melodramatic journey to the kitchen

The women were teenagers and grandmothers. Most were living on the margins. All of them were black. And during a month-long trial that became a symbol of police predation, they formed a bleak parade of 13 witnesses who accused a former Oklahoma City officer of using his badge to coerce sex acts and rape.

On Thursday, after 45 hours of deliberation, a jury convicted Daniel Holtzclaw, 28, on five counts of rape and 13 other counts of sexual assault.

His conviction is likely to be viewed as a key moment of accountability for law enforcement officers who abuse their position: out of the hundreds of police officers terminated for sexual abuse in recent years, only a small number faced criminal charges and even fewer were convicted. And black women are especially liable to be their targets.

(continue)

I really don’t know what I would have done if Daniel Holtzclaw hadn’t been found guilty.  I was preparing myself for it.  I was preparing myself because he was a policeman with whiteness and authority on his side against 13 Black women, most with some kind of criminal record.  I was preparing because the media coverage was scant.  I was preparing because the all-white jury deliberated for so long and even asked to be taken out at night to see the crime scenes (the request was denied).  

So I watched Rebuild of Evangelion, if just to see one character I fell in love with many many years ago…