HOW ABOUT SHANEKA THOMPSON?
Late last month, Ismaaiyl Brinsley showed up uninvited at his former girlfriend Shaneka Thompson’s apartment in Owings Mills, Maryland. After knocking on her door and gaining entry, Brinsley proceeded to argue with Thompson about their failed relationship, eventually shooting Thompson in the stomach.
Following the assault, Brinsley left the Baltimore suburb for his childhood hometown of Brooklyn, where he shot and killed two on-duty police officers as they sat in a patrol car. The grisly scene occurred while tension between cops and civilians is high, rendering the situation an easy target for inexact analysis, especially since Brinsley posted photos indicating he was killing for revenge. But what about Thompson? The cop slaying caught tons of press, but her name rarely appears. If she’s referenced at all, Thompson is often referred to briefly and without explanation—even though the murder of those cops in Brooklyn started at her place.
If we are going to understand why such violence occurs, we need to look at the entire picture. Domestic violence often precedes more “newsworthy” acts of aggression. The public seems adamant in reaffirming that such brutal cop killings are heinous. Why, then, is the attempted murder of Thompson a footnote to this tragedy?
Domestic violence doesn’t exist in a bubble. We must stop normalizing such actions and recognize that those who are violent at home are a problem for the whole community. Extreme acts of violence begin somewhere, in this case at the doorstep of Shaneka Thompson. Don’t erase her from the story.
EMILY HOPKINS
Sustaining on a diet made up entirely of IPAs, angry letters and male tears, Emily Hopkins writes weekly under the column Free Radical and also sometimes brings you other stuff relating to social justice.
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Maybe the reason why Shaneka Thompson’s part in this saga has been seemingly deemed not “newsworthy” is because as of January 26th, 2015, neither Thompson ( OR her mother, Cynthia Turner ) has spoken to the press YET. Something SMELLS in Owings Mills, MD; ya dig? WHY haven’t either, or both of these MOST critical witnesses not stepped before the world media and given SOME kind of accounting as to exactly WHAT happened that morning on the third floor of 100090 Mill Run Court ? ! Shaneka DID manage, however, to speak to a Baltimore County PD detective, two NYPD detectives, and, um, the military. One cannot have it both ways; if the only way that we know anything about you is through minimal, measured leaks from the police, then of course our gaze is going to be fixed elsewhere. Myself? I smelled a rat the moment that I’d first HEARD of this incident. As always, the story sounded a little TOO PAT; the matter was “wrapped” TOO SOON, AND TOO NEATLY. And now, these most critical of witnesses, whose interactions with Ismaaiyl Brinsley were a part of the beginning of this INCREDIBLE story CHOOSE NOT to appear before the world’s media? Bullsh*t.