Ann Arbor is America: The Police Kill Aura Rosser and the System Exonerates Itself — Again
Austin McCoy
Last night Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor released his statement reacting to Prosecutor Brian Mackie’s decision not to indict Officer David Ried. Taylor called the Aura Rosser killing a “tragedy of mental illness and drug use unabated.” “The events of that night,” he continued, “were a tragedy, but not a tragedy of racism, which is loathsome and unacceptable to everything Ann Arbor and the Ann Arbor Police Department stands for.”
Not only does the Mayor, probably willfully, misunderstand the role that racism plays in police shootings of African Americans, he continues to illustrate how the authorities have conducted the whole investigative process under a shroud of secrecy. Mackie announced his decision not to indict the officer who killed Rosser and Taylor released his statement after business hours on a Friday night like they were trying to bury a scandal. Releasing the announcement not to indict at 5:17 PM illustrates how the authorities are trying to evade accountability. It is difficult not to conclude fact that the authorities are not worried about protest.
Much of the media coverage of Aura Rosser’s death has focused on her mental instability, drug use, and criminal past. The Prosecutor’s report on the incident — released last night — does the same. “The toxicology report does show high levels of cocaine, cocaine metabolites and alcohol in Ms. Rosser’s system…Witness statements and evidence found in the home made it clear that Ms. Rosser had smoked crack cocaine,” the report states.
Ironically, criminalizing and stigmatizing Aura Rosser by focusing on her drug use, while the Mayor denies the role that racism plays in local policing, does not make Ann Arbor look like the progressive exception it claims to be. The shooting of Aura Rosser confirms how Ann Arbor looks like the rest of America. Appraisals of Rosser’s character in the local media and in the prosecutor’s report reads more like the characterizations of Ezell Ford and Michael Brown. The crucial difference is that Rosser is black and female. Being black and female in America today means that black women not only die at the hands of the state like men, their suffering is obscured while making their physicality and psychological state hyper-visible. Black women’s suffering is unseen by the authorities, but the state tries to highlight how they are “aggressive” and hysterical.
The racism and sexism embedded in the policing in this “tragedy” is not a product of racist intent or personal hate towards black people. This “tragedy” is not just a mere assemblage of various individual actions that led to an unfortunate death, either. Many relate the Aura Rosser “tragedy” to the killings of Aiyanna Jones, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Ezell Ford because it is the product of a system that views black women and men as threats, not as citizens who deserve due process and humane treatment. Ann Arbor may not be Ferguson, as The Ann Arbor Independent recently claimed, but it is America.
That is a system we strive to change. The citizens of Washtenaw Country are entitled to accountability and transparency from its elected officials and public servants, at the very least. In his statement, the mayor speaks of the “plain facts” of the case, but what he, as well as much of America, fails to realize is that in all of the non-indictments in the Jones, Rosser, Brown, and Garner cases, the institutions that perpetrate these crimes against black humanity are the ones who create the “facts.” They try to create narratives that explain injustices. Criminal justice institutions are not designed to serve and protect black women and men, they are designed to protect police and any person worthy of humanity — those who live in the “right” neighborhoods, those who “play by the rules,” those who possess more wealth. We need a system that protects all of us and that is accountable to all of us and one that we can change if it fails us.
An important question moving forward is whether or not we have faith in Mayor Christopher Taylor. Does he really care? He posted his reaction on his Facebook page like he was a passive observer of events transpiring in his own city. We also cannot forget that this is the same mayor who did not want to permit concerned citizens and protesters to use their speech time to give a moment of silence for Aura Rosser during a city council meeting last December. If Taylor could not spare citizens three minutes to recognize Rosser’s humanity, then why should we assume that he cares about black lives?
We need to give up the liberal farce when it comes to matters of race and policing in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County. Ann Arbor is not some liberal oasis in America. It contains the vestiges of racial inequality and economic exploitation like any city in the United States. If we do not give up this farce, we will join the authorities in rationalizing the next instance of profiling and brutality. The cycle of black death will continue. That’s why it’s important to act today, next week, and the following. #BlackLivesMatter
