According to
eyewitness accounts, Jazmine Headley couldn’t find a seat at the Human Resources administration building on Bergen Street in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, so she sat on the floor with her 1-year-old son. Apparently sitting on the ground is now illegal, and security officers and the NYPD were called in to remove Headley from the premises.
But what happened next was reminiscent of white slave owners ripping babies from the arms of their mothers before selling them at an auction. As Headley attempted to hold on to her baby, the officers showed no mercy. In the now viral video, you can see officers tugging and yanking Headley, while yanking the baby’s arms, in an effort to pry him from his mother. The video is not only triggering but also goes to show not much has changed since the days of slavery.
Did the NYPD treat Headley the way she did because she’s Black? Or was it because she’s poor? The answer is simple: both. Headley, a 23-year-old single mother, was at the agency so she could obtain daycare vouchers for her baby, so she could work. In the same manner as slave owners, the NYPD showed that it didn’t give a damn about Headley or her baby. As witnesses watched and pleaded with the officers to leave Headley alone, they got even more violent. One officer even had their Taser ready.
https://www.facebook.com/nyashia.ferguson/videos/2165023130216850/
Instead of Headley being sold to the highest bidder, like a slave, she’s now behind bars and is facing charges that include: resisting arrest, obstruction, trespass and harming her own child. But one can also say the prison system is the highest bidder. Imagine the bond that is now over Headley’s head? Even though Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has called for all charges to be dropped, will the NYPD even care to listen?
So now, a baby is without his mother. A woman is sitting behind bars because she’s Black and poor. Chances are because of the current bail system in place, she’ll be sitting there for a while. They say the trauma and damage done to the slaves have been passed down from generation to generation. And what people across the world witnessed happening to Headley is a prime example of how poor Black women (or poor Black people in general) are treated on a daily basis. Now imagine the trauma and PTSD that Headley and her son will have to deal with for the rest of their lives.
Up until 1865, the government was legally allowed to rip Black children from their parents, but here we are in 2018, and the government is still up to their old slave owner tricks, but this time the slave owners have been renamed the NYPD.
