By MUSHFIQUE TANZIM AHMED
On January 23, 2023, Seattle Police Department (SPD) police officer, Daniel Auderer was sent to an accident site after officer, Kevin Dave, fatally struck and killed an international student from India, Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, at a crosswalk while attending to a complaint. According to the records, Auderer, who has training as a “drug recognition expert,” was dispatched to determine whether the cop who struck Kandula was intoxicated. The phone call where Auderer describes what transpired was captured by the body-worn camera he was wearing the next day. The audio in the video, which Seattle PD had made available last Monday, only includes Auderer’s side of the exchange. In the video, Auderer is heard describing how he believes the victim was struck before adding, “But she is dead.” He chuckles, perhaps in reaction to anything spoken by the caller. “No, it’s just a regular person,” Auderer replies. Later, he chuckles again and responds, “Yeah, just write a check,” before adding, “Yeah, $11,000.” Incorrectly citing Kandula’s age, “She was 26 anyway.” “She had limited value.”
I speak for all of us who are afraid of facing the law. I speak for countless citizens all around the world who fear for their lives from the crutches of law enforcement. I speak for all the international students who come to the United States to work and achieve their dreams. This is the story of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old graduate student of Northeastern University, who came to America with dreams. Those dreams meant nothing to the hands of the law enforcement agencies of the United States, who perceive this event as a tale of comedy. The fear of being killed in the hands of organizations that have taken oaths to serve and protect its peers is something that countless number of students and citizens across the country feel. The fear of being prosecuted for the color of one’s skin raises the issue that there is a systemic practice of abuse encouraged amongst these terrorists. That’s right, I view these police officers as terrorists. Terrorists who are legally encouraged to kill, bully, and cause immeasurable pain to families all over the world. These are the same groups of people who preach “All Lives Matter,” when the fact arises that they view us as expendable beings. This is not an argument about race and ethnicity. This is a statement for all minorities in the country that fear from the safety of being taken away from their communities. In their eyes, we are perceived as “aliens” that have little to no value of becoming successful. The laws pushed out everyday makes me sick to my stomach; to a point of potential detriment, where we are told to sit in the backseat of cars so that the law takes into consideration that our safety is perceived in the lens of a white person. This has become a new normal for me, where I have to always make sure that I’m not in the front whenever I leave campus or the state to travel and discover.
Are we that much of a threat that the consensus of the police in America views us as “tools of harm” and not as people with purpose? The protests, the activism, preaching about the rule of safety and the rule of law; they mean nothing to them. If they espouse that their voice should be heard, then so do ours! Our voices matter as much as their thick-headed skull refuses to acknowledge it. We shouldn’t stop speaking about the issue that the police in the United States have a genuine problem with dealing with consequences where they face little to no repercussions. $11,000 is not enough to solve this. $11,000 is not enough to settle this. A number shouldn’t dictate the value of this murder, nor should it be the value for the demise to be settled.
Featured Image: Jaahnavi Kandula
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