If I was a better writer I would compose a long, eloquent diatribe about how a recent story regarding a woman from Sudan miscarrying her baby after she repeatedly asked for medical assistance during a police stop and officers refused to listen to her is A PERFECT EXAMPLE of how the KCPD has failed to listen to the minority community in this town and that's why they haven't received much cooperation in solving or preventing the regular spate of murders on the Eastside.
However, in a remarkable story reported by Tess Koppelman on Fox News 4 . . . The dash camera video pretty much speaks for itself and Koppelman reports that the woman asked for help more than a dozen times on her way to jail where her pleas remained unanswered. I'm not going to even attribute the quotes from the video because the random sound bytes clearly tell a story that is all too familiar for anybody who has ever been guilty of driving while Black, brown or poor.
Here is what I heard:
"I have a problem, I'm bleeding and I want to go to a hospital."
"She says she's bleeding"
"I want to go to the hospital"
"I have a baby in my stomach and I'm bleeding"
"How is that my problem?"
"Do you see? Do you see the blood?"
"It's called a menstrual cycle. I understand because I am a woman."
"I want to go to the hospital."
"Well that can be something you can take care of when we get done with you."
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way."
"Don't cop an attitude with me"
"Stop moving. Spread your feet apart."
"She's trying to be a slick one."
Honestly, it's been a long time (high school maybe) since I've seen two people care less about a person's fate then in this video. And it should be noted that Sophia Salva probably did have fake tags and she also had warrants for her arrest but neither of those facts granted the officers permission to deny her basic human rights and medical care . . . You have to be an insurance company to do that.
And while previously, the KCPD neglecting to provide medical attention to a dying man after Tasering him repeatedly earned harsh, stoic calls from law and order types basically contending that because the man had drugs in his system, he deserved to die . . . That same kind of cavalier attitude doesn't really hold up when it's a pregnant woman under discussion . . . While the principals are basically the same, the reality is nobody is silly enough to believe that we're all equal under the law and it's also not worth pointing out that it's doubtful this same kind of situation would have taken place if it was a half way decent looking white woman begging for help.
I have no idea what the aftermath of this story might be . . . But clearly this is evidence that KCPD's lack of effort to reach out and listen to the minority community (read: The Black Community and not its mostly corrupt representatives) in Kansas City has manifested itself in every facet of the department and that negligence has resulted in not only little cooperation in order to prevent crime but also, tragically in this instance, a dead baby.
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