Prior to the Civil War, back when Blacks were slaves, we were often put up on the auction block stark naked. Sometimes we would be up there for hours waiting for our time to be sold off to new owners. We were treated less than human. We were treated like chattel.
This is what ran through my mind when I saw video footage released by CBS recently where in February 2019, Chicago Police wrongly raided social worker Anjanette Young’s home and handcuffed her naked while they conducted their misdirected raid. In the video, you can hear Ms. Young crying and repeating to police officers that they have the wrong home. She was forced to stand naked and handcuffed in front of a dozen officers.
I was a mix of emotions as I watched this video. These officers had little to no regard for Ms. Young as a human being. They failed to see her vulnerability. They did very little to protect Ms. Young’s modesty or self-respect. This is cruel treatment to say the least. She was treated like a slave. She was treated like chattel. I cannot help but imagine that if she were a white woman, police would have given her an opportunity to put on at least a robe or a tee shirt, which they eventually did, but it took longer to that than reasonable, in my opinion.
Even though this raid happened close to two years ago, facts of this matter only became public a month ago. CBS News says that even at this point, Chicago is attempting to block airing of police bodycam footage. Defensive measures such as these are why body cameras are a less effective deterrent than most people think.
In 2018, the Urban Institute released a report evaluating the Milwaukee Police Department’s body-worn camera program. This report found that body-worn cameras had no effect on whether or not an officer engaged in use of force. This means that it does not matter that they are on camera. They are going to do what they are going to do whether we’re watching or not.
Anjanette Young said she did not understand why this was happening to her. She felt terrified and worried for her life during this raid. She had very good reason to worry. A recent research article from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America reported that a black woman is 1.4 times more likely to be killed by police than a white woman. As a black woman, I know we are starkly aware of statistics like these. I cannot tell you how worried I get when I interact with the police. I honestly do not know how it is going to end up when I do. I have very good interactions with the police, but I also have had interactions where I worried for my life.
In Ms. Young’s circumstance, the police had the wrong address, and they left Ms. Young handcuffed for 20 minutes like a criminal. She is a social worker who has never been in trouble. She did not deserve the treatment she received.
Someone should definitely be held accountable for the mistakes the police made in this case, but beyond that, police need to learn to be more thoughtful when they enter situations like these. I respect that police enter dangerous situations every day, and they are likely right more times than they are wrong, but even so, they need to respect people, even the guilty ones, as human beings. No one deserves to be robbed of their dignity. We need to remember that people are innocent until proven guilty.