Will she ever see justice?
 | By Eleanor Barkhorn Editor at Large, Opinion |
In the past decade, a powerful tool has emerged as a way to help people seeking justice for wrongdoing by the police: video footage. Viral videos of police officers abusing their power have spurred protests and efforts at legal reform. |
But what are the costs of relying so heavily on video documentations of trauma? |
Esau McCaulley addresses this question in a new essay today. He tells the story of Anjanette Young, a woman who was handcuffed, naked, in her Chicago apartment in February 2019 by police officers with a warrant based on faulty information. |
The experience changed her life. She moved because she no longer felt safe in her home. She was diagnosed with PTSD and depression. |
"My life before was just a quiet life," Young told McCaulley. "I lived a very quiet and simple life and now my life has been completely turned upside down. I can't sleep at night." |
As McCaulley writes, Young tried to pursue justice with the city of Chicago quietly, and made very little progress. |
So she and her lawyers made the decision to release the body camera footage of the raid to a local television station. The video went viral in December 2020, inspiring tweets of outrage and support. |
And it had the desired effect: The city finally apologized to Young and began negotiations on a settlement. The officers involved in the raid were placed on desk duty. |
All of this encouraged Young. But it also resurfaced the trauma she experienced on the night of the raid, and she had to take medical leave from her job at a hospital. As important as releasing the video was for her effort at obtaining justice from the city, it exposed her to a new round of pain. McCaulley's essay argues that it shouldn't be this way. |
"I do wonder if it is right for us as a society to expect that level of sacrifice and vulnerability for already traumatized people to receive justice," McCaulley writes. |
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