Brutality to some of this country's most vulnerable

June 7, 2017 12:49 PM

Native lives matter - a movement emerges "No one knows why, but when he heard the sudden blare of sirens behind him, Daniel Covarrubias began running. The 37-year-old was walking home from the St. Clare hospital in Lakewood, Washington, on April 21, 2015, after getting treatment for side effects from his pain medications. His backpack full of beadwork, a craft that he had started a few years ago in an attempt to reconnect with his Native heritage, Covarrubias dashed into a nearby lumberyard, scaled a 25-foot-tall stack of wood and crouched, trying to hide."
posted by strelitzia (3 comments total)

I've said it once, regarding having a less than ideal amount of faith that the police will perform as your kindergarten teacher told you they could be expected to, and I'll say it again:

I'm native american ... my dad gave me a version of this talk as well. That selfsame message to have a a healthy distrust of people in positions of power was also passed on from relatives who are older and were mistreated and/or ignored because of their, more traditionally native american, appearance.

So, despite the fact that a little part of me died that day when I realized dad was reinforcing the, typical at the time because I was a teenager, notion that any given cop couldn't necessarily be trusted, I appreciate the message and fact that he respected me enough to warn me.

Yet again, thanks mom and dad.
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:57 PM on June 7, 2017 [4 favorites]

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posted by limeonaire at 1:10 PM on June 7, 2017

From another article linked from the article:

According to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ), a nonprofit that conducts research on issues pertaining to incarceration and criminal justice:

The racial group most likely to be killed by law enforcement is Native Americans, followed by African Americans, Latinos, Whites and Asian Americans.

The CJCJ reached this determination by examining data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics.

It revealed between 1999-2011, Native Americans were killed at a higher rate than any other racial group.

To put this into perspective, Native Americans make up less than one percent of the population, but comprise around two percent of police killings.

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posted by elsietheeel at 3:08 PM on June 7, 2017 [4 favorites]