Thread by @Merrirrro

🧵 This is Benjamin Foster.
Tuesday, he died by suicide in a stand off with Oregon police. Foster met a woman on Bumble, went on a “date”, held her captive, beat, tortured & assaulted her for 5 days over Christmas. Her? Hospitalized, still unconscious, in critical condition 1/

Police said when they found her it was “an absolutely disgusting scene.” Foster allegedly killed two people before the stand off and before committing suicide. He was on dating sites, trying to find new victims. And, Foster had done this before 2/

.@NPR reported Foster, in 2019, held his then-girlfriend captive in her Las Vegas apartment for 2 weeks. She had 7 broken ribs, 2 black eyes and injuries from being bound at the wrists and ankles with zip ties and duct tape. She said Foster forced her to eat lye, choked her 3/

unconscious, shaved her head & required her hands "stay in constant contact" with his body when not tied up. Then, Foster “reached a deal with Clark County prosecutors…plead guilty to 1 felony count of battery & a misdemeanor count of battery constituting domestic violence.” 4/

In that case, he was sentenced to 30 months, with 729 days credited for “time served.” So, about a year. For kidnapping, torture, beating, and assault of a woman. 5/

But, she was ‘just’ a woman, right? #TyreNichols was ‘just’ a young black man, right? Police beat him to death for a traffic stop. Just a woman beaten unconscious because she went on a date. The difference? A white man in Oregon vs a Black man in Tennessee. 6/

The commonality? Certain people in our society are deemed ‘just’. Just this or that. Not worth JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS in the eyes of police and judges. This conversation isn’t just about police reform. It’s about Legal CONSISTENCY. 7/

It’s about what the Black community has been telling us all along. EQUAL TREATMENT UNDER THE LAW. If you’re going to beat a young Black man to death in Tennessee, you need to get exactly what Memphis is giving. Murder and kidnapping charges. You’re done. Over. Gone. 8/

And if you’re going to torture a woman & beat her into months-long unconsciousness, you’re done. Over. This coward did that FOR the Oregon legal system. But cops didn’t beat him. They didn’t shoot him. And he NEVER should have been freed after one year when he did it BEFORE! 9/

Tyre Nichols did NOTHING! And was murdered. But I’d bet my paycheck that a judge in Oregon who gave Foster that pathetic sentence was thinking “she just a woman and probably deserved it”. And those cops in Memphis said pretty much the same about Tyre. 10/

So, when we talk reform, IMO, we need to talk about some crimes being classified Federal. If you irreparably harm or kill another human being, you need to be prosecuted under federal law. You are not fit for society. No local judicial discretion. No bias. No racism. NO deals! 11/

Mandated charges, mandated sentencing. Everywhere. Every time. Only then will police and judges stop seeing any of us as being ‘just’ anything. -/