Earlier this week, The Nation blogger Dani McClain wrote: “It’s predictable that some opponents of police reform want to use Brinsley’s shooting spree to discredit and mischaracterize the #BlackLivesMatter movement and any politician who hasn’t tried to stamp it out. Let’s not go an equally predictable route and ignore that a woman bore the brunt of Brinsley’s instability first.”
Referring to Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who shot his ex-girlfriend Shaneka Thompson and then proceeded to kill two New York city police officers, McClain angrily questioned why only the latter half of the tragic episode has demanded the media’s focus. Brinsley, who acquired his weapon in Georgia, shot Thompson at her home in Baltimore before killing police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in Brooklyn, New York just hours later.
In light of the public’s response, McClain sadly comments, “None of this is surprising, unfortunately.”
It hard to ignore the tragedy’s context. Over the past few weeks, thousands have taken to the streets, protesting the Michael Brown and Eric Garner Grand Jury decisions. Both cases involved a cop killing an unarmed black man, and to many, represent the rampant belligerence against minority men by largely white police officers.
McClain objects to the use of Brinsley’s violence as a rebuttal to the various marches, die-ins and demonstrations, which have for the most part remained peaceful. Still, politicians have displayed mixed responses. President Obama, as well as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, have been criticized for finding sympathy with the protestors. At the same time, many others feel that the President has remained too quiet on the issue.
De Blasio put himself in the spotlight when he discussed his own advice for his son, Dante, telling ABC: “What parents have done for decades, who have children of color, especially young men of color, is train them to be very careful when they have a connection with a police officer.” Former Mayor Rudy Guiliani and police commissioner Ray Kelly believe, along with other government officials and many police officers, that the protests—and Obama and de Blasio’s support for them—have only fueled anti-police sentiments.
Brinsley’s own posts on Facebook and Twitter indicated his actions were a response to Ferguson, as reported by The Daily Beast.
But McClain believes that beyond America’s struggle to enforce fair and equitable standards for police officers when dealing with minority communities, coverage of Brinsley’s shooting spree represents a failure to recognize the important issues that intersect with racial injustice.
Most notably, McClain condemned the disregard for women’s wellbeing, calling out the “assumptions that public safety was not at risk despite the allegations and evidence of violence against women.” She wonders, like many feminists, why other threats, such as Islamic fundamentalism and anti-police sentiment—though important—merit a public anguish that violence against women and girls does not seem to evoke.
Black women face an additional barriers in the context of police brutality as well. In a Bustle article, Evette Dionne pointed out how the killing of women by police officers has been ignored. Dionne argued that police brutality has been perpetuated as something “male,” a product of traditional notions of masculinity and violence. Thus, the U.S. public has ignored the deaths of countless black women. Dionne provides a haunting list: “Aiyana Jones, 7, who was killed by a Detroit police officer as she slept on her father’s couch. Or Rekia Boyd, 22, whose life ended in Chicago when she was killed by a police officer. Or Yvette Smith, 48, who was unarmed when she was killed by a police officer in Texas. Or Pearlie Smith, 93, who was fatally shot in her home. Or Tarika Wilson, 26, whose one-year-old son was also injured when she was killed by a Ohio police officer. Or Tyisha Miller, 19, who was killed by a police officer in Los Angeles. Or Kathryn Johnson, 92, who was killed by a police officer in Atlanta. Or Gabriella Nevarez, 22, who was killed by a Sacramento police officer. Or Eleanor Bumpurs, 66, who was killed by a police officer in the Bronx.”
Inda Lauryn of ForHarriet.com has also discussed the challenging political situation black women face when debating racial conditions in the U.S., writing, “Black women are left with the task of defending ourselves while also standing by Black men. This means that many have decided that we need to put Cosby and rape culture on the back burner while we frame state-sanctioned murder as only a crime against Black men.”
But the Brinsley shooting also brings to light other important issues facing America, notably the stigma and treatment of mental illness, along with gun regulation.
The LA Times reported that Brinsley had a history of mental illness, and in the past had struggled with suicidal thoughts and violence. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that almost two-thirds of those suffering with mental illness are left undiagnosed, a number that disproportionately affects minority communities. In the U.S., there is still insufficient insurance coverage for mental illness, and a problematic lack of information and education.
Brinsley’s possession of a firearm also illuminates this country’s inefficient structure of background checks and approach to gun culture. Because he had committed multiple felonies in the past, it would have been illegal for Brinsley to have purchased a weapon legally. Attempts to determine the gun’s trail from its legal buyer to Brinsley have been unsuccessful. The New Republic discusses how this tragedy reflects the unfortunate pattern of how states with lighter gun regulations tend result in criminal possession of guns in states with stricter policies. Writer Rebecca Leber reports that “some 90 percent of guns traced in New York City crimes come from out-of-state sources.”
This tragedy brings to light countless problems with the way our society is constructed and operates. We can only hope that the discussion it ignites is one that acknowledges how intersected and related those problems are.