“What kind of police do you call on the police?”
December 12, 2015 3:53 PM   Subscribe

An all-white jury convicted Daniel Holtzclaw of rape. It's almost enough. [The Guardian]
It took 45 hours over the course of four days for an all-white jury in Oklahoma City to decide whether or not they should convict former police officer Daniel Holtzclaw of sexual assault on the word of 13 black women. On Thursday night, the jury opted to believe (most of) them. There is perhaps no bigger test of how blind justice could possibly be than asking any American jury – especially one that is all white and includes eight men – to believe 13 black women over a former police officer and supposed hero football player. It’s easy enough to point to cases where the police were acquitted. And yet, against all expectations this time, justice was blind.

Related:

- Why Isn't Daniel Holtzclaw a Household Name? [Feministing]
Meanwhile, “The invisibility of these women’s stories on the radars of most news outlets and many of those invested in ending police brutality against black people speaks volumes about how black women figure in both national and social justice discussions about racial injustice.”
- From Daniel Holtzclaw to R. Kelly: For Black Girls When Their (Alleged) Rapes Are Not Enough [The Root]
But I will say this: Those of us who claim to care about the rape and silencing of black women and girls cannot speak out against former Oklahoma City Police Officer Daniel Holtzclaw, then flip the "Ignition" when R. Kelly comes on. We don't get to do that—and we shouldn't want to, either. For over a year, those of us who claim to love black women and girls have blasted the media for their marginal, at best, coverage of the Holtzclaw case. We have talked about the women (and one girl) he methodically chose because of their vulnerability and the likelihood that no one would believe them. We have gone over how he reportedly scoured low-income neighborhoods looking for black women who knew that they were no match against an officer of the law. At the root of that knowledge is not just his authority but the idea that in the eyes of society, these black women (and one underage girl) just do not matter.
- Police officials were investigating Daniel Holtzclaw before final attack, suit claims. [The Guardian]
Police officials were investigating a serial rapist among their ranks six weeks before he assaulted his final victim but allowed him to remain on regular duty during the inquiry, according to a lawsuit seen by the Guardian.
- Sharp memory and steel courage bring down Oklahoma cop found guilty of assaulting black women. [LA Times]
Of the 13 black women who would later testify they'd been sexually assaulted by Holtzclaw, Ligons was the first to report the officer to the authorities. Her decision triggered an investigation that resulted in Holtzclaw's conviction Thursday on 18 counts of rape and sexual battery of women in the predominantly low-income community that Holtzclaw, 29, had been tasked with protecting. “He just picked the wrong lady to stop that night,” Ligons said, drawing a “Yes!” and applause from her supporters.
- The 13 Women Who Accused A Cop Of Sexual Assault, In Their Own Words [Buzzfeed News]
Before the November hearings, these stories had been told only through prosecutors and detectives. This was the first time they explained what Daniel Holtzclaw did to them — how he exerted his authority, and how afterward they felt reporting him would be futile — in their own words. Their testimonies have never been reported altogether, in full, until now.The stories are consistent, from the questions Holtzclaw initially asked them, to the way he exposed himself through the fly of his police uniform, to the remote locations he took some of them to. GPS data from Holtzclaw’s car and various phone records presented in court verify many of the geographical and timeline-related details.

According to prosecutors, Holtzclaw targeted these women because they had records and lived in a high-crime neighborhood. He allegedly chose them because they didn’t want any trouble and because they feared the police — because they likely wouldn’t report their assaults to the police. He was the police. According to the defense, these women are drug abusers and sex workers — some convicted felons with histories of lying to the police. Sometimes their testimonies are inconsistent, the defense said; they have “agendas,” they’re lying. Holtzclaw’s attorney built his defense on this approach: focusing on the character of the women and the reliability of their testimony. This is their testimony.
posted by Fizz (80 comments total) 62 users marked this as a favorite
 
Has anyone gone back and investigated what he was up to during his years as a high-school and college football star? I find it hard to believe that he suddenly snapped and became a serial rapist at the age of 27. I wouldn't be surprised if he honed his go-after-vulnerable-women-who-know-they-won't-be-believed routine when he was a teenager.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:13 PM on December 12, 2015 [47 favorites]


I kind of disagree with the "every count matters" portion, just a little bit. I can't find it now, but in someone's press statement, they said something like, the 'not guilty' verdicts don't mean they weren't believed. Those were the ones with not enough evidence.

Which is a weasely thing to say when you're letting off a scumbag on a technicality, or willingly ignoring the obvious, like in the Michael Brown case (in my opinion.) In this case though, given the result, I tend to believe the statement.

I'm sure, to those victims, it doesn't do much good to ask "100 years, 150 years, what's the difference?" Maybe they can at least feel like their testimony did influence the jury to convict him on the ones he did get convicted on.
posted by ctmf at 4:16 PM on December 12, 2015 [5 favorites]


I like to consider myself well-informed and yet this story flew under the radar. It did not receive the type of media coverage that it should have (both in normal media outlets as well as social media), which is a damn shame. But I am pleased that some form of justice was served to the survivors of these horrid crimes.

That quote pulled from the Feministing blog says everything: “The invisibility of these women’s stories...”
posted by Fizz at 4:21 PM on December 12, 2015 [6 favorites]


I don't read the news except for daily headlines, and this one popped up for me Friday morning I think.

I know very little of the case, but it seems like the evidence was pretty overwhelming, including DNA from the victims on Holzclaw's clothes. Also, the number of offenses was probably 4-5x the 13 he got busted for.

But yeah, progress moves forward by definition (albeit at a depressingly slow rate).
posted by mrgrimm at 4:31 PM on December 12, 2015


I remember hearing and reading quite a bit about it earlier this year when it first blew up, then nothing until the case went to the jury.
posted by rhizome at 4:32 PM on December 12, 2015


Scum.
posted by casarkos at 4:37 PM on December 12, 2015 [8 favorites]


I read some pretty chilling accounts of the things he did, and that was I think about a month ago. I remember at the time thinking "white cop, and low income PoC survivors?" and braced for the worst. An all-white jury finding him guilty on multiple counts, with actual prison time extending well beyond his natural lifespan floored me. Like I was convinced for a few minutes that I had read it wrong. Then I saw the video of this piece of shit hearing the verdict, bursting into tears, rocking back and forth, and knew it was real.

I know we're a long, long way to go before we tear down this awful law enforcement culture and build something based on actual justice, but I felt something like satisfaction watching him get led out of court in chains. Good fucking riddance.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 4:40 PM on December 12, 2015 [55 favorites]


I like to consider myself well-informed and yet this story flew under the radar. It did not receive the type of media coverage that it should have (both in normal media outlets as well as social media), which is a damn shame.

Actually, I knew about it from Twitter—depends on who you follow.
posted by listen, lady at 4:52 PM on December 12, 2015 [11 favorites]


I was totally unaware of this case until the conviction made headlines the other day.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:55 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Actually, I knew about it from Twitter—depends on who you follow.

I follow a nice variety of news/pundits/politicians/celebs/social justice/book nerds/etc. But it just wasn't trending the way some stories seem to on social media. So much focus lately on refugees, terrorism, Trump.

But that's good to hear.
posted by Fizz at 4:55 PM on December 12, 2015


You can be pretty sure that his reaction and remorse was not for his victims but rather for having been caught and convicted. Typical ASPD behavior...
posted by jim in austin at 5:05 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


The Buzzfeed article on the testimony is just so damning of every piece how badly society is screwing up. The fear of police. That being taken into the back of a police car to be questioned is a regular occurrence for a portion of the population. That they have no one to turn to because they were all to familiar with police harassment. The assaults occur on the screaming background of police abuse and an oppressed population.

I bet I post this to Facebook and hear all about one bad apple and police are generally good.

I wonder how many other serial rapists there are hiding among police forces across the country.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 5:09 PM on December 12, 2015 [8 favorites]


I don't generally revel in other people's pain, but watching this asshole sob was very satisfying.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:28 PM on December 12, 2015 [14 favorites]


no winners.
posted by alex_skazat at 5:28 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


But it just wasn't trending the way some stories seem to on social media.

Well, no, but a lot of similar stories don't, quite frankly. If you're interested, you could try following some folks who have posted under the hashtag #SayHerName. They're more likely to have drawn attention to this.
posted by listen, lady at 5:29 PM on December 12, 2015 [4 favorites]


It saddens me that this man will die before serving his full sentence.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:30 PM on December 12, 2015 [4 favorites]


i wish publications would start using his mug shot, not the crying courtroom photo. i know why the second makes more sensational sense, i still hate that even now in a lot of places his reaction is being centered.
posted by nadawi at 5:30 PM on December 12, 2015 [35 favorites]


it's my impression that his sentencing isn't until next month. i've seen some estimates that say he could serve as little as 15 years. are there mandatory minimums that will make it effectively a life sentence?
posted by nadawi at 5:32 PM on December 12, 2015


I bet I post this to Facebook and hear all about one bad apple and police are generally good.

I love it when people use the "one bad apple" argument, because then you get to point out that the proverb in its entirety adds "spoils the whole bunch".
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 5:33 PM on December 12, 2015 [43 favorites]


i wish publications would start using his mug shot, not the crying courtroom photo.
Holy crap, this. I wonder if he was anything but a white cop, whether they would've used that image.
posted by Aleyn at 5:33 PM on December 12, 2015 [11 favorites]


i've seen some estimates that say he could serve as little as 15 years.

I a legal complete layperson, but the longest individual sentence recommendation I remember hearing was 30 years. If they all run concurrently instead of sequentially, then factor in parole... but I don't know how likely that is (or even how they decide between concurrent/sequential sentences)
posted by ctmf at 5:36 PM on December 12, 2015


it's my impression that his sentencing isn't until next month. i've seen some estimates that say he could serve as little as 15 years. are there mandatory minimums that will make it effectively a life sentence?

263 years is what the jury recommended. The prosecution is going to be seeking consecutive sentences. Whatever time he ends up serving, it'll be basically be analogous to torture in "protective custody".
posted by Talez at 5:36 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


it's my impression that his sentencing isn't until next month. i've seen some estimates that say he could serve as little as 15 years. are there mandatory minimums that will make it effectively a life sentence?
I think it could technically be possible, if the judge has all of his sentences run concurrently. I'd be pretty surprised if that happened, though, given the seriousness of his crimes.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:37 PM on December 12, 2015


i know what the jury recommended, i watched it live. i was just saying, it's not my impression that's a done deal yet.
posted by nadawi at 5:38 PM on December 12, 2015


I made the mistake of reading the Youtube comments of the video where they read his sentence and he breaks down and starts wailing. And surprise surprise, a few people were hoping he gets raped in jail. Because of course the solution to rape is more rape. Humanity sucks.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:45 PM on December 12, 2015 [16 favorites]


Being Oklahoma, he will either get a slap on the wrist sentence that will have him on parole in 5ish years or he will be stuck in prison until he is eligible for Social Security, if not until his death.

That's how we roll. Child molesters, eh, give 'em 5-15. Oh, drugs? 325 years, please. Being OKC rather than the county court in some rural town, (and a nationally high profile case) it'll probably be a stiff sentence. Okies don't mind being racist, but they do very much mind being seen to be racist.
posted by wierdo at 5:48 PM on December 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


Seems in OK, the minimum sentence for first-degree rape is 5 years. So, multiplied by number of counts, factoring in if the judge even allows the possibility of parole, and that gives you some kind of metric to guesstimate what the least he could serve might be.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 5:55 PM on December 12, 2015


And of course that's before we add in the other charges. A lawyer with a calculator would be better at this than me I think.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:00 PM on December 12, 2015


The jury recommended 263 years and the OK County DA, David Prater has publicly stated that he's going to ask for every count to be served consecutively. I doubt very seriously that the judge is going to veer too far from the recommendations.
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:06 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm going to be the bitter nit-picker and point out that he isn't "white" in the way the media are playing it; he's half-Japanese, and it makes me sour and a little hopeless that I honestly wonder if he would have been convicted if he were a blond, blue-eyed "American."
posted by tzikeh at 6:11 PM on December 12, 2015 [25 favorites]


The jury recommended 263 years and the OK County DA, David Prater has publicly stated that he's going to ask for every count to be served consecutively. I doubt very seriously that the judge is going to veer too far from the recommendations.

I'm cautiously optimistic. The judge is a former cop, but also a former prosecutor. I wonder how (or if) he's ruled on similar cases in the past.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:11 PM on December 12, 2015


You know what I found to be the most horrific part of this? The fact that he broke down and cried during his conviction. That means that he didn’t realize he was the bad guy until his was convicted of a crime. He concocted this elaborate scheme that he thought would allow him to rape women with impunity, but he didn’t realize he was the bad guy. My faith in humanity has never been lower than it is right now.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 6:18 PM on December 12, 2015 [5 favorites]


I wouldn't assume that he was crying because he realized that he was a bad guy. It's more likely that he was crying because he realized he was going to go to prison for a very long time.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:20 PM on December 12, 2015 [69 favorites]


Yeah I mean people definitely cry because they are scared, for example (or fake it). I didn't find that picture particularly endearing - on the contrary given what he's being convicted of it's kind of creepy.
posted by atoxyl at 6:32 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


All of our local news stations broke in with live coverage when the verdict was read. He was shaking like a leaf before the judge and jury entered the courtroom, so the crying was not a surprise.
The thing that got me was when, as he was being led out of the courtroom, he turned around, shook his head, and stared down the jury that had just spent over 40 hours weighing the evidence. The newspapers reported that he maintained his innocence outside the courtroom, so those were not the tears of a man who was sorry for what he'd done; those were the tears of a coward.
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:34 PM on December 12, 2015 [26 favorites]


I'm going to be the bitter nit-picker and point out that he isn't "white" in the way the media are playing it; he's half-Japanese, and it makes me sour and a little hopeless that I honestly wonder if he would have been convicted if he were a blond, blue-eyed "American."

In fairness to the media, he put considerable energy into playing up his whiteness, too (link contains some pretty stomach-turning details, be warned).
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:39 PM on December 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


And yet, against all expectations this time, justice was blind

Jesus, not a very high bar there.
posted by glasseyes at 6:59 PM on December 12, 2015 [8 favorites]


I like to consider myself well-informed and yet this story flew under the radar. It did not receive the type of media coverage that it should have (both in normal media outlets as well as social media), which is a damn shame.

Black twitter kept this story alive in my social media feed.

as he was being led out of the courtroom, he turned around, shook his head, and stared down the jury that had just spent over 40 hours weighing the evidence.

It actually looks as though he mouthed "How could you do this?"
posted by to sir with millipedes at 7:18 PM on December 12, 2015 [9 favorites]


no winners.

Except all the women who will not be raped by Holtzclaw.
posted by Thella at 8:05 PM on December 12, 2015 [90 favorites]


I honestly expect his sentence will be pretty harsh, and will be surprised if it isn't. Despite all the issues of race here, the prosecution and the accusers proved that this asshole was a dirty cop. People don't like believing that cops can be dirty -- that's why we have the ridiculous power imbalance that exists today. When confronted with irrefutable evidence that their illusion of police purity is an illusion, I expect most people to react angrily.

Most of the time, people can poke holes in the case against a dirty cop and make believe it isn't true. They can salvage their illusions. Here they couldn't.

Also, we can all maybe hope that perhaps there are white people who are, perhaps, not so racist. It's something I continue to believe.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 8:36 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Frankly I was shocked. And it makes me hopeful.
I’m surprised at all the people who say they hadn’t heard of this case.
posted by bongo_x at 8:36 PM on December 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


Actually, I knew about it from Twitter—depends on who you follow.
Yeah. Pundit-space and activist-space in general has been super quiet about it, but "black feminist twitter" was where I heard about it when the charges were first filed. It's been disheartening to see how low the case's profile has been.
posted by verb at 8:56 PM on December 12, 2015 [9 favorites]


The newspapers reported that he maintained his innocence outside the courtroom, so those were not the tears of a man who was sorry for what he'd done; those were the tears of a coward.

Absolutely. This guy will spend the rest of his life telling any fellow inmate who will listen about how he got screwed by the system. "And take it from me, I know how fucked the system is, I was a cop!"
posted by zardoz at 9:49 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


I can't find it now, but in someone's press statement, they said something like, the 'not guilty' verdicts don't mean they weren't believed.

The weird way that even the media regularly endorses the common misconception that a "not guilty" verdict somehow equals "proven innocent" has annoyed me for decades.

Not even close to the same thing.
posted by rokusan at 9:50 PM on December 12, 2015 [11 favorites]


Except all the women who will not be raped by Holtzclaw.

And one hopes other police departments and officers will start being a bit more conscientious.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:53 PM on December 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


All the reports I read about police accused of rape/murder/manslaughter/theft seem to presume that when officer aren't convicted they must be justified. But that's a false dichotomy; even if a court found that Holtzclaw had engaged in consensual sex with detainees it would have been more than enough to warrant his dismissal. The same goes for similar cases; you would think that police officers should be held to a high standard, but it seems as if they're almost complaint-proof. Where are the dozens (or hundreds) of officers who are being fired for skeevy sexual behaviour in less egregious or less prosecutable cases?
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:54 PM on December 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


I can't find it now, but in someone's press statement, they said something like, the 'not guilty' verdicts don't mean they weren't believed.

Is there a chance that if they convicted on those charges despite, say, not-so-strong evidence, that an appeal could've upended the entire conviction? I mean given that they believed the other women, my thought was that maybe they didn't convict on those individual counts because they didn't want to leave any openings for a re-trial?

(Not a lawyer. Passed over for jury duty. Not entirely sure how that part works.)
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:57 PM on December 12, 2015


He was a cop. A cop who raped women of color. He's going to prison. I give him three days, tops.
posted by scratch at 10:10 PM on December 12, 2015


He was a cop. A cop who raped women of color. He's going to prison. I give him three days, tops.

This was covered above, but this guy will never be in general population. And not even primarily because of this, but because he was a cop.

There's plenty of people in prison on really long sentences or LWOP who would kill a cop just to say they killed a cop, or so i've heard. Like child molesters, they're generally placed in "protective custody" which means something between solitary and the cell block for the "protected" inmates with very little contact between them.
posted by emptythought at 10:19 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


maybe they didn't convict on those individual counts because they didn't want to leave any openings for a re-trial?

That's not the jury's problem, and I'd be surprised if any, let alone 12, jurors went beyond "did it/didn't do it" with thirty-something questions to decide. In fact, I'd think if it ever got out that the jurors were strategizing like that instead of just honestly deciding the question given to them, then that might jeopardize the result.
posted by ctmf at 10:51 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Or more accurately, "sufficiently proven/not proven."
posted by ctmf at 10:53 PM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Mod note: As a quick note, yeah, let's not go down that particular path of imagining various prison justice scenarios for this guy. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 10:59 PM on December 12, 2015 [8 favorites]


Except all the women who will not be raped by Holtzclaw.

But you can't un-rape someone, right? I'm glad this piece of sh*t was found guilty and all, but people's lives have been irrevocably changed for the worst, and all the prison time in the world isn't going to treat that.

I empathize greatly with the victims - which is, I think, the overwhelming opinion in this thread. I'm sad, sorry, and frankly: sick to my stomach of what this person has a done, as a member of law enforcement, and perhaps even just because I am male as well. His acts are ones that I've only read about in fiction, where the character has gone under some sort of never-coming-back psychological destruction of their very soul. I'm without the proper words to know now that life imitates art.

I "merely" hear about the sexual assault that happens to my partner when they're say, just waiting for the bus to come - and I'm overwhelmed by the feeling of just letting her cry into my open arms, and also wanting to literally hunt this individual down and castrate them.

Nothing should bring me to think that violence is the best answer for something, but here I find myself.

So again: no winners. The victims stay victims forever. We've just uncovered - at the very least, a sociopath that has been forcibly made to stop. Slow clap, sick world.
posted by alex_skazat at 11:18 PM on December 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


Is there a chance that if they convicted on those charges despite, say, not-so-strong evidence, that an appeal could've upended the entire conviction? I mean given that they believed the other women, my thought was that maybe they didn't convict on those individual counts because they didn't want to leave any openings for a re-trial?

The jury's role isn't to worry about whether or not their decision will be appealed; their job is solely to determine whether or not the prosecution proved each count and recommend accompanying punishment. The issue about which you are asking is really the concern of the prosecutor, and it starts at the point of deciding which crimes with which to charge the defendant.

In this case, the defense has already indicated it's going to appeal the verdict, which is unsurprising for a high profile case like this. For good criminal law attorneys, the work on appeals can start as early as day one of trial. When trying a case, both the prosecution and defense have to think about either laying the groundwork for appeal of an unfavorable decision or guarding a favorable verdict from day one of trial. As you go through trial, the parties make sure to get their evidentiary objections on the record because whether or not a piece of material evidence should have been admitted and heard by the jury is one of the biggest potential sources of appeal. Once the case gets to the jury, assuming there hasn't been any inappropriate jury behavior (e.g. A juror doing their own research and deliberating on evidence outside of the record), the work of the jurors is guided by a framework of jury instructions, which are another huge potential point of appeal.

So for each count/charge, the prosecution has the burden to prove each element of the crime, which is set forth by statute. When the case goes to the jury for deliberation, there are jury instructions that accompany each each charge so the jury understands the elements of each charge. Those jury instructions are based upon the Oklahoma Form Jury Instructions. For example, here's the instruction on Rape in the First Degree. So hypothetically, if the defense were to appeal a faulty jury instruction for a specific charge, and the appeals court overturns the verdict for that particular instruction, then the convictions for the other charges that didn't rely on the faulty instruction could still stand.

To back up a bit, unfortunately, not every crime committed can be proven in a court of law beyond reasonable doubt. The decision about what to charge a defendant with lies with the discretion of the prosecutor. With crimes like these, if you don't have a witness or other physical evidence, testimony alone may not be enough to meet the burden of proof. So a prosecutor may not have enough evidence to prove up the elements of Rape 1, but they may feel like they have a solid case for Sexual Battery or Indecent Exposure, so they go for that instead. It's at this point that the prosecution is likely assessing the risks of charging or overcharging the defendant on the case as a whole, and possible appeal so that the jury doesn't have to.

Also, what the linked article doesn't fully consider is that when a jury renders a not guilty verdict on a specific charge, that doesn't necessarily mean the jury believes the victim was lying or that the victim wasn't harmed by the defendant. It just means the jury didn't find enough evidence to prove up one of the elements of a particular charge at the higher standard of proof for criminal cases (beyond reasonable doubt). It's entirely possible that a jury could convict the same defendant on a civil charge (e.g. civil assault) with the same set of facts because the elements the comparable civil charge are easier to prove by a "preponderance of the evidence."
posted by Dr. Zira at 11:33 PM on December 12, 2015 [9 favorites]


The victims stay victims forever.

No they don't. They become survivors.
posted by Thella at 11:34 PM on December 12, 2015 [43 favorites]


I am very glad that this dangerous man has been removed from society. He is a man. A dangerous one. A rapist. Please don't engage in reducing his humanity. I ask you to embrace the fact that we are constantly working to reduce the harm committed by people. Let us serve to assist the harmed so that they may find a new normal and move forward as we remove those who seek to harm for their own purposes.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 11:40 PM on December 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


no winners.

Except all the women who will not be raped by Holtzclaw.


This is a pretty cut and dry case of "society wins by removing a major predator from the herd." Also, the women who were assaulted were all instrumental in actually taking this guy down, and that's a huge victory, especially given the racial context and the fact that they were picked out because they were so unlikely to have been believed. Like more than one of them said, this kind of thing happens a lot, “We hear stories about the police, you know — it’s real.” That woman, SB, the one who Holtzclaw drove out to the field and then returned, did not report the assault to the police, but she did make sure her entire neighborhood knew who he was and what he'd done. It is a real and tremendous win that she was able to not just warn her community about him but be an active part in taking him out of the general population and making sure he couldn't hurt any more people. I'm going to leave you guys with a video of a group of the victims and their families and supporters praying, and then singing "Happy Birthday" to Holtzclaw from the courthouse steps upon hearing the verdict. What Holtzclaw did to these women was horrific, but in the end, yes, they did win.
posted by moonlight on vermont at 12:40 AM on December 13, 2015 [34 favorites]


Shaun King covered this pretty consistently since its start, which is the only way I know about it. Otherwise, I’ve seen basically no mainstream media coverage until the conclusion of the trial.

One thing I am concerned by is the continued reporting of Holtzclaw as white, which King has done repeatedly throughout the trial in his coverage and I have seen others echo as well. As a biracial, white-passing POC, I can definitely identify with arguments that suggest he has benefitted greatly from white privilege, but it comes off as a little crass to label him strictly white and leave it at that. However, I do know he identified himself as white to one of his victims according to her testimony, but also self-identified as Asian on some forms too, from what I’ve read.
Still, I think there’s a much more productive conversation here in terms of who benefits from white/white passing privilege and under what conditions, how he possibly was still “other” enough to not be able to win over an all-white jury’s sympathy, and how POC can often have very intense desires to conform to white supremacy.

I guess this is just something I’ve noticed with this case, as well as the recent Oregon shooter Chris Harper-Mercer and George Zimmerman. It’s convenient for us to label these people as white when their actions and intentions often mirror a lot of the violence we see rooted in dominant white society, but I feel we are really missing out on an important discussion here by doing so.
posted by giizhik at 2:10 AM on December 13, 2015 [7 favorites]


Let's remember this asshole mouthing "How could you do this to me?" to the jury the next time someone talks about "entitled" minority groups.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:08 AM on December 13, 2015 [12 favorites]


One of the things I noticed about this was that he was only on the force for three years. When I think of corrupt/abusive cops the image in my head is more of a long term officer who has learned the ins and outs and established strong relationships which can make them close to untouchable.

This asshole seems to have joined up for pretty much no other reason than to immediately be an abusive criminal and apparently nobody noticed any red flags? Is it just the football stardom blinding people or could anybody do the same? It's scary as hell either way.

And yeah, I'm another person who heard absolutely nothing about this case in the media until now. Thanks for the post, Fizz.
posted by Drinky Die at 6:21 AM on December 13, 2015 [3 favorites]


Came in to see if I could get clarity on the point giizhik lifts, as I couldn't google the issue successfully. My first reaction on seeing clips and articles about this was "dude's not white...". Couldn't get a hit even for if he was biracial. Reading above that he has an Asian background also for me absolutely is relevant if we are going to make this about race, I can absolutely believe that the oft-mentioned "all white jury" haven't perceived him necessarily as a peer, and could well believe that the fucked up racist attitudes regarding Asian men's sexuality played a large part in how this went down. Let me be clear, put this asshope away for a billion years and it is a huge victory that an "all white jury" has vindicated a (more importantly) "all black group of victims", but I think the white-guys-sending-down-one-of-their-own narrative is miles off.
posted by Iteki at 6:46 AM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


Most of the time, people can poke holes in the case against a dirty cop and make believe it isn't true. They can salvage their illusions. Here they couldn't.

I think this is a particularly important insight. Holtzclaw's sentencing will be very severe, precisely because he will be held out as an exception.

And yet: when researchers investigated Chicago prostitution markets, they found that sex workers were more likely have sex with a police officer to avoid arrest than to actually be arrested. Holtzclaw is the rule, quite literally, and criminalized sex work makes it so. Holtzclaw's failure was to try to extend the ordinary, de facto police power over sex workers' bodies to an "upstanding" woman during a traffic stop.

Yet he will be punished severly so we can go on pretending he is an aberration.
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:06 AM on December 13, 2015 [17 favorites]


RE: this being fairly quiet in "the media": it's probably not safe to assume that "the media," writ large, is especially interested in what happens to black women (& is probably never gonna be, despite what should be true) unless you also consider black feminists' social media & social justice-focused black media as part of "the media." when you say you're a diligent consumer of media, what you consider "media" also matters here.

as quoted above: Meanwhile, “The invisibility of these women’s stories on the radars of most news outlets and many of those invested in ending police brutality against black people speaks volumes about how black women figure in both national and social justice discussions about racial injustice.”

If you didn't see this story, that is why. I know it's uncomfortable to think of yourself as part of that phenomenon. If you want to be a better media consumer, seek out those sources.
posted by listen, lady at 7:56 AM on December 13, 2015 [13 favorites]


(I realize I probably sound like a jerk! I'm sorry! And I think this is what's true!)
posted by listen, lady at 8:05 AM on December 13, 2015


Holtzclaw didn't especially target sex workers. He targeted vulnerable women: women with criminal records, women with outstanding warrants, women who had been drinking or doing drugs, and poor black women who lived in poor, black neighborhoods. Decriminalizing sex work would have done nothing to stop Holtzclaw. Also, the narrative about him getting caught because he picked the wrong victim seems to have been something cooked up by the police department to justify their previous inaction, since they already knew about allegations that Holtzclaw was sexually assaulting women six months before he assaulted his final victim. It's true that he's not an aberration, and he is not being treated as an aberration by the black women who have worked so hard to draw public attention to his case. Rather, they've been treating it as a systemic problem that is finally, in this one case, not being swept under the rug. Finally, he doesn't deserve a long sentence because he is an aberration. He deserves a long sentence because his crimes, however common they may be, merit it.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:05 AM on December 13, 2015 [10 favorites]


If you didn't see this story, that is why. I know it's uncomfortable to think of yourself as part of that phenomenon. If you want to be a better media consumer, seek out those sources.

This is a good point. I'm always trying to keep different types of people in my social media feed. I don't want to derail completely but if anyone has any good suggestions for more social justice type individuals to follow on twitter, I would love a link/list.
posted by Fizz at 8:14 AM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


So, instead of just being lazy, I decided to actually google "social justice twitter accounts to follow" as well as "black twitter" and I'm sharing the results with everyone here:

@tanehisicoates Ta-Nehisi Coates
@rgay Roxane Gay
@deray Deray McKesson
@pushinghoops Ayesha A. Siddiqui
@jozenc Jozen C.
@FeministaJones Feminista Jones
@marclamonthill Marc Lamont Hill
@brokeymcpoverty Tracy Clayton
@thetrudz Trudy

I'm sure there is plenty more, but these were some of the more popular twitter accounts that popped up under my search. Feel free to add to this list. It's good to get more diverse points of view into our social media/living experiences.
posted by Fizz at 8:33 AM on December 13, 2015 [16 favorites]


DeRay and Johnetta Elzie also publish this daily newsletter, This Is The Movement.
posted by listen, lady at 8:40 AM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


For Harriet also covers a lot of stuff that gets ignored—they've been writing about Holtzclaw for over a year.
posted by listen, lady at 8:47 AM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) has been talking about Holtzclaw a lot.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:00 AM on December 13, 2015 [3 favorites]


Pundit-space and activist-space in general has been super quiet about it, but "black feminist twitter" was where I heard about it when the charges were first filed

Norma Jean Almodovar
has been beating the drum for this on her Facebook feed. She does an outstanding job of tracking arrests and convictions of sexual predators among law enforcement officers.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:26 AM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


Jezebel has been posting articles since August 2014.
posted by brujita at 10:16 AM on December 13, 2015 [3 favorites]


It just means the jury didn't find enough evidence to prove up one of the elements of a particular charge at the higher standard of proof for criminal cases (beyond reasonable doubt).

Given the context (and the length of the deliberations), I suspect it might even mean one member of the jury didn't find enough evidence to prove that particular charge. If, after 40+ hours of deliberation, we're already convicting this guy of four incidents of first-degree sexual assault and you (and only you) want to say you're not sure of the fifth, I suspect I'd be inclined to concede to you -- at some point, arguing over any given charge starts to have diminishing returns.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 10:29 AM on December 13, 2015 [3 favorites]


Here's what Holtzclaw reporting looked like, via Google News, before September 1 of this year.
posted by listen, lady at 10:54 AM on December 13, 2015 [3 favorites]


@PINACnews: Photography is Not a Crime [website]
posted by ctmf at 1:34 PM on December 13, 2015


On the sex worker angle-- decrim might have helped and yes the police assault rates panacea namechecked are the norm and huge. But I think more realistically this happened, and is going to continue to happen, until America decriminalizes Blackness.
posted by moonlight on vermont at 4:04 PM on December 13, 2015


This is an excellent post, thank you. I too have seen this discussed only on Black Twitter for the most part. Seconding the twitter accounts linked above, most of which I follow (include Shaun King in those). Also seconding For Harriet and I've also seen stuff I really like at Black Girl Dangerous (twitter). Also Johnetta Elzie (aka @Nettaaaaaaaa)
posted by triggerfinger at 4:14 PM on December 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


Sorry, I see listen, lady already mentioned Johnetta Elzie above.
posted by triggerfinger at 4:16 PM on December 13, 2015


Holtzclaw didn't especially target sex workers. He targeted vulnerable women: women with criminal records, women with outstanding warrants, women who had been drinking or doing drugs, and poor black women who lived in poor, black neighborhoods.

Yeah, to be clear that's how he deviated from the professional norms of policing: picking the wrong targets. And yet, if you look at what those women had in common, it's mostly this: they were all outlaws in the sense that Elizabeth Anderson describes: people from whom the state withholds the ordinary benefits and protections of the law or subjects to private punishment.

Decriminalizing sex work would have done nothing to stop Holtzclaw.

My understanding is that several of his victims were sex workers, but I haven't seen a breakdown. If Anderson is right, then outlawery is something the state does to designate some people as beyond its protections; sex workers, drug users, and people with warrants or criminal records would all be suffering that "social status intervention" where we decide that some people aren't worthy of the law's protections or are "fair game" for private cruelty, caprice, and discrimination. It's built into the way we police and punish.

But I think more realistically this happened, and is going to continue to happen, until America decriminalizes Blackness.

Agreed. We're criminalizing people rather than actions. (Or maybe even worse, if that's possible: we're criminalizing communities rather than actions.) Being Black, or a Latino immigrant without papers, or poor--or just living near Black people, immigrants, or the poor--is an excuse for cruelty in our culture.
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:12 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


His acts are ones that I've only read about in fiction, where the character has gone under some sort of never-coming-back psychological destruction of their very soul. I'm without the proper words to know now that life imitates art.

Fiction? You were not aware that there are many many serial rapists out there ? And many of them could be found if we would just DNA test the thousands of rape kits taken and never analyzed, because they tend to be repeat offenders.
They tend not to stop unless they are in no position to rape again. So, this is a huge win because it's pretty likely he already had, - would have many more - victims that we would ever know about. I think it was about 5/13 of his victims who were not believable enough for him to be convicted for. It is a big win- not spilled milk.
posted by TenaciousB at 4:20 PM on December 14, 2015 [5 favorites]


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