To Be Black and Below the Rule of Law
“The rule of law is the greatest universal lie.”
Written by Brikitta Hairston
First theorized in the ancient era of Aristotle, the rule of law is categorized as the “ideals of our political morality and it refers to the ascendancy of law as such and of the institutions of the legal system in a system of governance” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
At its simplest, it is the blind principle that presumes liberty within the Republic. If this still isn’t making perfect sense, that’s perfectly fine. It’s meant to confuse us, otherwise, our governing bodies would not throw the weight of the rule of law around so recklessly.
The bare bones of the rule of law tell us that crimes should not go unpunished, that communities do not riot against one another and that the government puts its citizens first. Unfortunately, the rule of law starts to negate itself when we consider Marxist theories of crime and how the governments privileged to call themselves protectors of the People are facilitating the very situations that create their social strain. The rule of law is not colorblind – and much like modern feminism – means something entirely different for Black people.
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To be Black and below the rule of law means that laws are made without consideration of you but first used against you. And, God forbid you need the help of the law. If you do, you’re considered the writing on the underground walls. Out of sight, out of mind.
Take Breonna Taylor, for example. Her lack of justice should tell us enough, but let’s assume the layman does not know what was really at play. There is no complex research study that could tell us more than we really need to know. The one needful fact is that Breonna Taylor lived in a neighborhood that stood below the rule of law – a neighborhood heavily policed, lightly resourced. A neighborhood where No-Knock Warrants are carried out like mail deliveries.
If it’s hard to grasp the concept, I want you to imagine what it would be like if this ‘warrant’ for arrest was for a citizen of Calabasas, California. Do you think the police would make sure they were at the right home? Do you also think they would shoot without question?
Because Breonna Taylor lived below the rule of law, her socio-economic status signed her death warrant.
A heartbreaking aspect of the rule of law is that in areas with less funding, 911 response times are much slower, in some areas they are nonexistent on certain days, weekends most especially. It is alarmingly clear that your socioeconomic status is what determines your fate.
Even in situations that don’t directly involve the police as the threat actors, the economic identifiers of your neighborhood supersede rules of law.
Quick facts of the case: Lauren Smith-Fields was found dead in her apartment in December 2021, after a date with Matthew LaFountain.
Photo Source: NYTimes.com
When Lauren Smith-Fields died mysteriously, the Bridgeport Police Department decided that her life was not worth the justice the rule of law states that it is.
Lauren was a 23-year-old Black woman. Matthew LaFountain is a 37-year-old white man. It’s not enough that the racial disparities of the case muddy the waters; that alone is an explanation for the detectives’ reluctance to investigate properly. But more so, the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut is 20.8 percent impoverished.
Because race is at play, a comparison to another city with a lower poverty rate that’s more clearly within the rule of law would not be a complete analysis of the problem here. But, let’s try: If this same situation, unfortunately, happened in Greenwich, Connecticut — the most expensive city in the state and among the top ten most expensive in the nation — do you think the police would immediately write off the suspicious death, and release the last man that saw her alive of any responsibility? Do you think Bumble, the dating app they met on, would go without any public statements or solidarity, even a semblance of responsibility, for the situation? I think not.
Lauren’s victimology presents her as a high-risk victim in this case because she was a Black woman living in an area below the rule of law while also participating in an unpredictable dating-app culture. There are social cues and behaviors that Black women may notice when meeting men of different races in public that are not possible through a screen.
For example, the fetishization of Black women and the spread of the “Mammy” archetype is a cultural bias that increases our risk of victimization because we cannot gauge people’s intentions, and the misconceptions and expectations of us are what increases our risks of danger.
It is nearly impossible to quantify the dangers of these cultural judgments based on implicit bias, especially when the opposite archetype is more damning. the ‘Jezebel Archetype’ is deeply ingrained in popular culture–it’s why sex workers fear being doxxed every day, why our Aunties and Black mothers told us not to wear shorts in the dead of summer when Uncle or Dad’s friend was coming to visit. It is why, according to the American Psychological Association, 20 percent of Black women will experience sexual trauma in their lifetime, a percentage higher than women overall.
They do not tell us, as young Black girls, that the men who say they are attracted to us may likely only be telling us what they want to hear just to get one step closer to doing what they want to do with us—to us. Lauren’s death is a tragic one because it displays how derelict our government is in its duties to protect all individuals, regardless of race or class, and investigate suspicious deaths when there are suspects who may likely go out and offend again.
As a victimologist, I observed that the differences between Lauren and Breonna are not too different, they were both moderate-risk victims because of their race and socioeconomic status, and their external support was, unfortunately, abysmal.
Conversely, the plight of Gabby Petito, 22, was nearly heard around the world. Her fiance, Brian admitted to killing her in a journal later found by the authorities.
Without notifying her family, he continued on the road for nearly two weeks until he was also reported missing and later found dead. The focus here is on the viral attention Gabby got from social media, which as a whole was credited with aiding the solving of this case. The Bethune Family, Youtube stars, uploaded a video onto their channel that had Gabby and Brian arguing in the background.
The internet sleuths who witnessed this sparked the chain reaction of finding Gabby Petito. My qualm and reason for including Gabby in this analysis are not to minimize her tragic experiences, but to display the stark difference in the treatment of victimized white women against victimized Black women.
The trauma and victimization of Black women are considered a sinister sort of right of passage, something that just comes with the territory. But, in the case of white women, it is a national outrage, outcries ensue, and the entire world proverbially takes up arms for them. This case with Gabby Petito must consider the socio-economic factors at play. It is a combination of social status and economic ability that our cultural and societal norms have taken at face value.
In American society, and even internationally, white people or white-passing individuals get the benefit of every doubt and the general assumption that they are worthy of the protection of the rule of law. The principles that govern us and tell us that crime is intolerable are not blind nor is it equitable, and to see the public outrage for Gabby and the resources of the Wyoming Police Force thrown to Gabby’s aid for justice is disheartening.
However, I cannot ignore the fact that justice still came too late. The police, aware of the domestic abuse, did not press charges against Brian when provided video evidence of Brian slapping Gabby. Officer Eric Pratt quoted to Newsweek that "Both the male and female reported they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn't wish to see anyone charged with a crime." For Officer Pratt to take that statement at face value, considering that is what was said, speaks to the failed police training for domestic violence situations.
Even with Brian and Gabby being white, in that “higher” socio-economic status, domestic violence is still attributed to lower-class households and considered an issue between the undesirable members of society.
This is present in the Marxist theory of crime — the inherent differences between the “haves and have-nots” of society precipitate the presence of crime. But, the key here is that when the “have-nots” see these inherent differences, they see how they are experiencing far more strain than the upper class, and that facilitates conflict within their own communities.
That is highly present in domestic violence cases and is partly why intimate partner violence is wrongly attributed to lower classes. Because they are heavily policed, their crimes, even the trivial ones—are in more of a fishbowl than the upper-class or the “haves.”
When we look at Gabby Petito’s case, we can, unfortunately, see how she was failed by the shortcomings of our justice and law enforcement system; while we also see that her socioeconomic status is what brought her the attention and justice that domestic violence victims deserve, per the rule of law.
At the end of the day, her case received a Peacock feature documentary in less than a year of its solving, a Federal arrest warrant was issued for Brian before knowledge of his death, but the killers of Lauren Smith-Fields and Breonna Taylor are still at large.
I know beyond reasonable doubt that living below the rule of law is a crime against humanity that our own government is inflicting on its less fortunate citizens. It is important to discuss this important aspect of crime and politics because the criminal justice system has become a billion-dollar business run by political parties with agendas—agendas that have an income and class – and race – preferences. To be Black and below the rule of law leaves you susceptible to the deadly impact of implicit bias.
Brikitta Hairston (she/her), investigative victimologist, is a graduate of the University of Iowa with a B.A. in English and an M.S. in Criminal Justice. Her words are in OffColour Magazine, Carefree Mag, and Giddy Magazine.