There has not been a lot said about this rape trial. It’s a quiet case about the former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, who was accused of raping and sexually assaulting more than a dozen women–mainly Black–while he was on duty.
I’m thinking the reason why our community is not absolutely livid is, the attention given to the actual arrest in 2014 came and went so fast you forgot all about it.
Jury selection began on November 2 and it only took a day for them them to choose the all-white jury comprised of eight men and four women.
You probably won’t need reading glasses to see the writing on the wall for this one.
And hopefully it will make you think twice, the next time your call to jury duty comes in the mail. And you start thinking of excuses why you can’t fulfill the obligation.
But I digress.
I’m thinking about the 17-year-old girl who was one of Holtzclaw’s victims. and how she was so traumatized by the experienced of being forced to give him oral sex, that she refused to leave her house.
Holtzclaw chose his victims strategically. They were mainly poor women, some of them with records. And he used the badge he took an oath to protect and serve to threaten them with jail if they didn’t comply with his sexual demands.
So his charge of 36 felony counts, which include rape, sexual battery, indecent exposure, stalking, burglary and forcible oral sodomy may land him a life sentence.
Although he was arrested in August 2014, it wasn’t until January 2015 that he was fired from his job as a police officer. And wouldn’t you know it, now that the trial is underway the defense’s first strategic maneuver is to attack the women.
They are pulling out all the stops too; painting these women as people with “street smarts like you can’t imagine,” while describing Holtzclaw as your standard “All American good guy.”
The trial is expected to last throughout November. These women might as well pray for a miracle, because that is the only thing that will give them the slightest chance of being treated justly.
Stay tuned.
Like BlackAmericaWeb.com on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
