Engl 460
Anjie Zhao
Paper2 draft
3-21-2015
A case about police abuse,
racism and abuse to authority
Daniel
Ken Holtzclaw, a police officer from Oklahoma City, was charged for sexually
assaulting seven different African American women (Flatow, 2014). According to the judge, Holtzclaw
researched and stalked his victims before rape (Flatow, 2014). His abuse of power included
threatening to arrest his victims for sexual batter and obscene exposure (CROCKETT JR, 2014). Holtzclaw’s
sister created a Facebook site to sell T-shirts with words like "Free the
Claw" and "#JusticeForDanielHoltzclaw." She wanted to raise
money and help her brother get away with legal charge; so far this page has
received 500 likes. Holtzclaw’s sister also created a GoFundMe site and planned
to raise 100,000 dollars to help her brother. She has already raised 7,390
dollars. Holtzclaw’s family also joined the campaign against Holtzclaw’s
charge. This case is shaped due to two Kairos. The Kairos for black woman is
the history of racism and slavery. The Kairos for the white police is police
authority and power dynamic. These two Kairos intertwine together and
constructs the complexity of this case.
This
case is a good example for racism against black woman. Police’s sexual assault
on black women requires historical context of slavery (Yolande, 2014). Yolande said “While legal
slavery has ended, the rape and sexual torture of Black women and the
justification for this torture still continue” (Yolande, 2014). Slavery left American people
the memory of colonist domination on black woman. It is possible for modern
generation to absorb or imitate based on the way black women were mistreated and
enslaved. Slave owners and colonists mistreated their black slaves by holding
historical stereotypes and disrespectful morality against black women (Yolande, 2014). American
slavery proposed black woman to be objects or animals that lacks ability to
make decisions of their own (Yolande,
2014). Back in the days of slavery, assaulting black woman was not
considered rape because black woman were not viewed as legal individual (Yolande, 2014). In Holtzclaw’s
case, the perpetrator may select his targets based on these historical
depictions of slavery. Maybe in Holtzclaw’s subconscious he knows black women
has been tormented by white man or always has been. The thinking of black women
are slaves motivates him to find black woman and assault them.
What
if Holtzclaw’s sexual abuse is also based on a master and slave relationship?
According to Angela Davis’s article, Davis said slavery relied on sexual abuse,
which he defines not as an expression of man’s sexual urge, but an urge to
control; white slave owner believes that they have the right to own black
female slaves as their whole property (Davis). It’s possible Holtzclaw treated his targets the way
white masters treated their black slaves, seeing the fact all his targets are
black women; instead of picking white woman as targets, who he perceive to have
more power (because historically white woman has never been slaves), he chose
to rape the easier target, black woman. The way that he researched on these
woman, their backgrounds, and followed them before sexually assaulting them shows
that he is someway a control freak; he likes to know these woman so he could
have better control of them before rape, this way he will make sure these woman
can’t escape. These behaviors were similar to the conducts of a slave master
because slave master never let his slaves make any decisions. Black woman’s
social image and vulnerability causes more risk of them being persecuted, and
gives Holtzclaw the chance to take advantage of this weakness. The more Holtzclaw
threatens these women, the more he retains his hyper-masculine power, the more
dominant he is.
The
fact that public is more favorable to Holtzclaw reveals racial stereotypes and
the white privilege. The GoFundMe page shows, “with the support of family,
friends and the community, Daniel Holtzclaw will be vindicated and justice will
prevail” (CROCKETT JR, 2014).
Through comparison with past cases, it seems white community would rather trust
the myth of bad black woman and black men are rapist while considering the rape
of black woman (Davis).
In a murder charge in 1975, a young black woman was accused of killing a white
guard in North Carolina jail after he threatened and raped her (Davis). She claimed that
she killed him in self-defense; her argument was widely supported by the local
black community, but no white community was mentioned (Davis). This case is similar to Holtzclaw’s
case because it also shows how white community either doesn’t believe in the
female defendant’s claim or doesn’t want to support her argument. Another case
from 1970s also can show the same racist opinion; a black man called Delbert
Tibbs was false charged of raping a white woman, yet few white woman and
anti-rape groups were willing to help him (Davis). Just like Holtzclaw’s case, this case
can show that white community is more likely to trust the white defendant
instead of black one, and thus they give less support or protection to black
defendant.
This
comparison shows these cases all faced racial discrimination against black
people. These racist stereotypes construct community culture and shapes white
people’s perception and trust level about black people. White observers in
these cases always stand up for white defendant because they are never trust
enough to support black defendants simply because they believe black are bad. In
the case of Holtzclaw, the perpetrator is a white man, thus has the privilege
to gain trust from white community; this provides an advantage for him to get
away with conviction and charge. As previously said, his family, friends and
community can raise money to bail him out because they believe that it’s false
charge and he doesn’t deserve to be in jail (CROCKETT JR, 2014). This provides a relative
disadvantage for the black victims; because they are black woman, they hold
less society support since the society would rather believe that black women
are bad.
It
is also possible that Holtzclaw committed sexual assault because he thinks he can
since he is a white police, he has the power to force woman into unwilling
sexual activity. He threatened to arrest the victims unless they expose
themselves to him (CROCKETT
JR, 2014). This action is provided by power and authority, if Holtzclaw
is not a police officer, he does not hold the power to arrest anyone, he may
not be bold enough to threaten his victims. According to Timothy Maher, police
authority and frequent contact with public provides opportunity for police
sexual misconduct (Maher,
2003). As a police member, Holtzclaw not only has the authority to
arrest people but also has the opportunity to investigate on people without
consent. Isolated contact with public provides him the chance to look for his
targets. He could take advantage of any black woman he spotted while walking
around and claiming that he is on duty. Walker and IrIbeck’s study (2002) shows
that police officer tends to stop the car for traffic violation when the
drivers are female, but this is just an excuse to sexually harass the driver (Maher, 2003). This past
study proves that police does take advantage of their authority in order to get
close to woman. According to the news report, Holtzclaw does assaults his
target while on patrol (CROCKETT
JR, 2014). Accusers said Holtzclaw frequently stopped black woman between
ages of 34 to 58 (CROCKETT
JR, 2014). And he profiled black woman as drug users, prostitutes and
sex workers, but none of these women fits into the typical age for prostitution
or drug use (Yolande, 2014).
Holtzclaw has used “on duty,” and “profiling” as excuse for sexual assault. He
could easily threaten a black woman without being overheard, because the victim
may feel scared or act less expressive while being stopped and questioned by a
police officer. The victims may also question their own problem before getting
suspicious about the officer because his police authority has made him
indisputable.
Police
members also may cover up their colleague’s misconducts in order to protect department
reputation. The study conducted by Barker (1978) examined police members’
perception on their colleague’s sexual misconduct in a small city department (Maher, 2003). This study
shows both civilian police and police officers in the department believe that
many of their colleagues had sex while on duty (Maher, 2003). If more than one police from the same department have
committed sexual misconduct, they are more likely to cover up for each other. Two
studies investigating police sexual violence via court and media (Kraska and Kappeler,
1995, and McGurrin and Kappeler, 2002) found out they lack the state officials’
response (Maher, 2003). This finding suggests that police sexual
violence was encouraged by institution and police secrecy (Maher, 2003). According to Reuss-Ianni (1983), the
code of police secrecy does not allow police officers to talk about the detail
of other police’s behavior during shift (Maher, 2003). Police holds authority and power, so they get certain
bypass from the government or the police department. If this is true, in Holtzclaw’s
case the perpetrator could take advantage of government support in order to get
away with legal charge. As long as police department denies that he did it, it’s
hard for people to find evidence against him. This gives him the power to lay a
hand on black victims.
The study by Kappeler (1998) shows that most
police department has rules and policy that control police’s behavior, but
there are still few exceptions. Some areas’ police departments do not have formal
policy regarding police sexual abuse or police sexual misconduct (Maher, 2003). This study shows that it
is possible that police departments have no strict regulation on police
misconduct. This study also suggests that lack of regulation or policy has
result in police sexual misconduct. In Holtzclaw’s case, Holtzclaw may have
committed sexual assault because he knew there are no specific regulations or
punishment for sexual assault in his department. He wouldn’t fear his sexual
misconduct is found out by someone in the department because there are no laws
that regulate his behavior. The lack of regulation on police sexual misconduct
may spoil Holtzclaw and make him think that it’s ok to commit sexual
misconduct, because in this case he is more likely to believe that he won’t get
caught. This may lead to more victimization or him committing more sexual
misconduct; this assumption explains why his behavior was not reported until
the 7th victim.
Due to police authority or police
suppression, it is less likely for victims to report comparing to cases not
involving police sexual abuse. According to multiple research conducted by
Kappeler (2002 and 1995), victims of police sexual assault fear to be
retaliated, fear not being believed or blamed, thus they choose not to report (Maher, 2003). It is natural for victims
to think that they won’t get believed because they are reporting to police
department when they were assaulted by someone within the department. If I tie
this study into Holtzclaw’s case, the news shows that several victims dare to
come forward only after the 7th victim reported sexual assault.
Evidently, the previous victims are afraid of consequences while accusing a
police officer, that’s why they don’t come forward.
In conclusion, Holtzclaw’s case is mainly
contributed by two factors: historical concepts of slavery and police
authority. These two factors work together to pressure the black female
victims. According to Yolande, black woman is more likely to be victimized than
white woman even though the white on black cases occurs much less than black on
white (Yolande, 2014). People shouldn’t ignore sexual assault against black
woman just because these cases are largely obscure; it is very likely more
black victimization go underreported than white victimization. In order to
change the Kairos that creates black victimization, state officials should set
up solid standards for governing police behavior, and more victims should come
forward in order to raise awareness of sexual assault against black woman.
Source
Yolande M. S., & Tomlinson, Ph.D. (2014). INVISIBLE BETRAYAL: POLICE
VIOLENCE AND THE RAPES OF BLACK WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES. Women’s All Points Bulletin. Retrieved
from http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/ushrnetwork.org/files/36-police-wapb.pdf
Davis, A. Rape, Racism and the Myth of the Black Rapist. Rapereliefshelter. Retrieved from http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/sites/default/files/imce/Rape,%20Racism%20%26%20Myth%20of%20Black%20Rapist_A%20Davis.pdf
Flatow, N. (2014). Cop Charged With Sexually Assaulting 7 Black Women
Released From Jail. thinkprogress.org.
Retrieved from http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/06/3564082/cop-who-allegedly-assaulted-7-black-women-released-from-jail/
Hutchinson, E. O. (2014). Where's the outrage over Oklahoma cop's assault
on Black women? Chicago Defender. Copyright Real Times, Inc. Retrieved
from http://search.proquest.com/ethnicnewswatch/docview/1566202343/22D287DBF8404049PQ/33?accountid=14902
CROCKETT JR. S. A. (2014). Officer Charged With Raping 8 Black Women
Finds Support Online. Theroot.
Retrieved from http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/09/officer_charged_with_raping_8_black_women_finds_support_online.html
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