ArtResponders

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Like many other police victims, Kevin Davis initiated contact with the police who ended up causing his death. He called police for help when his girlfriend was stabbed; when the responding officer arrived, he first shot the family dog, Tootles. When Mr. Davis ran outside to investigate, officer Joseph Hillyard, who still hadn't identified himself, fatally shot him. Hillyard's first words to the unarmed man were "Drop your weapon." His family have yet to receive a simple apology for the murder of this kind man who was beloved by his community.

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©2015 D.E. Stenvoll-Wells.  Number 5 from the Deaths in Custody Series is Darren Rainey. The mentally ill prisoner was scalded to death in the psychiatric ward of a Florida prison as punishment for defecating in his cell. Guards were heard taunting the 50-year-old man, "How do you like your shower", as he was left for hours screaming in agony. An orderly later testified hearing a guard at the institution warn a new inmate, "“We kill guys here and get away with it, so you better ask around. Read more about the sickening death of Darren Rainey, and other crimes against inmates in Florida, here: <http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article1972693.html#storylink=cpy>

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©2014 D.E. Stenvoll-Wells:  Even as the streets filled with angry protesters fighting for accountability in the murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, police killings of unarmed black men continued to rise as 2014 came to a close.  

On the night of December 2, a Phoenix policeman, acting on a tip, approached 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon as he arrived at his girlfriend’s house to deliver a fast food lunch to his daughters.  When the officer demanded that he put his hands up, Brisbon attempted to flee.  

Reaching his girlfriend’s door, a scuffle ensued, and the officer claimed he mistook a pill bottle in Brisbon’s pocket for the handle of a gun.  The officer fired two shots, killing him; he was heard by a neighbor immediately afterward, screaming obscenities, apparently hit by the gravity of the situation. 

Defending the shooting, a local police Sergeant stated, ““This one went bad, from the standpoint of how it ended, but the officer was doing exactly what we want him to do.”French fries were strewn on the steps of at the scene of the crime.  

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©2014 D.E. Stenvoll-Wells: 2015 'Black Lives Matter' 12-month calendar to benefit groups that work to raise awareness of racial justice as a public health issue!  Get yours now!  <http://www.etsy.com/artresponders>

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©2014 D.E. Stenvoll-Wells:  This portrait pays tribute to Eric Garner, whose brazen murder by ‘neck compression’ was captured on video in broad daylight. Garner was assaulted for the most innocuous of crimes— selling untaxed cigarettes— and his last words, “I can’t breathe”, were an heart-rending cry for mercy from the father of six.  As a fellow asthmatic, I could relate to this terrifying feeling, and I have still been unable to watch the video. Fortunately, millions did, and the ensuing uproar led to the suspension of four EMTs at the scene in addition to the two officers involved. The sheer senselessness of the crime is magnified by the fact that the officer who put him in a chokehold, only 29, already had two civil rights cases brought against him for false arrest and abusive behavior. It appears that even policemen with stained records feel at liberty to act with impunity.  While the hulking physical appearance of Eric Garner is eerily similar to other victims highlighted here— six feet, three inches and 350 pounds— there can be no doubt that he was not the aggressor in this situation. He was heard pleading with the cops to stop harassing him, exclaiming, “I was just minding my own business… I’m tired of it. It stops today!”  Searching for photos of him, it’s hard not to notice his genial, loving smile in all of them. What is remarkable about photo stills from his murder is the many hands of officers and EMTs casually causing his death by binding is hands, pressing down on his chest and back while ignoring his pleas for mercy.  Instead of using shots from this shameful and tragic moment, I chose to depict Garner in a moment of peace and contentment, feeding one of his children a bottle. The gentleness of his hand tipping the bottle into his baby’s mouth is contrasted with the brutal positioning of his aggressors’ hands as they watched him die.

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©2014 D.E. Stenvoll-Wells:  It wasn't the police who murdered Duanna Johnson. A 2008 video shows two officers savagely beating the transgendered woman as they shouted epithets at her in a Memphis prison, but they stopped short of killing her. The perpetrators were eventually fired from the force, and one of them served time. But Johnson was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head later that year, and no murderer was ever found. Her case is an illustration of how corrupt and inhumane law enforcement makes already vulnerable members of society-- sex workers, LGBTQ people, runaways, abused spouses-- doubly vulnerable. Whoever killed Duanna Johnson, she clearly knew that she could never rely on the police again for assistance and protection, and this surely emboldened her killers to target her once again.

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©2014 D.E. Stenvoll-Wells: 2015 Black Lives Matter calendar available now on Etsy.  25% of proceeds go to two Bay Area youth groups fighting to raise awareness. Support the cause and #carry the names!  

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©2014 D.E. Stenvoll-Wells:

Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice’s death, by the numbers:

Zero: Number of times the 911 dispatcher mentioned

to police that the gun was probably fake

Zero: Number of times Cleveland police who hired

shooter Timothy Loehmann read the ‘dismal’ performance

report from his former employers in the Independence, 

Ohio police department, in which his supervisor lamented,

 “I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change 

or correct these deficiencies.”

Zero: Number of times Rice pointed the toy gun at

officers

Once: Number of times the caller stated that the 

gun Rice was holding was probably fake

Twice:  Number of times the 911 responder asked

whether the boy reported by the anonymous caller

was black or white

Two seconds:  Amount of time that elapsed between 

the arrival of officers to the scene and the shooting

less than 10 feet:  Distance between the police and

Rice when he was shot

Four minutes: Amount of time that elapsed between 

the shooting and officers attempted to administer aid

Fourteen years: Age of Rice’s older sister, who was 

tackled, handcuffed, and put in a police cruiser when 

she attempted to run towards her brother after he was 

shot.

250: Number of mourners who showed up for Rice’s funeral

100,000: Amount of dollars paid by the City of Cleve-

land as a settlement for Officer Frank Garmback’s previous

excessive force lawsuit, in which he place the victim 

“in a chokehold, tackled her to the ground, twisted her wrist 

and began hitting her body”.

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©2014 D.E. Stenvoll-Wells:  Shereese Francis suffered from one condition shared by more than a third of Americans— obesity— and one shared by relatively few. Her own family called the police for help getting the diagnosed schizophrenic 30-year-old to take her medication. Instead of helping, the four officers responding to the call suffocated her face-down on a bed as they attempted to cuff her. As in the case of Eric Garner, she died of ‘compression asphyxia’, and as in Garner’s case, police defenders have been quick to point out that perhaps she might not have died had she not been obese. Other defenders imply that her mental illness and attendant behavior was the cause of the officers’ aggression. Here is what these people are really saying: if black people are not allowed to suffer from disease without giving up their most basic human right, the right to live, then we are back in the age of seeing African-Americans as a mere fraction of a person.

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©2015 Art Responders/ D.E. Stenvoll-Wells

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©2014 D.E. Stenvoll-Wells: Many are familiar with the story of Amadou Diallou, the unarmed West African immigrant shot 41 times by plainclothes NYPD officers in 1999. Although all the officers were later acquitted, the infamous crime drew widespread criticism of the officers involved, and one might have hoped that the force learned something from the case. They clearly did not.  When Ousmane Zongo emigrated from Burkina Faso to the U.S., he sought a better life for his family. A mere four years after the Diallou crime, this 43-year-old was shot four times-- twice in the back-- as he tried to escape the pursuit of a plainclothes NYPD officer involved in a CD/DVD pirating sting. Zongo was later proved to not be involved in the scheme; he used the same Manhattan storage facility for repairing art and artifacts.  The first trial of the officer who committed this crime ended in mistrial; eventually, the killer was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to probation. Time after time, under nearly identical circumstances, American law enforcement officials refuse to learn from the past and continue killing with impunity. Without accountability, there is no reason for trigger-happy cops to change.

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©2014 D.E. Stenvoll-Wells:  The last months of 18-year-old Michael Brown’s life were spent in some ways typical of a recent college graduate.  He played video games, listened to favorite rap artists on his headphones, and even dabbled in making his own music with friends.  

     Despite growing up in a troubled part of inner city Missouri, and shuttling between schools and the homes of his parents and grandparents, he had managed to graduate on time from a school where the dropouts outnumber those receiving diplomas.  He had a clear criminal record.  Because of his impressive height and size, he was usually able to avoid physical confrontations. When he got into a dispute with a peer much smaller than him, he pushed him away, refusing to throw a punch at in what would have been an unfair fight.  

     Over the course of the summer, he tried on a swaggering new persona to match his rap lyrics, and the night of August 9 he seemed out to impress his companion as he scuffled with a store owner and lifted some cigarillos.  The store owner called the cops,  sparking the confrontation with officer Darren Wilson that would lead to his death.  

    Accounts of his scuffle with Wilson vary, but one thing is certain:  the unarmed teen was shot six times, twice in the head.  His body was left in the searing summer heat for four hours before being moved.  And the officer who killed him was never charged.  

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