Rep. Park Cannon’s arrest is the latest attack on Black women’s political power
As Republican leaders prepared to strip voting rights from thousands of Georgians, Capitol police officers arrested a Black woman legislator for knocking on the governor’s door. The video is stunning. Representative Park Cannon, a Democratic leader in the Georgia State Senate, is joined by a group protesting Georgia’s sweeping new voter restriction law. As the group tries to gain access to the bill signing, two police officers warn Rep. Cannon to stop knocking and then seize her as if she’s twice their size, twisting her arms around her body and forcibly placing her in handcuffs. Hours later, the Georgia state patrol announced that Cannon was “beating on the door to the governor’s office” and charged with felony obstruction and disrupting a general assembly session.
As a Black woman, I read the story in awe. Not because it’s outrageous (though it is), but because it is so familiar. Black women and girls are routinely harassed, abused, and assaulted by police officers. Often in our own homes, workplaces, and neighborhoods. And due to the convergence of race and gender-based stereotypes, we often face multiple layers of criminalization. We are considered “disruptive,” “too loud,” “aggressive,” but also “unladylike” and undeserving of empathy, support, and protection. And the consequences are severe. Police officers attack us in our homes, abuse us in school, sexually assault us in our cars, and murder us in our own beds. It doesn’t matter if you have money, wealth, or status either. Just a month ago, Amanda Gorman, America’s youngest inaugural poet, who spoke words of comfort and hope to a nation recently besieged by white supremacists, was profiled by police outside of her home. The police officer in question described her as “suspicious.” Rep. Park Cannon is a state legislator and leading member of the Georgia Democratic party. Simply knocking on a door in her own workplace was enough to get her arrested.
It’s also not a coincidence that Georgia Capitol police arrested a Black woman legislator trying to witness the signing of a historic voter suppression bill. Black women in Georgia are leading the fight to protect voting rights. Many credit Stacey Abrams for this work, but Black women across Georgia have been mobilizing and expanding the electorate for decades. In 2018, the New Georgia Project, Fair Fight, Black Voters Matter and several other groups banded together to reverse the tide of voter suppression — led by Georgia Republicans — and supercharge voter registration efforts in the state. This coalition, overwhelmingly led by Black women, helped register an additional 800,000 Georgia voters between 2018 and 2020. This electorate went on to produce record turnout in the 2020 elections and sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House. In response, Georgia Republicans are passing a wave of restrictions that will disenfranchise Black voters and make it harder for all Georgians to vote. In short, Rep. Cannon’s arrest is highly symbolic. By working to register voters in Georgia, Black women are threatening the long-established white-male, Republican grip on the state. Cannon’s protest and resulting arrest is directly connected to the Black women who have transformed the electoral map of Georgia.
Some will say Rep. Park Cannon should have just listened to the police. That she knowingly broke the law by knocking on the Governor’s door and deserves the consequences. But knocking on that door shouldn’t trigger an arrest — regardless of what the law says. Georgia Capitol police had several non-violent options at their disposal to diffuse and de-escalate the situation. There is also ample evidence that police respond differently to “law-breaking” based on the race of the person or group at hand. Black people are attacked, targeted, and arrested by police for engaging in the same conduct as white people. Police are not neutral arbiters of the law — they are predisposed to see Black people as criminals and in need of social control.
Black people participating in democracy, especially through protest, face a uniquely violent strain of policing. We saw it this summer during the 2020 protests. Thousands were attacked, kettled, gassed and arrested by police for engaging in Black Lives Matter protests. Many police officers broke the law and are currently being sued by protestors and state leaders. And yet, when a white supremacist mob — egged on by former President Trump and members of his party — stormed the Capitol, police responded with de-escalation tactics and largely just stepped aside. Not only did several off-duty police officers participate in the riot, some Capitol guards took selfies with protestors and directed them around the building. In America, white people can break into the U.S. Capitol — or even take a state legislature hostage — and mostly get away with it. Yet, Black women can be arrested for knocking on a door.
This is not a simple story about an arrest. It’s the latest example of Georgia systematically attacking Black women’s political power. It’s evidence of how police aid that effort while adding their own forms of violence, abuse, and cruelty to the mix. Georgia is on the cusp of disenfranchising millions who were central to the election of our current Democratic majority. And several states are soon to follow. Just this year, 253 voter suppression bills have been introduced in 43 states. Fear of Black women and their political power are at the heart of those efforts. Representative Cannon knew that — it’s why she continued to knock when she was told to stop. If this story tells us anything it’s that Black women’s determination to protect and expand democracy is intimately connected to the state and police violence we face.
