On April 4, an unarmed Black man named Patrick Lyoya was killed by police in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after being pulled over for having mismatched license plates; a white officer shot him in the back of his head. On April 17, Syracuse police aggressively detained a Black boy, just 8 years old, after he allegedly stole a bag of chips. The next day, police in upstate New York tackled a young Black boy with autism (ironically during Autism Acceptance Month) for no clear reason as he stood in line at Target.
As I scroll through social media, I keep wondering: Where are all of the staunch opposers of violence? Where are the people who claimed to be allies, who swore their allegiance to support Black Americans after the police murder of George Floyd? We still need that level of outrage directed toward the disproportionate violence Black people experience in the United States on a regular basis.
It is now well-documented that Black people are punished more harshly than white people under the law, and that they undergo disproportionate violence at the hands of the police. Black individuals with disabilities, like the 14-year-old thrown to the ground in Target, are more likely to be harmed by the police than their white counterparts.
