The settlement announcement came shortly after McKinney mayor George Fuller referred to Becton as “a verbally abusive, disobedient girl” in an email to Dominique Alexander, a local activist who organized several protests following Dajerria’s arrest in the summer of 2015. Fuller’s email also described Casebolt in critical terms.

“He was the one who was verbally abusive,” Dajerria’s attorney, Howard University School of Law grad Kim T. Cole, tells Teen Vogue, referring to Casebolt.

“You’re not afraid of white people who pose an actual threat, who walk out of shooting up a church or a school without a scratch on them, but you are afraid of a Black girl and her ‘tone’?” Cole says. “Watch the video – she never used a cuss word, never talked back to him – all she did was repeatedly ask someone to call her mama,” the lawyer says.

Mayor Fuller’s comments reflected the position taken by the city and Casebolt in their pleadings in Dajerria’s lawsuit: that by speaking in Casebolt’s direction, Dajerria ostensibly posed a threat to the officer, a perceived threat that justified grabbing the then 15-year-old by the hair, throwing her facedown on the ground, and straddling her with his knees to her back.

The argument that Dajerria’s actions created the perception of a safety threat to the officer is strikingly similar to the ones recently made by the owners of another predominantly white private enclave. Recently released 911 tapes from what many have referred to as a “golfing while Black” incident, in which police were called to remove five Black women from a private golf course in Pennsylvania, reveal that when asked if any of the women were armed, he responded, “other than her mouth, there’s not any weapons.”

These multiple instances of police violence against Black women and girls demonstrate to many that the mildest question, request, or protest can often be treated by police officers as a physical threat, as though Black women’s mere voices and presences are weapons that must be met with force. Moreover, these perceptions can prove lethal: A study from researchers at the University of Washington in St. Louis and St. Louis University earlier this year found that close to 60% of Black women killed by police were unarmed and that Black women were falsely perceived as a deadly threat by police more often than any other group.