Excessive Use of Force

January 15, 2018
Prater, a retired dean of Southeast Missouri State University, shares the tragic story of the death of her son, who was killed by the police, and the steps she took to hold the police department accountable in this sound, revealing debut. On Jan. 2, 2004, Prater’s 34-year-old son Leslie, an African-American was physically restrained by four white officers attempting to arrest him for public nudity, an encounter that resulted in his death by “positional asphyxia.” Though he was unarmed, Leslie was reportedly double handcuffed, pepper-sprayed, hog-tied, and held on the ground. The death was ruled accidental by the Chattanooga Police Department’s internal investigation, but Prater convincingly maintains that her son was “brutally beaten, without cause” and places his death within the larger context of police brutality against African-American men in the United States. Her family ultimately settled for $1.5 million and four demands: an external police department audit; meeting with the arresting officers; positional asphyxia training; and three sensitivity workshops for recruits that she herself led and outlines extensively in the book. The result is a winning blend of a heartsick mom’s perspective on aggressive policing with an academic’s deep dive into relevant statistics and case histories.