Her Story
In December of 2016, Fort Worth received national attention for a video that went viral on Facebook depicting the violent arrest of Jacqueline Craig. Craig is a mother who lives in the southwest side of Fort Worth. On December 21st, 2016, she called police because her neighbor, a white male, had grabbed her 7 year old son around the neck for allegedly littering on his lawn.
The video depicts the incident when police officer William Martin arrived on the scene. He first spoke to the neighbor who was accused of choking the boy, and the man admits to grabbing the child by the neck. Craig and her two daughters are also standing there, and one is filming the interaction. It is unclear where her son is. Martin then turns to Craig, who is visibly upset about the incident. The officer asks Craig “what’s going on with you?” She explains that the neighbor had accused her son of littering and then choked him. The officer then asks Craig why she didn't teach her son not to litter. Craig then says “He can’t prove to me that my son littered, but it doesn’t matter if he did or didn’t, it doesn’t give him the right to put his hands on him.”
The officer is standing stoic and unemotional, and asks “Why not?” Craig becomes more upset, trying to explain herself and her anger, and the officer tells her to stop yelling. He then says “If you keep yelling at me you’re going to piss me off and I’m going to take you to jail.”
Craig’s 15 year old daughter then walks over to her mother to push her back from the officer, and Martin immediately goes over to them and grabs her from behind. Craig yells, asking him not to grab her. The officer aggressively pushes her daughter away and then grabs Craig. He shoves Craig to the ground, pointing a taser at her that looks frighteningly like a gun. He violently pushes her on the ground and puts her in handcuffs, only after pointing his taser at the other women there. Next, he goes over to Craig’s daughter who he had previously pushed, and shoves her on the ground by her neck, putting her in handcuffs. This all occurs within 2 minutes and 30 seconds of the officer asking them what the problem was.
He puts them in the back of his police car, where Brea, Craig’s 19 year old daughter is recording him. She tells him she is recording and he says “Ok, you are going to jail too,” and grabs her. Martin shoves her against the squad car where Craig and her daughter are. He aggressively grabs the phone out of her hand, that is still recording, and puts her in handcuffs.
He calls for another squad car, and tells everyone else there that if anyone else comes over there they are being arrested too. She tells him again that she recorded him kicking her. He says “this is a camera too, and its HD.” He repeatedly asks her name, and when she refuses to answer, he twists her arms above her head, trying to make her comply through pain. The other officer gets there and he puts Brea in that car.
Craig and her daughter Brea were taken to jail, while her 15 year old daughter was released. Brea and Craig were taken to Mansfield, where they were being held for resisting arrest and interfering with public duties, and thousands of dollars in bail. Lee Merrit, a civil rights attorney from Dallas took their case. The next day, he secured their release and began working on a case against the city and officer.
It wasn’t until one month later that charges were dropped against Craig and her daughter. One year later, in 2017, Craig was interviewed about the incident again. She said that she was a private person and a loner, and that this incident has taken that away from her. But she has also “found her voice as an activist.” She says since this happened, and the video went viral, her kids have been bullied a lot, and she has been rejected from a lot of jobs. But she has also been a source of support for Dorshay Morris, a woman who was similarly attacked by a Fort Worth police officer after calling for help. Craig wanted justice in her case, and for the officer to be held accountable. Now, she says she also sees a bigger goal, of helping this issue so that her grandson doesn’t have to deal with the racism she did.
Relevance to Today
In just one day, the video of the police violence against Jacqueline Craig and her family had gotten 1.3 million views and was shared 28,000 times. This was an interesting case, because so many times the violence against women of color is made invisible behind the publicity around violence against black men, the reason for #sayhername in the first place, but people are saying Jacqueline Craig’s name. There are tons of articles about the incident, from the Star Telegram, the Buzzfeed, to Essence, and the Washington Post.
But this brings up an issue—there are only articles about the incident. There are no articles about Craig’s life, what she does in Fort Worth, or who she is outside of this incident. Though people are elevating her story, and using it to demand justice, she is being used as an object to achieve more accountability. At least through what can be seen through articles a few years after, she is not being humanized past being recognized as a black mother assaulted by police.
The fact that she is a mother is also important. This incident occurred because she is a mother, who tried to help her son. The incident happened in front of her children, and even involved her daughters. Craig is not the only victim here—so is her family, who was also terrorized by the incident. This is complicated because she is a mother. Violence against women does not happen in a vacuum, where they are the only victims.
It is so obvious that this was an incident of racism, as well. Craig and her daughters did nothing to threaten Martin. He is a large man with a weapon, he should not have felt threatened by these women. But he aggressed the situation, escalating it himself and using force. He chose to believe the white, male, neighbor’s story as more credible, instead viewing Craig as aggressive and lying. Martin also lied about key facts before the body cam footage came out, saying that the neighbor never admitted to choking the boy (he did), that Brea resisted arrest and pushed him (both false) and that Jacqueline Craig never identified herself (she did). Martin went to great lengths to protect his racist actions. He was backed up by the city, only receiving a ten day suspension.
Fort Worth has not made many concrete steps to solving this issue as a city, which, evidenced by the similar incident with Dorshay Morris, is systematic. Newly re-elected Mayor Betsy Price called reactions a “bitch session” during a community meeting about these issues. Systematic racism is a national problem, and the city of Fort Worth is not immune to it.
Relevance to Class
Though #SayHerName and much of the focus in the issue of police violence is on victims who are killed, it is also important to elevate the stories of people, especially women, who have lived through it. The effects of trauma like this continue to live with you, and in Craig’s case, her children as well. This incident is a manifestation of intersectionality, as explained by Kimberle Crenshaw. This specific incident occurred because of Craig’s identity as a woman and a mother—she was caring for and trying to protect her child—and a woman of color. Because of that identity, the officer viewed her as someone who was less than human and not deserving of respectful treatment.
Yet as a public, we still do not have a great understanding of intersectionality in order to have a conversation about how her intersecting identities impacted this situation. Many see it as an issue or racism, and many conversations have been about that. Because feminism often doesn’t fit into antiracist practices, there has been little analysis of how Jacqueline Craig being a woman of color specifically affected this situation. In feminist discourse, the police are supposed to be a protective force that will fight for justice when they are assaulted, etc. That is the exact opposite of what happened here. Black women are constantly shown that they police are not there to help them—in fact, the message is that police will harm them, not protect them at all.
This is related to bell hook’s description of how black women are seen by society. She describes black women as seen as “surrogate men.” Since the time of slavery, women were seen as important for slavery because they could perform the same tasks as a man, but could also produce babies and more profit. This has survived into today’s society—black women are not seen as feminine or vulnerable as white women are. They are perceived as “strong,” “angry,” and “aggressive.” Officer Martin perceived Jacqueline Craig and her daughters this way. There is no way this would have happened to a white woman and her daughters.
The issue of police violence is a huge one in our country, with no solution in sight. A recent study looked at the impact of death thoughts on police use of force. According to Terror Management Theory, thoughts of death make people anxious, so to protect from them we create cultural worldviews and self-esteem, and work to protect them. When we are confronted with thoughts of death, we need to protect those things. This is a relevant theory because police officers must deal with death often as a part of their job. Officers from across the country were surveyed about their thoughts of death, as well as how much they approve of use of force. It was found that officers who had high death thought accessibility were more likely to approve of excessive use of force. More research needs to be done, so that if this is one of the factors impacting police violence officers can be trained in how to better account for this.
Actions for Change
This incident is just a manifestation of a huge problem that the United States has with police violence against people of color. We need to keep telling these stories and holding officers accountable for their actions. We must keep demanding that we #SayHerName and that survivors and victims are seen for their humanity. One way we can do that is by telling a person’s entire story. Jacqueline Craig is not just someone who has only been assaulted by police. She is a mother, she has had jobs, and lives in a community. We need to tell that story. By doing that, we are humanizing her, and not allowing her to be reduced to an object who was affected by police violence. When we continue to tell her story and the story of those who are still alive as well, we are challenged to deal with the repercussions of our society. Jacqueline Craig is still alive and must still live in a city that does not value her life as a human being. We must care for these survivors as well.
Because of these incidents in Fort Worth, and others, many community members are calling for a Civilian Police Oversight Committee. Dallas just created one, and citizens think this is a great way to hold their officers accountable. United Fort Worth is one of the organizations leading this charge, and if you want to get involved, their meeting times can be found on their Facebook page. This is one of the steps that can be taken in our local city to improve this situation.
We must say her name.
Sources for more information:
Crenshaw, Kimberle (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectinality, Identity Politics and Violence Against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review. 43(6). p. 1241-1299.
bell hooks (1990). Ain't I a Woman? Boston: South End Press.
Articles about the incident:
Video of the incident: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article129656854.html