On January 14, 2020, a four months-pregnant Safiya Satchell was minding her own business when off-duty police officer Jordy Yanes Martel approached her. And he abused his power in the worst possible way.
Martel pulled Satchell out of her car, then pushed his knee into her neck. Then, horrifyingly, he Tased her twice in the STOMACH as she screamed. Who does that to a pregnant person?
“I was just humiliated, embarrassed, scared for my life,” remembered Satchell. But her pain didn’t end there.
Satchell later lost her child.
Prosecutors also tried to charge HER with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest! They didn’t drop those felony charges against her until months later. And as for the cop, Martel?
Months later, he was caught on camera beating a Black man at a gas station! Though he was eventually fired that summer, he’d already joined the rank of officers who brutalize Black people, and get to keep their jobs long enough to do it again.
Police are allowed to not only kill and cause harm to our health and well-being, but even get second and third chances to do it again! We aren't given those same chances. And Satchell certainly wasn't even given a FIRST chance to protect her and her child's lives.