Fourteen Year Old Detained By Police Passes
On the same day that Honestie Hodges celebrated her fourteenth birthday, she also tested positive to COVID-19 and was hospitalized at the Helen Devos Children's Hospital.
She was put on a ventilator and received a blood transfusion, but she ultimately succumbed to her illness.
December 2017, Hodges, then 11 years old, was handcuffed at gunpoint by Grand Rapids Police officers searching for a suspect in an alleged stabbing. Body camera footage of the young girl crying and pleading sparked widespread community outrage, which lead to the Grand Rapids Police Department developing of the 'Honestie Policy' that gave the GRPD new parameters when interacting and arresting children. The Greater Grand Rapids Branch of the NAACP claimed that the officers used excessive force. The policy states the department's expectation of officers to use good judgment and to act in the best interest of the youth -- as well as best practices used by police departments across the country.
In a Facebook live press conference in memory of Honestie Hodges, President of the NAACP Cle Jackson urged the press to give the family some time to grieve their tragic loss and also announced that the organization would be taking care of all funeral expenses in an effort to make things easier on the family.
"A Go Fund Me has been set up on Face book and will go towards setting up a scholarship for Honesties' younger siblings," said Jackson.
One of the questions that was asked during the press conference is why the pandemic has hit the Black community so hard. Many things contribute to this wide spread impact on the Black community.
"We wanted to express our sincere condolences to her mother Whitney, her grandmother Alicia and the entire Hodges family," said Jackson.
"Today we wanted to come on an put a strong call out really to the Black community to encourage them to take all necessary precautions, wearing masks and gloves out in public and washing your hands for at least twenty seconds and imposing a self lock down. We don't have to wait for an executive order to protect our community. Reduce your movement and take responsibility for your fellow brothers and sisters. We are at numbers greater than higher than in March when our country and the entire world was shut down. We are number five in the new number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, so we have to take this serious. All of the people who showed outraged when Honestie was held a gunpoint, need to honor her by doing what is necessary, which is limit your movement, we have to. We have to do all within our power to defeat this virus. There are close to 260,000 Americans who have died from this horrific disease."
"Access to health care, making healthy food choices, exercising, doing your best to have control over your stress, having more physicians of color," said Dr. Angela Andrews Internal Medicine and Pediatric Physician with Mercy Health Partners. "Not skipping out on screenings prostate screening, colon screenings, or getting a mammograms. People are not doing the things they need to do to prevent being diagnosed with some of these long-term conditions."
Also on the panel was Professor and Licensed Theropist Tameko Bolden, who spoke about the affects of trauma and stress on the body.
"I would like to see more of the people in the Black community have more of an openness to really use the therapeutic space to really use the mental health therapist and that platform of mental health professionals as a place to come and process to move through the trauma and emotional stresses that ultimately affects our health," said Bolden.
"I know that a lot of us want to get together and have a good time for Thanksgiving, but I am going to ask the Black community to please limit your trips to the grocery store or to the mall and to ultimately limit your movement," said Cle Jackson. "I am also asking for the Black community to not gather with family and friends, but to only gather with people who live in your immediate household."
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