According to police, 18-year-old Saniyah Cheatham was found unconscious inside a Bronx holding cell and was soon pronounced dead. They say she asphyxiated herself with a sweater. But police cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
Her family says Cheatham was “happy” at a Fourth of July cookout hours before her arrest over a “physical fight” with her girlfriend. Apparent happiness alone doesn’t negate suicidality, but Cheatham’s family says she wasn’t even wearing a sweater that day. Cheatham’s death— whatever the cause— is on the state because it happened in state custody.
Her story mirrors that of Sandra Bland, who died almost exactly 10 years before Cheatham. Days before Cheatham’s death was N.Y.C. Pride, a somber reminder that queer women are hypercriminalized. Although just 3% of the U.S. population, they account for more than 40% of women in prison. We shouldn’t let the system condemn Black women as “violent” and “criminal” either.
Still, the system’s story is just that: a story. “She was very bright, very independent, smart, outgoing,” said her grieving mother, Thomasina Cheatham. Her brother Javan remembered accepting Cheatham when she came out, a distant memory as he helped select affirmingly “boyish” clothes for her funeral. “She knew all of me, and I knew all of her,” he said. “She just got me.”
At 18, policing cut Saniyah Cheatham’s life and its possibilities short. It’s those who survive who must live to shatter the violent, dehumanizing narratives they create about us.