Here We Go Again
I joined the Black Graduate Student Club on Friday. At the meeting, the President asked if we knew about the W. Virginia case. I had not. Then, on Facebook today, I saw that one of the stories posted by Notre Dame Students was one about the W. Virginia incident. I went to Cnn.com, WashingtonPost.com, and didn't find anything. What was this W. Virginia incident. And then I found it here, in an International Newspaper.
Apparently a young black woman was tortured and sexually assaulted by two mothers, their grown boys, and others for several days in West Virginia. The assault was racially motivated. Why haven't our domestic newswires picked this up? I'm really sick of this shit!
In other news, Baloo and I traveled to Notre Dame this weekend where we witnessed firsthand another disappointment from the football team. I will forever support the Irish, but I wish they could pull out at least ONE win. I bet this is going to bite Weis in the ass.
Oops!
Update: Ok. I just got a little more upset. I just read the local newspaper from Logan, West Virginia on the incident above. See it here. Apparently those charged with this crime are being charged with "sexual assault, malicious wounding, and kidnapping." Seriously? They keep a woman in a trailer for about a week, sexually assault her while pouring hot water on her, making her eat dog feces and drink out of a toilet. Yet these are the charges? Meanwhile, teenagers in Jena beat the shit out of a classmate for taunting them with racial slurs and they get murder charges against them? People, do you see this? Do you see what's happening to our society? It's easy to say that these things wouldn't happen to us. We have good educations. We live in nice suburbs. We drive fancy cars. Although it's unfortunate that this happens in certain societies, it's too much for us to care about. Well I challenge you, readers, to care about this. To investigate. To talk about this. Because the more we continue to believe that it won't happen to us, or it doesn't affect us, these things will continue to happen. I'm sorry. I'm just outraged right now. I hope that our major newspapers will tell the rest of the nation about this in the coming days.....
Apparently a young black woman was tortured and sexually assaulted by two mothers, their grown boys, and others for several days in West Virginia. The assault was racially motivated. Why haven't our domestic newswires picked this up? I'm really sick of this shit!
In other news, Baloo and I traveled to Notre Dame this weekend where we witnessed firsthand another disappointment from the football team. I will forever support the Irish, but I wish they could pull out at least ONE win. I bet this is going to bite Weis in the ass.
"After losing to Michigan State at home two years ago, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis promised Irish fans his team would never again lose to the Spartans."
Oops!
Update: Ok. I just got a little more upset. I just read the local newspaper from Logan, West Virginia on the incident above. See it here. Apparently those charged with this crime are being charged with "sexual assault, malicious wounding, and kidnapping." Seriously? They keep a woman in a trailer for about a week, sexually assault her while pouring hot water on her, making her eat dog feces and drink out of a toilet. Yet these are the charges? Meanwhile, teenagers in Jena beat the shit out of a classmate for taunting them with racial slurs and they get murder charges against them? People, do you see this? Do you see what's happening to our society? It's easy to say that these things wouldn't happen to us. We have good educations. We live in nice suburbs. We drive fancy cars. Although it's unfortunate that this happens in certain societies, it's too much for us to care about. Well I challenge you, readers, to care about this. To investigate. To talk about this. Because the more we continue to believe that it won't happen to us, or it doesn't affect us, these things will continue to happen. I'm sorry. I'm just outraged right now. I hope that our major newspapers will tell the rest of the nation about this in the coming days.....
CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/09/12/woman.tortured/index.html
NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/us/12captive.html?fta=y
WP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/12/AR2007091200454.html
I found these stories by searching 'west virginia torture' on each of the respective web sites. There have also been numerous follow-up articles to the original story since this story broke on or around September 12.
Our legal system is not perfect by any means. Sadly, every day, there are cases of injustice and unfair treatment for crimes based on race, religion, age and any other number of factors that should not dictate a fair trial. And you are certainly right, that we, as educated citizens, need to continue to expose these incongruent cases and bring equal justice to everyone being tried for a crime.
That being said, articles about this crime were not hard to find on any number of respected media outlets like the ones i listed above. All of them national papers. So despite your protests and accusations, this story has been national news. Discussions have been going on and editorials have been written.
Sadly, this is the kind of case the media loves to draw attention to for news and ratings and a good story. It's a horrendously offensive, grisly and disgusting case. It also has all the makings of a made-for-tv movie. Keep in mind, the media will cherry pick the worst of the worst to highlight. But I would like to remind everyone that not every legal case in this country is corrupt. As often happens though, it's the extremes that make their way to national attention, potentially tainting the whole system and disheartening us all. It's the same logic the crazies use when they pick single verses from the bible or any other religious book to justify moral crimes against their fellow man.
Finally, I took this quote from a more recent WP article on or around the 19th of September:
"No hate crime charges were filed, though some of Williams' supporters have urged the state to file such counts. Prosecutors have not ruled out such a move but have said they are focused on crimes with the toughest penalties and note that the maximum sentence for a hate crime is just 10 years."
There was clearly racial motivations at play here. However,the kidnapping charges that the suspects are charged with each carry a life sentence. The prosecutors are doing what they feel is best to ensure that these wackos get locked away for the rest of their lives, which is far better than 10 years for a crime that sounds harsher on paper but carries a lesser sentence.
So thank you for bringing this to our attention, and let's hope the sickos get what is due to them. But before you go and bite our head's off again, give the system a little credit! :-)
~Kipper!! :-)
Posted by
Anonymous |
Sun Sep 23, 11:29:00 PM EDT
I actually saw this story on CNN,MSNBC and I read about it on Yahoo news...it was in the top ten stories of the week.
So, while I agree this was offensive and I also agree this was racially motivated, I think everyone did a pretty good job of getting the story out there.
I think the facts of the story were pretty even on all the sites, a few of them did talk about her being stabbed/burned on the legs. All sorts of nasty. I'm glad she came forward to tell her story and I actually prayed that they would fry the inbred hillbillies that did it to her.
Hillbillies suck.
Your (ever supportive) internet friend,
Summer
Posted by
Anonymous |
Wed Sep 26, 02:34:00 AM EDT