Jazmine Headley's Arrest Shows We Need to Do More to Support America's Poor

By Aisha K. Staggers


Nearly two weeks prior, at a New York City area office for social services, police officers forcefully snatched a 1-year-old boy from the arms of his mother as soon as she was waiting in line for assistance. Jazmine Headley, 23, had been waiting to renew a child care voucher and stood in line for more than four hours holding her baby before deciding to take a seat on floor.


the scenario escalated to the point where more than four officers were called to confront Headley, ostensibly because sitting on the floor wasn’t allowed. The officers tried to hold her down as they forcefully removed her child from her arms. Understandably, she rejected to surrender him. In the video of the encounter that surfaced, it appeared Headley was simply attempting to protect her son from the strangers who were threatening to take him away. By the end of the melee, Headley was arrested, and her child was placed in the care of her family member once she spent five days in Rikers without bail.


there really are so several things wrong with the situation and why it unfolded, although similarly disturbing are the reactions from society to the video of the incident and Headley’s subsequent arrest. While several were rightfully outraged, a significant portion of these who saw it chose to blame the mother for provoking the scenario. Comments like, “Just another criminal posing as a MOM,” “looking for a payday,” and “should have shot her 5, 6 times.”


These comments make it all also clear that what some brainstorming was the mother’s most unforgivable “crime” is the fact that she is young, black, and poor. We have laws that protect specific classes of people from blatant discrimination and discriminatory practices with regards to race, gender, disabilities, sexual orientation and identity, and more. In several situations, these protections don’t extend to people in poverty.


As a professor, director of studying and scholar on race, poverty, and criminal justice, I have referenced and contributed to a host of studies that point to the criminalization of the poor. Working for legislative commissions with mandates to advise policymakers on the impact of race on poverty based on my studies, the correlation between the two was undeniable. I noticed the value we place on human lives was based on race, age, gender, and socioeconomic status. I also noticed it was easier to criminalize the poor because we don’t completely understand poverty. We don’t know who it really impacts and we feel impaired once it comes to solving it.


So, let’s attempt to understand who we’re talking about.


In 2018, the poverty line In the
U.S. Was $12,140 for a sole and $25,001 for a family member of four. Over 46.2 million Americans (29 million of whom are children) are reportedly living "in poverty," yet aren't what most Residents of the
U.S. Would imagine "poor." Why is that? Well, poverty In the United States comes in several forms and looks differently across the spectrum. Media and individual prejudices leave us with a unrealistic picture in our minds as to what poverty should look like — complete with negative stereotypes and social markers, even any time most of them of those living below the poverty line do case in point work. Several are either employed on a part-time basis and/or make a hourly wage that isn't a livable wage. Others earn cash under the table doing small jobs that can’t issue consistent revenue.


The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) reports the lowest minimum wage in the U.S. Is $7.25 and the highest is $11.50. By December 31, some New Yorkers will have the highest minimum wage in the country at $15.00. In 2015, M.I.T. Researchers found $15.12 to be the best hourly wage, so for a four-person household with two working adults, each of these would have to have two jobs. For a single-parent household, it theoretically means one individual working four jobs to create ends meet.


Those living below the poverty line are most represented in the service industry, where they can experience wage theft, discriminatory tipping practices, and more. Up until a living wage has been achieved for all, most working, poor Residents of the
U.S. Cannot make ends meet and require public assistance in the form of food stamps, utility subsidies, transportation assistance, and child care vouchers.


Research shows ladies and children suffer the most. For several females, finding good quality and affordable child care poses a problem once it comes to seeking gainful employment — unless they have access to programs like the child care voucher Jazmine Headley was waiting that day to renew.


How Do We Fix It?


We can do more than just donate goods throughout the holidays. Whenever they are much appreciated, the problem with singular donations is that they are not policy. Sort in attempt to eradicate poverty, as citizens, we must call upon our elected officials at every level to pass and develop policies aimed at preventing poverty.


Tax credits like Earned Revenue (EITC), Extra Child (ACTC), and Making Work Pay put cash back in families’ pockets in the form of annual tax refunds. We need to make sure better access to health insurance through Medicaid and Medicare expansion and contributor for paid sick and personalized days for part-time and hourly staff. Raise the salary cap for child care subsidy qualifications to $40,000 and expand Head Begin programs or weigh the advantages of allocating universal pre-K.


Finally, we must supply programs that promote healthy saving habits among the “asset-poor” in the form of the Individual Development Accounts (IDA) program and Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) initiative. Having a safety net can avert homelessness or worse if the primary revenue source is tapped.


These are all policy positions that The Brookings Institute, a public policy think tank, identifies as fundamental to the Democratic Party's political platform. They are also challenging to pass on a federal level because of partisan politics. While the implementation of programs like SEED had the support of conservatives under the second Bush administration and Democratic support under President Obama, in 2010 a shift in power toward the GOP splinter Tea Party Caucus in the U.S. Home of Representatives eventually tabled any discussion of such programs and these policies were never brought to the floor for debate at the federal level. Yet, individual states have had varied success in implementing similar policies as is the case with Oklahoma’s universal pre-K program.


It is also a good idea to look at developing programs that will teach the significance of investing in life insurance. Having life insurance policies or supplement insurance like AFLAC can avert or delay a family's descent into poverty if the primary revenue earner dies or is debilitated, and can’t work temporarily or permanently. Depending on the kind of policy, life insurance can also be turned into money, in the case of an emergency.


For several of these who are already struggle to pay for generic needs, life insurance is thought of as an elegant the poor cannot afford. Recognizing the quagmire this poses for those who earn the least, insurance firms in India and Romania have begun supplying micro life insurance policies — lower-cost life insurance policies with affordable premiums and reduce payouts. The opening round of micro life insurance policies yielded significantly positive results. Research findings indicate this might also work In the United States and relieve some of the financial burden placed on very lean or indebted state budgets.


Headley was released on December 11, 2018 and her child was returned into her care. She was also able to get what she required and a GoFundMe was set up to help offset the expenditures of legal representation and child care, raising more than $36,000. She was lucky. There were people present who'd the forethought to take out their phones and record the incident. Those same people then posted the videos to social media that got a person's eye of of news outlets and elected officials.


What happened to Headley happened in front of a group. Imagine how several more similar incidents go undocumented. It happens more regularly than we are aware and may happen to anyone without consideration of who you are or where you live. All it takes is one financial mess, a major illness or a major layoff and you also, also, could find yourself standing in line at a social services office. No one is immune, because poverty does not discriminate. America, although, does.


Aisha K. Staggers is a journalist and co-host of the internationally syndicated "Staggers' State of Things" and "All Our Own Show" produced by the award-winning Dr. Vibe Show. Aisha spent 17 years as a professor of social sciences and 20 years as a public policy researcher with nearly 100 professional publications, including four textbook contributions. Aisha has also served two legislative commissions and over a dozen governor's task forces on poverty, education, gun violence, and the arts.