Kalief Browder was an African American teenager from the Bronx, New York, arrested in the middle of the night while walking home with a fellow teenager from a house party. Arresting officers rushed Browder to Rikers Island Detention Complex and charged him with grand larceny. Browder would stay imprisoned for 1,126 days simply because an undocumented Mexican man's claimed that the two Black teenagers tried to rob him. Later the undocumented worker changed his story within the same night and claimed to Kalief's arresting police officers while sitting in the police car that Kalief and his friend stole his brother's backpack the previous week. Who by happenstance was also an undocumented worker in the Bronx. (Kalief pictured above with executive producer Shawn Jay-Z Carter)
By the way, btw nobody knew what was in the backpack: dirty clothes, old papers, or a solitary dollar. What we do know, per Kalief Browder's own words, taped interviews with arresting officers, numerous judges who were White, Black, and Hispanic throughout his three-year term violated teenagers' rights. Furthermore, the DA, judges, and police's paramount goal was to make Kalief confess to a crime he didn't commit. (Pictured above Kalief Browder as a child & as a teenager being attacked by a prison guard whilst hand cuffed and going to showers, plus a picture of his brother Akeem Browder w/ Tee shirt that states "Black Lawyers Matter")
Kalief's testimonial exposed the structural racism operating in American jail systems throughout the United States targeted at Black youth. This element of both child abuse and outright discrimination strategically puts Black teens, if arrested, in jeopardy of experiencing.
False Arrest
Malicious Prosecution
The Denial Of The Right To A Fair And Speedy Trial
The Torture Of Solitary Confinement
Denial Of Medical Needs After Being Attacked By Detention Officers or Gangs Who Work On Behalf of Detention Officers who attack incarcerated children because youth resisted demasculation from guards and gang members and for refusing to admit to a crime youth never committed. Plus, for defending him or herself against attackers. The said detainee is subjected to this unnatural plus brutal behavior because the child detainee did not go along with what gang members call "the program." https://www.askdifference.com/emasculate-vs-demasculate/ (Pictured above Black Judge now DA Darcel Clark who repeatedly refused to allow Kalief to be released. Below Kalief's Civil Rights Attorney Paul Prestia)
Damages mentioned above per Browder's Civil Rights Attorney Paul Valentine Prestia are worth up to 20 million dollars per civil suit. https://www.urban.org/features/structural-racism-america
Kalief Browder was arrested on trumped-up charges in the middle of the night on May 15, 2010. He would be eventually released from prison in the middle of the night on May 29, 2013, because he was falsely accused of a crime he did not commit. Upon his release, the only thing the Riker's Detention Center gave him was a metro card. No apologies. No reparations for the wrong they did to him, plus little to no therapy to try to address his mental depression inflicted on him while being imprisoned for a case he didn't commit. (And even if a person committed the said crime, three years in jail does not match the sentence of snatching a bookbag.) https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/undocumented-workers
Whilst Kalief was imprisoned because of undocumented workers' brother's false accusation against 16-year-old Browder. The undocumented worker returned home to Mexico to live freely without regret. The false accuser of Kalief did not have the integrity to tell the truth. And our American law enforcement and judicial system assisted with the deliberate persecution of a 16-year-old Black teenager on purpose for over 1,000 days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOorq_DjR9g
Thankfully Kalief's testimonials became a documentary executively produced by Shawn Jay Z Carter, Harvey Weinstein, and David Glasser, the former operating officer for the Weinstein Company, titled "The Kalief Browder Story."Sadly because of the multiple cases of abuse plus injustice committed against Kalief while imprisoned lead Kalief two years later, after his release from prison, to commit suicide.
Kalief Browder was born in 1993 and died in 2015. Kalief's testimonies provide the evidence that's needed to eradicate racist policing, discriminatory judicial policies, plus police brutality throughout the criminal justice system here in North America. Kalief's documentary twists the Black Caucus's arms to make Civil Rights Divison, NAACP, NAN, and our American government intervene and save these Black citizens from the racist plans of domestic terrorists wearing judges robes and police uniforms. Plus, enforce the monetary compensation needed so that Black North American survivors of African chattel slavery and 1st nation genocide can be compensated for the abuse levied against them via the American court system. When asked by documentarian "how many kids were imprisoned who was just like Kalief." Kalief stated that "most Black teenagers detained plus unable to come up with bond money were just like him Black, and between 15 to 18 yrs old." In short, falsely accused, and freedom stolen by prison systems designed to take their freedom away systematically. (Which in my opinion is treason.) Btw "Richard Riker was known for abusing The Fugitive Slaves Act, which was put in place to allow for the capture and return of runaway slaves in the U.S."
https://www.essence.com/culture/rikers-island-slavery-ties/ https://ap.gilderlehrman.org/essay/indian-slavery-americas
Kalief Browder. A true American hero and Black history legend. RIP Venida & Kalief Browder
Thank you for reading another article in the relaunched Echo NJs oldest Black-owned Newspaper. "For the cause of the Negro." Since 1904 Please reflect on Kalief's legacy with Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City"
