at the gender divide," Whitehead said.

Gina Best, mother of India Kager

I am the mother of a beautiful Black woman whose life was snuffed out by the police. There is no pill I can take to alleviate the pain.

The #SayHerName campaign, which is largely funded by philanthropic partners, focuses on direct advocacy. For instance, Crenshaw hosts an annual #SayHerName Mothers Weekend, bringing together mothers who have lost daughters to police violence for dialogue, dinners and pampering.

The organization works to meet the specific needs of each family, even providing temporary housing and financial stipends if necessary. Most important, it's a safe space where the mothers can construct a community of support - whether they need empathy or information on how to mobilize and advocate for racial justice.

​"I am the mother of a beautiful Black woman whose life was snuffed out by the police," said Gina Best, an Iowa native who lives near Washington, D.C. "There is no pill I can take to alleviate the pain."

India Kager, a 27-year-old Navy veteran, postal worker and mother of two, was accidentally killed in September 2015 by a Virginia Beach SWAT team as she sat in a car at a 7-Eleven with the father of her 4-month-old baby boy. The child was in the back seat.

Kager's mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit, and in 2018, a jury ruled two of the officers were responsible. The award was $800,000 to Kager's minor children.

"Rage propels me forward," said Best, who noted that there are police officers in her family. "I modulate my grief in order to reclaim the narrative of the life of my daughter. I don't care to forgive the men who did this. They have wreaked havoc, destruction and pain."

The mothers have become, as Crenshaw put it, "a sisterhood of sorrow." They regularly text, call and visit one another.

Korryn Gaines, 23, was riddled with bullets in her Baltimore County home in August 2016; the gunfire also seriously injured her 5-year-old son. Police had shown up to serve a failure-to-appear warrant from a traffic violation. An hours-long standoff ensued with Gaines, who was armed with a shotgun, filming on her cellphone and posting live on social media.

"The one word to describe how I feel is 'broken,' " said her mother, Rhanda Dormeus. "Since her death, my family has been in turmoil. Alcohol abuse, anger issues, the emotional trauma has been so profound. As the matriarch I must be there for everyone. At 4 a.m. my daughter was screaming, crawling on the floor, crying, saying she wished it would have been her instead of her sister."

In 2018, a jury awarded Gaines' family $37 million in a wrongful death lawsuit. The verdict was overturned by a judge in 2019 but later reinstated by a higher court.

"The will of the people was done," said family attorney J. Wyndal Gordon of the jury's original verdict. "Now the county needs to show some accountability and financial responsibility for the harm (police) caused this family for generations to come."

The Fraternal Order of Police, with more than 350,000 members, is the nation's largest law enforcement labor organization. After the death of George Floyd in 2020, national president Patrick Yoes released a statement saying in part: "... police officers should at all times render aid to those who need it. Police officers need to treat all of our citizens with respect and understanding and should be held to the very highest standards for their conduct."

Congress has taken up police accountability. On March 3, the House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.

The bill is intended to hold police accountable, change the culture of law enforcement and empower communities. It also seeks to build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve by addressing systemic racism and bias to help save lives.

"Black communities have suffered from police abuse for as long as we've been here," said Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., who introduced the measure. "None of us are safe if essentially law enforcement can treat us any way they choose."

Chanelle Helm is a Black Lives Matter Louisville organizer who has led demonstrations in the city since last May, when Taylor's case became national news.

"Very intense protests took place. That very first night, police used tear gas on us. They were shooting pepper-bomb bullets," Helm said. "Someone was murdered by the state, in a pandemic while people were fearful, losing their homes. The disrespect. We have been saying Breonna's name ever since and trying to get justice."

None of the three officers involved were charged with her death. One was indicted on a charge of wanton endangerment and has pleaded not guilty. All have been terminated.

Taylor's devastated family keeps her legacy alive. Crenshaw has reached out to Taylor's mother, Tamika Parker, in the past year to connect her with other grieving mothers.

Taylor's younger sister, Ju' Niyah Palmer, is a college student who was sharing the apartment with Taylor when she was killed. She remembers fun, simple memories: doing cartwheels with her sibling; going to the car wash. She feels Taylor's presence. "Like, I really do."

Yet despite her grief and pain, there is hope. "When I see the images of (Taylor) and people painting images of her, it makes me feel joyful because it makes me feel like people are still thinking about her," she said.

Indeed, the world is thinking about Breonna Taylor and saying her name. And perhaps they will now whisper, shout and speak the names of other Black women, too.
Contributing: Shaylah Brown, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record

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Black women like Breonna Taylor die every day at the hands of police. It's time we said their names.

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Activist-scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw wants you to remember that Black men aren't the only ones who lose their lives to police violence.

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In this article, you learn of hundreds of Black women that have died at the hands of the police.  Breonna Taylor is one of those women.  This young lady became a symbol of change.  On March 12, 2020, Breonna Taylor was gunned down in her apartment as police burst in to issue a no-knock warrant.  Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend was there and also survived.  She was a 26-year-old emergency room technician whose life ended because the police #sayhername is away to get the word out that Black Women’s lives matter!  The say her name movement is bringing to life all the Black women from as young as 7 to 90 years old that have died by police or while in police custody.  Nobody was talking about it, but this movement is. There is accountability and hope for the future. “Congress has taken up police accountability. On March 3, the House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021. The bill is intended to hold police accountable, change the culture of law enforcement and empower communities. It also seeks to build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve by addressing systemic racism and bias to help save lives.” (Owens, 2021)

Owens, D. M. (2021, March 15). Breonna Taylor and hundreds of Black women have died at the hands of police. The movement to say their names is growing. Www.Usatoday.Com. https://eu.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/03/11/sayhername-movement-black-women-police-violence/6921197002/

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BLACK WOMEN ARE KILLED BY POLICE TOO

That same week, AAPF and CISPS, in partnership with Andrea Ritchie, released a report entitled Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women, which outlined the goals and objectives of the #SayHerName movement. The report provides an intersectional framework for understanding Black Women's susceptibility to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence and offers suggestions on how to effectively mobilize various communities and empower them to advocate for racial justice.

Read the full report.

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Black women are killed by police when they are not the main targets. Breonna Taylor , a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was killed when police mistakenly entered her home in the middle of the night on a no-knock warrant while searching for a suspect who had already been detained. India Kager , a post office worker and Navy veteran, was killed by the police with her four-month-old child in the backseat.

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Learn about the #SayHerName Campaign which uplifts the Black women, girls, and femmes lost to police violence.

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The footage of George Floyd’s death has been reconstructed by The New York Times into a video.  In this video, you see how the police treated Mr. Floyd and eventually killed him.  You see how he was mistreated before his death.  You also see how he was not out of hand or arresting arrest.  This entire event began with Mr. Floyd allegedly using a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill to buy cigarettes.  Once Mr. Floyd left the store, the store clerk from Cup Food came out to his SUV and asked for the cigarettes back.  The clerk left empty-handed.  At that point, the police were called.  Officer Derek Chauvin was the person that used the conscious neck restraint for over 8 minutes on George Floyd.  By the time paramedics arrived, he was still on his neck.  The paramedic had to ask Officer Derek Chauvin to remove himself off the now unresponsive George Floyd.  The autopsy found his death as a homicide.  After this event of police brutality, the officers that were involved were charged with aiding and abetting murder, and Derek is charged and found guilty of 2nd-degree murder.  He has not been sentenced yet.
Hill, E., Tiefenthäler, A., Triebert, C., Jordan, D., Willis, H., & Stein, R. (2021, April 21). How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody. The New York Times.

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How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody (Published 2020)

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The Times has reconstructed the death of George Floyd on May 25. Security footage, witness videos and official documents show how a series of actions by officers turned fatal.