Kalief Browder spent three years at Rikers, including 800 days in solitary confinement. And while he was being tortured behind bars, his mother, Venida, was choked with guilt, unable to afford his $3,000 bail. The trauma didn't just kill Kalief. It killed his mother, too.
The system punished the Browders for their inability to buy freedom. And like many Black women with family members stolen by prisons and policing, Venida was thrust into the world of justice activism as her grief continued to take its mental and physical toll. Not long after his overdue release, Kalief died by suicide. Only a year later, in 2016, Venida died of a heart attack.
The same happened to Eric Garner’s daughter, Erica, who died of a heart attack at 27. Cynthia Atchinson never recovered after police killed her son, Jimmy, dying three years later. Martina Davis-Correia, 44, died of cancer after spending half of her life advocating for her brother Troy Davis, who was on death row.
U.S. police kill over 1000 people yearly. But that number doesn’t include the deaths of their loved ones, who are experiencing heart attacks, strokes, depression, PTSD, and more.
We should frame the deaths of community members like Venida Browder as secondary killings the criminal legal system is responsible for. And when building a world without police violence, those killings will be prevented, too.