The Hate U Give

Since the advent of independent databases created in the early-to-mid 2010s to track incidents of “officer-involved shooting deaths,” it has been calculated that US law enforcement is responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,000 people every year, and statistical analyses show that law enforcement officers more often target Black people than white people. (“Police Brutality Statistics: What the Data Says about Police Violence in America.” Police Brutality Center). The FBI has also acknowledged the critical gap in the federal data on this widespread issue, and independent researchers have determined that more than half of such deaths go uncounted by the federal government. Public outrage over repeated occurrences of officer-involved shootings and similar issues has led to the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which began in 2013 after neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager. The movement has since gained worldwide support and is dedicated to protesting police brutality and overcoming systemic racism.

Parallels to several 2014 and 2015 police killings are implicit in Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give, which is a scathing indictment of the systemic racism that condones cases of police brutality. In July 2014, NYPD officers Daniel Pantaleo and Justin D'Amico killed unarmed Eric Garner while using an illegal chokehold after stopping him for selling loose cigarettes. The next month, Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, was killed by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Both deaths led to widespread unrest, though none of the officers involved were indicted for the men’s deaths. In 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, was arrested by Baltimore police officers for carrying what was alleged to be an illegal switchblade. In addition to suffering rough treatment upon his arrest, he was not secured during transport—in clear violation of Baltimore police procedures—and he was unresponsive upon arrival at the police station. Freddie Gray died after spending a week in a coma due to severe spinal cord injuries, and his death was ruled a homicide. Despite a national outcry, “one officer received a mistrial, three officers were acquitted of all charges, and charges against the remaining two police officers were dropped” (“Freddie Gray.” Say Their Names: Green Library Exhibit Supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement. Stanford Libraries). That same year, Sandra Bland, a Black Texan woman, was pulled over and violently arrested for a traffic violation, then died while in police custody. Her death was ruled a suicide, and her arresting officer, Brian Encina, was not indicted by a grand jury. Alongside sparking widespread #BlackLivesMatter protests, Bland’s death led to the creation of the #SayHerName movement, which focuses on Black women victims of police brutality.