A New Police Force Chased a 17-Year-Old Boy to His Death. Then It Vanished.

[Nevilledog]

https://www.motherjones.com/criminal-justice/2024/04/crow-nation-police-accountability-braven-glenn-bia/

Cruising south down a two-lane highway in Montana, Braven Glenn looked out onto the open road, the evening sky chilly and dark. It was November 24, 2020—half a year into the pandemic and three months after his 17th birthday. He was a good student, on his way to pick up his girlfriend, a basketball player like him, at her house on the Crow Indian Reservation.

Most days, Braven took his time while driving; his friends sometimes teased him for staying below the speed limit. But lately he hadn’t been feeling like himself—not since his grandma died from Covid weeks earlier. On this particular night, when a car ahead of him sat at around 60 mph in a 70 mph zone, he signaled and passed it, slowing again to the speed limit after crossing back over the dotted yellow line.

Then lights flashed behind him. The car he’d passed belonged to a white cop from the reservation’s brand-new tribal police department. Headquartered inside a former Subway restaurant, the department had launched just five months earlier with Covid relief funding—an attempt by the tribal nation’s chairman to address crime and a huge deficit of federal police.

The officer called dispatch to report a speeding driver, according to law enforcement records, even though Braven wasn’t speeding when she activated her siren.

A chase began.

Within 70 seconds, his car was struck by a train.

*snip*

[brer cat]

1. I read the entire article, which is sad, frustrating, and leading

to more questions than answers. Speeding up to pass a car shouldn't lead to a chase and death. A mother shouldn't have to spend years trying to find out what happened to her son. And, of course, the families of the many missing women should not be forced by official indifference to do their own investigation. I hope that President Biden and Secretary Haaland can enact measures to provide adequate, well-trained law enforcement on tribal lands by people who know and respect tribal customs.

Braven

[Nevilledog]

2. I hope his mom gets answers.