The degradation of women by the police

Like many people, I have been struggling to understand the degrading treatment Anjanette Young received at the hands of Chicago police officers. I was moved to tears at the sight of her standing naked and vulnerable as the very people who are supposed to be serving and protecting her instead gave no regard to her humanity.

Another video, released this week, shows Martina Standley being struck by a Chicago Police Department vehicle. Her body was pinned under the squad car and blood seeped from her head while the officers on the scene did little more than call for an ambulance.

Once again, a Black woman’s very humanity was disregarded in a disgustingly dismissive way. From body camera footage, it’s evident that no one sought to offer her comfort. No one held her hand or offered a shred of decency. For more than eight minutes, Ms. Standley drifted in and out of consciousness as she fought, left alone, to hang on until medical help arrived.

Despite a national uprising on racial justice, and despite the fact that so many people have embraced messages about racial justice, it continues to escape me why the phrase “Protect Black Women” sparks controversy.

I am calling on Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Police Department to take swift and decisive action so that horrors like this never happen again. Incidents of police violence, misconduct and willful neglect against women cannot continue unabated. New procedures for handling crimes being reported by women, or where a woman is considered a subject of investigation, must be implemented. Data regarding crimes against women, including clearance rates, should be regularly uploaded for public review — without anybody having to make a FOIA request.

Further, I implore the mayor and CPD to re-engage the Chicago Foundation for Women and other women’s organizations in a dialogue about these issues, including the court-monitored police department consent decree.

I was a Chicago police officer for ten years. I keenly understand that officers are charged with the challenging duty of preserving order and protecting citizens. At times, this responsibility finds officers involved in extremely unpredictable and dangerous situations in which they risk their own lives. However, in the incidents I have described here, and in others, it is officers inflicting the pain instead of lessening it. They are protecting themselves rather than protecting our communities.

I don’t have to look to Louisville, where Breonna Taylor was slain. I have seen too many incidents where Black, Latina, Indigenous and trans women suffer humiliating, deplorable and violent treatment, up to and including death, here in my hometown and too often, at the hands of the police.

Women everywhere feel early in our adolescence the weight of our gender, as well as the world’s assignment of contradictory expectations and misguided preconceptions that comes with it.

The issue is even more acute for Black women. We are subject to ignorant stereotypes and seen as angry or threatening when we try to stand up for ourselves. Look at the treatment Ms. Young received when she stated 43 times that the officers had entered the wrong address.

I don’t want to see more protests, or rally cries, or violence to make this point. I want action — sweeping action — within the police department. Real change, deep training and above all, zero tolerance for treating people — for treating women — as if they just don’t matter. No more.

Mayor Lightfoot and Supt. David Brown — dismiss any police officer or other city employee who fails to show a modicum of humanity for the women they serve.

Felicia Davis is president and CEO of the Chicago Foundation for Women.

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