Seven officers were eventually brought up on charges by the Alameda County District Attorney in 2016, while the city of Oakland fired four of their officers and put seven more on leave. Abuslin herself was sent to a drug rehab facility in Florida by the Richmond Police Department where she was charged with battery and imprisoned in Florida until 2016 before returning to California.
Mottley was just 13 years old when the OPD sexual exploitation scandal broke. She told KPIX that she remembers “being really kind of taken by the way that the media seemed to focus more on the police department than on the harm done to this girl, and the thousands of other girls and women that this happens to.”
“I hope that this book is either a mirror or a window,” the author continued. “Whether you see yourself reflected back to you through this book, or whether it’s not something you’ve experienced, but it expands your idea of our world and our country, I hope that more people think about the ways that we’re complicit in the harm of Black or brown girls and allow more Black girls to get to be kids and to experience ourselves as more than what the world expects of us.”
A co-sign from Oprah is a sure way for Mottley to reach more people. Mottley said in a statement that she was “absolutely floored when Ms. Winfrey popped up” during what she thought was an ordinary publishing meeting.
“It was the surprise of a lifetime,” she added.
Winfrey will speak with Mottley on June 30 for an interactive book club event on OprahDaily.com. Since starting her book club, Winfrey has often alternated between such established authors Toni Morrison and Richard Powers and such first-time authors as Mottley, Imbolo Mbue and Cynthia Bond.