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Black Kos, Week In Review: Cop to Black mom, "Pull over or I will put you down!" [1]
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Date: 2022-08-26
Ebony Washington and her children were terrorized and held at gunpoint for speeding.
Commentary by Black Kos editor JoanMar
As if he were speaking to a rabid animal.
That was only the first threat of murder Officer Jason DeSue directed at Ebony Washington in front of her three young children. And don’t, please don’t say this is about training. Please don’t. I’ve really had it up to here and beyond with attributing hateful, murderous, racist behavior to lack of training.
The frightening encounter happened late last Friday when Ebony Washington was pulled over by Bradford County Sheriff's Office Deputy Jason DeSue while driving from Gainesville to Jacksonville. The officer had stopped Washington, who is four-months pregnant, for speeding - with the mom-of-three later admitting to going 75 mph in a 55 mph zone.
From Ebony Washington’s 10-year-old daughter:
"When they put the gun on her, I thought they were going to shoot her," Washington's daughter, Moriah Washington, 10, told ABC News. "Then, when they put the handcuffs on her, I thought they were going to take her to jail, and I got super sad and scared because I didn't know where me and my brother and my sister were going to go."
DeSue ostensibly decided to pull the Black pregnant mother over because of speeding...going 75 mph in a 55 mph zone. Fine. The defenseless woman put on her hazard light — indicating that she’s heard the command and isn’t about to engage in a high-speed chase — and slowly drove to a well-lit area. That was too much for Massa's grandson. What followed next is the stuff of nightmares:
“Pull the vehicle [over] or I’ll put you into the ground,” Desue is heard saying.
When Washington finally pulled over at a nearby gas station, Desue drew his gun and ordered her out of the car.
“Turn off the vehicle right now,” he yells, threatening to use deadly force if she moved. “I want to see your hands—both your hands. Do not move!”
“I ain’t worried, I got my gun on you, we’re all good here,” he says just before she steps out of the car.
DeSue further threatened the mother, “If you move, that'll be your last mistake you're gonna make.”
After handcuffing and further terrorizing the mother and her children, DeSue gave her a citation and allowed her to leave. He’d done his job and his inner vampire did not require Black blood that evening. Humiliating and dehumanizing Ms. Washington and her children was sufficient for the day.
The really sad and depressing part is that despite all of the aforementioned, Ms. Washington and her family have so much to be thankful for. She’s alive. She made it home to her husband. Her children did not have to see the worst that could have happened. That’s where we are at today...where we’ve been for hundreds of years now. After being threatened, terrorized, and treated like shit in front of her children, she’s alive and for that we give thanks.
Fact is, Ebony Washington and her family are luckier than at least 682 people who didn’t make it home after their encounters with law enforcement officers in 2022. Luckier than the 90 Black, Brown, and the 480 “Unknowns” who cops forced to join their ancestors in the last eight months. Luckier than the 30-45 women who were killed by cops this year. In this month of August, cops have already killed three women… including a 74-year-old retired military veteran.
American cops killed 30-45 women since the beginning of 2022.
Chew on that fact for a minute.
In the meantime, we give thanks that Ebony is here for her family and friends today. And what of DeSue? He has resigned. Will he be allowed to resign, sit low for a few months, and then find employment with another police department? He should be arrested and charged with racial profiling and making terroristic threats...at the very least.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Ketanji Brown Jackson is the esteemed photographer's latest subject. How does she keep missing the mark? The Root: Annie Leibovitz Doesn't Know How To Photograph Black Women. When Will These Magazines Listen?
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Esteemed Vogue photographer Annie Leibovitz is under fire again for her latest portraits of a Black woman. Last week, the former Rolling Stone journalist shared her pictures of Ketanji Brown Jackson—who made history by becoming the first Black woman on the Supreme Court—posing by the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
However, critics—consisting mostly of Black women—quickly noted how poor the lighting was in the pictures and how it wasn’t properly suited for Brown’s darker skin tone. Leibovitz has been critiqued for her past portraits of dark-skinned Black women including her 2020 Vogue cover images of Simone Biles as well as her Vanity Fair portraits of Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o.
Evette Dionne, Executive Editor for Yes! magazine, quote tweeted Leibovitz’s photos and stated: “Annie Leibovitz and Anna Wintour will one day pay for the crimes they’ve committed against Black women photographed in Vogue.” Others chimed in by saying: “I’m begging you to light black women better her skin tone is not grey.”
The Guardian’s Tayo Bero powerfully asserts that “Leibovitz’s photographs are what happens when Blackness is seen through a white gaze incapable of capturing its true beauty” and that “Black women can be photographed beautifully in their most natural state without making their features look sad, washed out and completely unnatural.”
x Annie Leibovitz and Anna Wintour will one day pay for the crimes they’ve committed against Black women photographed in Vogue.
https://t.co/A6ZSPbo7Xm — Evette Dionne (@freeblackgirl) August 17, 2022
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Earlier this year, the NFL implemented an initiative that requires all 32 clubs to employ a woman or a member of an ethnic or racial minority to serve as an offensive assistant coach. The Grio: Hiring minority coaches in the NFL comes down to owners
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No matter how much the NFL pushes teams to hire minority coaches, owners have the final say.
The league established the Rooney Rule in 2003 and has expanded it several times over the years to encourage teams to hire more minority coaches. It started the Quarterback Coaching Summit in 2018 to create more opportunities for many of those coaches.
Earlier this year, the NFL implemented an initiative that requires all 32 clubs to employ a woman or a member of an ethnic or racial minority to serve as an offensive assistant coach.
In May, the league launched an accelerator program, bringing 60 minority coaches and executives to Atlanta to meet with owners in short sessions so they can get acquainted.
There’s been progress. After just three Black coaches were hired from 2018-21, three Black coaches were hired in the last cycle. There are six minorities in head coaching positions now: Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Houston’s Lovie Smith and Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles, who are Black; Miami’s Mike McDaniel, who is biracial; the Jets’ Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese heritage; and Washington’s Ron Rivera, who is Hispanic.
Also, three of the five openings for general manager following last season were filled by minorities, bringing the total to eight minority GMs.
Still, many folks want to see improvement, especially following Brian Flores’ lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.
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The musical case against the musicians — who face RICO charges for alleged gang activity — is built on decades of racist precedent. VOX: Are rap lyrics artistic expressions or confessions? Young Thug and Gunna will soon find out.
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Back in May, rapper and record label exec Young Thug was arrested on suspicion of gang activity and conspiracy to violate Georgia’s criminal racketeering law. Days later, Gunna — Young Thug’s Billboard-topping protégé who is signed to his label — and 26 others were charged in a 56-count RICO indictment for gang activity, including robbery and murder.
“Prosecutors are alleging that they are part of a gang that has committed a number of crimes throughout Atlanta,” said Jewel Wicker, editor-at-large for Capital B Atlanta in an interview with Today, Explained host Sean Rameswaram. “It’s worth noting that prosecutors are alleging that Gunna and Young Thug aren’t just members of this gang, but that they’re the leaders of it.” Prosecutors believe Young Thug used his record label Young Stoner Life, aka YSL, to create a criminal enterprise that furthered activity dating back to 2013.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis held a news conference after the rappers were detained, where she said her “number one focus is targeting gangs.” Willis told reporters, “They are committing conservatively 75 to 80 percent of all of the violent crime that we are seeing within our community.”
Willis, who is known for asking a grand jury to investigate whether former President Donald Trump tried to overturn Georgia’s election results, also said that her team might use lyrics as evidence against the rappers indicted in the case. The indictment cites lyrics from 11 songs from both artists, which have come up several times in bond hearings. The question of whether or not rap lyrics should be admissible in court has been an ongoing debate for decades. In fact, the state of New York is currently considering a bill that would limit the use of lyrics in criminal cases, and California just passed a similar bill.
JUNE 24: Young Thug performs onstage at night three of the STAPLES Center Concert, sponsored by Sprite, during the 2017 BET Experience at Staples Center on June 24, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for BET)
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Willis' investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's election results may be one of the strongest cases to bring criminal charges against the former president. The Grio: Why Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has Trump and his allies shook
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This summer, Georgia’s first Black female Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, has been making national headlines for her professional and dogged pursuit of justice surrounding the 2020 election shenanigans of former President Donald Trump and his closest allies.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, Willis convened a special grand jury in May to aid an investigation she launched in February 2021 as to whether the former president engaged in criminal behavior while trying to overturn the 2020 election results, including making that Jan. 2, 2021 phone call to Georgia election officials to pressure them into coming up with “11,780 votes” to swing the state’s election his way. She’s also looking into the “fake elector” scheme in which 16 individuals allegedly participated in a plan to overthrow the 2020 election results during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. (Willis experienced a bit of a setback last month when a Georgia judge ruled she couldn’t investigate one of the fake electors because she hosted a fundraiser for his political opponent.)
As Time magazine notes, criminally prosecuting an ex-president would be unprecedented. To that I say, so what? When did America ever shrink from doing unprecedented things? But Willis is no stranger to doing hard things. The Howard University alum came to prominence as an assistant district attorney for prosecuting educators in 2015 during the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal (she faced some criticism because the 11 educators were Black.) In her first term as district attorney, she is dealing with heart-wrenching cases like the racially motivated killing of six Asian women and two others at Atlanta-area spas (Willis says she plans to seek the death penalty.) She also made waves this summer with another high-profile case: indicting rapper Young Thug on gang-related and racketeering charges. Willis has had to up her protection detail after receiving death threats from both Young Thug fans and Donald Trump supporters.
Although Trump is the target of Willis’ investigation, so, too, is former New York City mayor and Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani, who testified last Wednesday before the special grand jury in Atlanta. I had a chance to discuss the case on behalf of theGrio on CNN last week as to why Willis hauled Giuliani in for legal questioning and why the outcome of his appearance could be so consequential to Trump’s ultimate prosecution or not.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis poses for a photo at her office, Feb. 24, 2021 in Atlanta.
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