Report: Black Women in San Francisco Are Nearly Half of City's Female Arrests
African-American women only make up 6 percent of the female population in San Francisco but they are 50 percent of female arrests, according to a recent report released by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
This disproportionate statistic is alarming and has been rising for the past 35 years. In 1980, the arrest disparity between Back women and women of other races was 4.1 percent. In 2013, Black women were 13.4 times more likely to be handcuffed than women of other races in the city.
In San Francisco, the disparities between Black female and non-black female arrests are four times the rate of California overall. Of female arrestees in the city, African-American women were 77 percent of weapons, 68 percent of narcotics, 57 percent of robbery and 53 percent of felony arrests.
After reading these alarming numbers, the question lingers as to why this is happening and what can be done to stop the disparities?
Just last week, a group of African-American women stood topless in downtown San Francisco to protest the killing of Black women by police. The demonstration was part of the movement #SayHerName, a national outcry to remember female victims whose stories are often unheard and forgotten among the names of Black men and boys who have been brutalized and killed by police.
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(Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)
