YVETTE SMITH'S COP KILLER SET FREE BY SANDRA BLAND JUDGE

From April 2016

There is so little coverage of the deaths of black women, that I missed this a few months ago

TOP Southern Poverty Law Center
Hate Map with hate group locations

BOTTOM: Location of
Yvette Smith's Murder

Background:                      

"Yvette Smith was seemingly trying to act as a peacemaker during a dispute between two men that involved a gun.

She called 911 about half an hour after midnight on 16 February 2014.

When Bastrop County police arrived at the house, at least one of the men was in the front yard and the worst of the disturbance appeared over.

Willis, who is white, saw Smith, a black 47-year-old former caretaker, and ordered her to come outside. As she opened the door he shouted “police!” then fired within about three seconds... using his personal AR-15 semi-automatic rifle." (This gun is the mass shooter's weapon of choice, by the way.)

Ex Police Officer Daniel Willis 

cleared of murder charges

in the 2014 death of 

Yvette Smith 

by visiting judge 

who chose jurors 

in Sandra Bland case

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/07/fdaniel-willis-not-guilty-fatal-police-shooting-yvette-smith-texas

Yvonne and Yvette, twins

"In finding ex-Deputy Daniel Willis not guilty of murder in the Feb. 16, 2014, shooting of Yvette Smith, visiting Judge Albert McCaig Jr. called Willis, 31, the “man in the arena,” referring to a Theodore Roosevelt speech that praised those willing to take risks in the face of failure/"

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/verdict-expected-today-in-daniel-willis-trial/nq2HH/

After essentially killing Smith's killer a hero, Judge McCaig set Willis free despite the fact that Willis lied and lied and lied some more. It came out during the trial that Willis has night-blindness that he routinely refuses to wear glasses for. The gun he said he saw, through various different version of the story, did not exist. 

"WHY ALL OUR RIGHTS ARE LIES"

 DETAILS ON THE MURDER OF YVETTE SMITH 

https://soulunbound.com/2016/04/07/yvette-smith-why-all-our-rights-are-lies/

* * * * *

By the way, #SayHerName isn't getting black women's names repeated on social media the way it should. Did it benefit anyone except Sandra Bland, the first video-ed black female murder after the hashtag was created?

"CALLING IN," INSTEAD OF "CALLING OUT," A LESS DISPOSABLE WAY OF HOLDING ONE ANOTHER ACCOUNTABLE

A REPOST

Feeling Rebloggy: 

Most of us know the drill. Someone says something that supports the oppression of another community, the red flags pop up and someone swoops in to call them out.
But what happens when that someone is a person we know — and love?

What happens when we ourselves are that someone?

 

photo from pinterest

And what does it mean for our work to rely on how we have been programmed to punish people for their mistakes?

I’ll be the first person and the last person to say that anger is valid. Mistakes are mistakes; they deepen the wounds we carry. I know that for me when these mistakes are committed by people who I am in community with, it hurts even more. But these are people I care deeply about and want to see on the other side of the hurt, pain, and trauma: I am willing to offer compassion and patience as a way to build the road we are taking but have never seen before.

~ Black Girl Dangerous

READ MORE ON "CALLING IN" instead of "CALLING OUT"
http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2013/12/calling-less-disposable-way-holding-accountable/

GRIM SLEEPER FOUND GUILTY IN LOS ANGELES

#allBLACKlivesMATTER

"After a day and a half of deliberations, jurors found [Lonnie] Franklin guilty of 10 counts of murder in the killings of nine women and a 15-year-old girl. Jurors also found Franklin guilty of one count of attempted murder. 

The trial lasted nearly three months.

The victims were all young and black, with some leading troubled lives during the chaotic 1980s in South L.A. The dead were left along a corridor in the Manchester Square neighborhood. Their partially clothed or naked bodies — some decomposing — were found amid the filth and garbage of alleyways. All were left without identification, and each was initially labeled Jane Doe....

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-grim-sleeper-verdict-20160504-story.html

They found Franklin guilty of killing 9 to 10 women but he might have killed dozens or 100s of black women.

 Never heard of this serial killer of black women? Ask yourself why not then answer yourself after reading more below.

So DO YOU  remember “The Grim Sleeper.”

Have you even heard of the “The Grim Sleeper” before?

Do you instantly recognize the name “Lonnie Franklin?"

I whizzed past “Tales Of The Grim Sleeper” in the TV schedule then came back to it because I'd seen a black woman’s face near the title.

When I saw the name of the documentary and the black woman's face together, it came back to me. “The Grim Sleeper” was the name given to a serial killer that murdered dozens if not 100s of black women over 25 years beginning in the 1980s.

Watching “The Grim Sleeper” documentary on HBO made me a little sick. I didn't want to watch it in the first place. I thought it would make my ears bleed to hear even one excuse for dozens of black women being murdered by a serial killer for 25 years without too many people noticing. This is especially galling since the police knew a serial killer was hunting black women in South Los Angeles by 1987 but didn't let the public know, didn't let black women in the South Los Angeles area know they were prey until 2008.

Read More:
http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2015/11/review-tales-of-grim-sleeper-part-1.html

BILL COSBY SUES ONE OF HIS DARKEST ACCUSERS FOR DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER

"Cosby's lawsuit says [Beverly] Johnson joined other women making accusations against him to revive her waning career and to help sell copies of her memoir.

The lawsuit alleges defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, saying Cosby and Johnson never spent any time alone in his house, he never drugged her and "her story is a lie."

 ~cnn

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/21/us/bill-cosby-sues-beverly-johnson

Gee, maybe he chose Johnson to accuse of defamation because he knows he didn't get past first base with her before she knew she was being drugged and took off. Therefore, he's absolutely sure she doesn't have a 30 year old stained dress stored in her mama's safe deposit box ala Monica Lewinsky.  


I don't know much of anything about Johnson. And I don't care one way or another about her. But we've seen exactly what Bill is

1) from his own words in "The Pound Cake Speech" 

2) from the co-stars who knew he was screwing anything that was pale, young, and looked like it wore a skirt once-upon-a-time while married to the ulta-pale Camille before, during, and after the filming of the wholesome Cosby show.

And we knew all this about him long before one woman said one word about drug-em and rape-em and also before Cosby, himself, admitted to why he bought the drugs.

He was not above seducing a young model by showing interest in her father’s cancer. He promised other women his mentorship and career advice before pushing them for sex acts. And he tried to use financial sleight of hand to keep his wife from finding out about his serial philandering.

Bill Cosby admitted to all of this and more over four days of intense questioning 10 years ago at a Philadelphia hotel, where he defended himself in a deposition for a lawsuit filed by a young woman who accused him of drugging and molesting her.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/arts/bill-cosby-deposition-reveals-calculated-pursuit-of-young-women-using-fame-drugs-and-deceit.html?referrer=

I really can't figure out how the women he "allegedly" attacked won't come out of the woodwork to back Johnson up. And I bet his attorney can't either.


In fact, Bill Cosby's attorney must be laughing all the way to the bank. Camille better have her own bank accounts after all these years.



 - - - - -
Black people who like to pretend they don't see skin shade faster than white folk pretend they don't see black skin may want to skip my Bill Cosby posts.

I ain't playin the white colorblind game OR the black colorism-blind game either. Both **just stop talking about it** groups irritate me equally. No, actually that's not true.

The betrayal and hypocrisy born out of the shame over our own group-level internalized racism bothers me more. The more black female history books I read, the more I see that colorism has changed very little in the black community...and for the very same reason white racism changes so slowly.

The cowards are the most committed in both groups and they scream the loudest. 'Just stop talking about it and it'll go away'

Yeah. Okay. 

Pretend you don't see how pale Camille is and how pale 95% of Cosby's accusers are even when they aren't white. I won't. That man doesn't have to shake a paper bag next to a woman's face, on camera, for me to know what's what with him. Shame on you, if you do.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=760207240680286&set=t.100000730507591&type=3&theater

SANDRA AND SANDERS

Sandra Bland "would be alive today if she were a white woman," according to Bernie Sanders  



http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bernie-sanders-statement-sandra-bland

THE SMOKE SCREENS THAT MATTER

Hypothetically speaking,  I do care that men in India seem to beating their wives to death almost daily.  But I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I care more that my next door neighbor is beating his wife within inch of her life twice a month.

Proximity counts. Depth of Relationships count too.

Hypothetically speaking, if my Daddy was beating my Momma so she had black eyes 3x a year, I'd care more about that than the dead wives in India and the next door neighbor too.

You'd probably feel the same way if you were in my hypothetical shoes.


Therefore dearest black folk,

Please stop telling me what white women are not-doing over there when we're talking about  what black men are or are not doing to black women over here. I care quite a bit less about what the white women over there are saying.


Stop telling me what white men are not-doing over there when we're talking about what black men are not-doing and doing to black women over here. I care quite a bit less about what the white men over there are saying.


Stop telling me about who Stephen Collins is allegedly raping when we're talking about who Bill Cosby is allegedly raping. I don't even know what freaking series Stephen Collins was in as a TV Dad. And you probably don't either. And if you do, you probably didn't watch it very often.


However,


I do care that there's a group of women in India who seem to have the right attitude toward men who beat women.  And I also care about the reasons white women and black men are so similar in their ability to ignore black women's issues.


And while I sorta care about the destruction of the Cosby show's legacy,  I do not care about it enough to protect the actor that plays Cliff Huxtable who is very, very likely a serial rapist, a man's whose tastes haven't deviated that far from his almost white wife or the white women he went to see at Hef's place regularly for decades.

What I am actually trying to figure out about the Cosby conversation is how it turned into a conversation about black women's loyalty INSTEAD OF a conversation about black male loyalty.


To be specific, the colorism aspect of the Cosby rape allegations alone should have turned into a conversation about how certain black men develop a penchant for light and white women once they get a little money or a lot of money ala Cosby, Kobe, and Kanye?


How is it that this conversation on
black disloyalty is not centered on
being disloyal enough to throw
all women, including black women, under the bus
so as to align oneself behind Cosby?

Black people, men and women, ignore the Beverly Johnsons and Anita Hills on the regular but NOT standing behind Bill Cosby is disloyal? Really?

Guess what? Oppressed or not, black men are raised bathing in the same patriarchy as white men and they are just assured of their primary importance in the world as compared to women. In fact, black men can worry so much about proving their manhood (sans the money that white men use to prove their manhood) that they can use non-monetary methods to dominate women. It is not a mystery as to why black women die at the hands of domestic abusers as so high a rate. Where the stress of poverty is higher, death by domestic abuse is higher, regardless of race. 

Even worse? Black women are bathing in the same dirty bathwater as men and also white, latina, and Asian women. So we as women reproduce patriarchy and misogyny too - which partially explains black female defense of the indefensible (Ray Rice, Chris Brown, Bill Cosby)


Black people need to learn black women's history. Black women especially need to learn black women's history. When you know your history, you know your worth,


When you know your worth, you don't have to close your eyes and pretend people close to you aren't the ones hurting you most.

When you know your worth, you become completely unwilling to let anybody tell you that you are less important than they are.

When you know your worth, you know what a real ally looks like. When you know your worth, you know how brave and rare a real ally really is.

When you know your worth, you can get closer to knowing the worth of your brothers and sisters. When you know your own worth and the worth of your brothers and sisters, you become willing to demand that they behave accordingly.  And this is the moment at which we will all rise together, and not a moment before.

 * * * * *

 Black Women History Books





http://www.heforshe.org/  

BLACK WOMEN NOW AND THEN

The thing that seems to be different about black women now as opposed to the black women in the late 1800s-1920 and early civil rights women is that

A) black women don't know BLACK WOMEN'S HISTORY (of course there was less of Black American Female History to know back then. But Black women of the late 19th century and early 20th century were creating black women's history at the speed of light during every one of those years. And they knew what they were about.)

B) black women have bought into the scapegoating from both the white community and the black male community alike.

Until "When and Where I Enter", I had not realized that male sociologists and psychiatrists, white and black alike, wrote books, articles, and speeches that actively created the stereotypes of black women that are still boomeranging around inside the black community to this day.

- Mammy  
- Sapphire (b*tch)
- Matriarch (Sapphire and Mammy Combo) 
- Jezebel (hoe)


Those closest to looking like the single black mother stereotype, which can be seen as Mammy, Jezebel, and eventually Matriarch, all rolled up into one are the ones taking the biggest beating right now, the ones getting the most blame for the failure of the black community.




These black, female stereotypes were first created by whites to take the heat off racism as a reason for black poverty etc, in the 1960s.

The Moynihan Report of 1965(?), places blame for the 'failures of black culture' squarely on black women. Prior to the actual publication of the report, a number of black practitioners of respectability politics --a quasi-popular position throughout in Black American History-- welcomed the opportunity to shift blame off black men onto black women.

When Moynihan report became public there was such a backlash, that those who helped write/critique it didn't dare say so. But the black female stereotypes created and repeated in that report live on.    

Until I read "When And Where I Enter" I did not realize that Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee was different from other black civil rights organizations. In this Ella Baker formed group:

1) had a membership that was not exclusively focused on the black middle class. Other groups, NAACP and SCLC tended to look down on rural blacks.

2) was group-centered rather than individual, Messiah-centered (think Martin Luther King and the SCLC, Malcom X and Muslims for a while)

3) had a lot of female led inner groups and black females involved in the top level decision making in the early years.

4) had young black men that eventually saw having young white women in the organization as a symbol of their racial freedom

5) had white women, becoming more feminist, seeing black men as their sexual freedom

6) wound up splintering as macho became a "positive" in male culture across the nation, which increased black male/white female sexual relationships which in turn started creating chaos in the group

7) wound up ousting of white people from the interracial SNCC (which I've known about for years). But this ousting of white people was really the ousting of white women (which I did not know until reading this book).

Ousted from SNCC, white feminists went to a predominantly white civil rights group and were treated worse by white men (used to their entitlements and privilege) when they tried to get back into having the same kind of leadership positions they'd once had at SNCC.

Learning the same history all over again from a female perspective has shed so much light on the place were in now. I've also come to realize how much you will fail to understand if you do not pay attention to how people react to class boundaries that are as real as socially created race/ethnic boundaries.


Black men and black women can be different AND still be dedicated to equality and overcoming sexism, just like black men and black women are dedicated to anti-racism while not being dedicated to sameness in regards to the dominant white culture.

I know this can be done because in the history books I've been reading I think I've seen that black men and black women have done it before -- right after they came out of slavery.

I hope slavery wasn't an extreme version of the enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of situation. A common enemy creates firm allies, but the alliance is often temporary. It truly looks like every year after slavery shows black men valuing how white males perform gender.  Black men and women worked side by side in the fields and did what had to be done just out of slavery, the children being put first in a way they couldn't be during slavery. But women still worked and their worked was valued...and they expected their opinions and decision making would remained valued no matter how much they worked outside of the home.

But black male and female relationships started changing as the black middle class increased, white patriarchal values moving more and more into the black community.

It's not like there wasn't plenty of patriarchy and misogyny in Africa to bring to the United States, but it seems like slavery had crushed patriarchy and misogyny to dust for a while. Black men and women had to pull together without holding onto artificial gender roles, including the one that says that man and his education, his voting rights, and his ability to provide are more important than a woman's.

It seems like patriarchy and misogyny had to be re-learned post slavery.

All of this reminds me of the old military saying: "Ain't no racists in a foxhole." That is, when the shells are falling all around you, all you care about is survival. Slavery can be seen as constant shelling, as 24/7 shelling, that kept black women and black men from thinking about anything except surviving together.

Post slavery, patriarchy and misogyny crept back in quickly. So, maybe there ain't any sexist misogynists in a foxhole either?

Again, I truly hope *the enemy of my enemy is my friend* wasn't the source of black men having black women's backs back in the day.  

But listening to all 
the "bitches" and "hoes" 
in various rap songs
have made me wonder.

But seeing the avid defense 

of Clarence Thomas,

Bill Cosby, 

Ray Rice,

Chris Brown 

because the women that oppose them

are "bitches and hoes" anyway, 

I'm still wondering.

-- And now that I know that The Grim Sleepers victims were allowed to multiply for 25 years because the black women killed were seen as human trash because they could be dropped into the "bitches and hoes" category,

I'm both disgusted and still wondering

However, I must admit that I'm a lot more worried about black women getting back to having one another's backs as strongly as they seem to have black men's backs.

Taraji P Henson happy for Regina King at the Oscars

A lot has been made of black women showing up in large numbers whenever a black man is shot down. And this is absolutely true.

In some press photos I can barely see the black men protesting for the large numbers of black mothers, wives, sisters, and auntie's protesting whenever the Michael Brown's and Freddie Grays are mowed down.

Black protester turn out is not the same when a black woman is killed. There had to be an adjunct movement created #SayHerName to get #BlackLivesMatters activists and supporters to focus on the deaths of black women.

Prior to 2014, I wouldn't hear about a black woman's death at hands of police until months had passed. Months. Prior to 2014, I might not find out a black woman had died at the hands of police for years.

Freddie Gray was in the center of our collective black focus before he was even dead. Rekia Boyd's killer was in the news at the same time but this cops escape from justice did not get the machine gun, repetitive sharing on social media Gray's death got.  News of Boyd's murderer being set free by a judge instead of a jury was met with "Who? Who's Rekia Boyd?"

  
Much has also been made of black men not showing up for Rekia Boyd Protests, myself included.  But you know what? Black women didn't show up either.


Only a handful of black people showed up for Boyd's protest and most of what was missing was black women. It's not like 50% of a Freddie-Gray-sized crowd showed up, or only 25%. No.  Only a handful of people showed up. It's not like Rekia Boyd was shot in Iowa either.  Boyd was shot in freaking Chicago, one of the blackest towns in the damn nation.

Black women did not show up for Rekia Boyd either.

Black feminists and womanists showed up though. Black feminists and womanists show up for black women even when black men are not interested. Harriett Tubmans, Sojourner Truths, Ida B Wells-s, Anna Julia Coopers, Diane Nashs, Alicia Garzas, Opal Tometis, Patrisse Cullors-s, and even Shonda Rhimes-s have always showed up for black women even if black men show no interest.

Again, it's not just black men that do not value black women at this point in time. It is the black community, including black women, that do not value black women the way it should.

I don't know how we are to draw ourselves back from the edge that some of us are so proud to be dancing on. Some of us as silly enough to be proud that we're "not acting white" by refusing to call ourselves "feminists."

MARA BROCK AKIL feminist and producer of
"BEING MARY JANE" "GIRLFRIENDS"
has black women, working behind and in front of the camera
REGINA KING, for example, is often a director

White women were not the first to execute or attempt to retrieve equality without sameness in their communities.

Black women were.





White women feminists have often emulated black women feminists without giving credit where credit is due--- same as other aspects of white culture stolen from elsewhere.

But even if you are mistaking feminism for "white culture" focusing on white feminists as a power that is destroying black culture is just a way for cowards to avoid the real conversation, frankly.

SHONDA RHIMES feminist and producer of
"GREYS ANATOMY" "SCANDAL"
; "HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER
has black women, working behind and in front of the camera
and black music/musicians getting paid royalties

I keep trying to figure out how it is some black people think feminism (a way to combat the problems of sexism/patriarchy between women and men) is about black women and white women getting along MORE THAN it's about black women and black men getting along.






I mean, why would I, as a black woman, have higher expectations of white women than black men on the fighting sexism front? Why? This is much like finding your husband in bed with another woman and kicking her @$$ instead of the one that stood up with you in church and said "I do."


White women aren't the central problem for black feminists or womanists.  Men aren't even the central problem for womanists and black feminists. Black women failing to value themselves as individuals and as a group is the biggest problem we as black women have. 


Here And Now, October 2015: 

There are black men and black women who are throwing a black girl child beaten by a white police officer in a classroom in South Carolina under the bus just because she acted like a dumb kid like dumb kids are supposed to. There are black people jumping up to defend this white officer, to save this white cop's job.

I swear, I oughta promise to send each and every one of you 1 million dollars if you ever see a black teenage boy get thrown around like that then see even a few people in black skin start jumping up and down to save the white officer's job.

But I digress.

I'm thinking maybe the sexism solution is going to be as galling as the racism solution.

Racism Solution: I don't think anti-black racism in this country is going to move much if white people don't move. They're the ones with the disease. If we don't create white allies who can teach the white numb from the neck up (forget the card carrying white racists) we're done.  We're only 13% of the population.

Things stay the same or get worse in this country unless white folk change OR until people of color start learning one another's stories making our outnumbering white people by 2050-ish actually mean something.

Kerry Washington, Actress
"SCANDAL"

-As it is our love partners, our sex partners, our partners in the struggle, black men that are against us, the sexism/misogyny solution may be even tougher than the racism solution.

We're more engaged with black men, as we should be. Pulling back to say, "Hey, clean your lane. I'll be right over here when you get done," is going to be a hell of a lot tougher to say to black men than it is to white folk. Why?

Because there are a hell of a lot fewer
black male feminists 
willing to teach black men about the reality of sexism 
than there are 
anti-racist whites 
willing to teach white folk about the reality of racism
from where I sit.

Yet, somehow we must get that done. Without pulling out of black men's lane? Standing inside black men's lane silently while they go about the labor of cleaning up the sexism and unacknowledged misgynoir?

But first things first. The percentage of black women who come together to say most of us aren't like up to 50% of white women and proud of it. The percentage of black women who say "we don't tolerate being treated like property no matter how pretty the pedestal is" has to increase.

We have the experience with racists to teach us how to deal with sexists. We, as black women, now have to learn to value ourselves enough to be demanding when respect is low and be supportive only when reciprocation is obviously going to be present.

Step Number One: You aren't there for "the new blacks" already. Why not try not being there for the black people supportive of those who rape and kill black women they've successfully labeled as "bitches and hoes" that don't matter anyway.

STEP Number Two: Learn Your Black Female History and make sure it's written by black women. Once you do you will start to see that that entire black community is repeating a pattern, that we as black women are putting up with things that were beaten back before by the heroic black women of history like Maria Stewart, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman --most of whom we now recognize as the original"feminists" and "womanists"

updated 8 29 2016

TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER, PART 2: ACCESSORIES BEFORE THE FACT

Many different things contributed to Lonnie Franklin’s ability to get away with murdering dozens or hundreds of women over 25 years.  Even the fact that he appears to have begun killing in the 1980s explains his ability to avoid detection.

He started killing during the crack epidemic. Plenty of dead bodies among which to hide his dead bodies His being a loader at the dump, working for with the sanitation department, was also a contributing factor. Being a significant player in the underground economy of the hood, he had help --that supposedly didn’t know they were helping-- getting rid of evidence.  And because he was “the rich one” in the neighborhood, the one handing out little jobs here and there, it’s likely nobody wanted Lonnie Franklin to be “The Grim Sleeper” even though so many signs were there. 

REVIEW OF THE GRIM SLEEPER Part 1 http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2015/11/review-tales-of-grim-sleeper-part-1.html 






In addition to his legit jobs, Franklin fenced stolen goods, his specialty being cars and car parts. This made him the go-to-guy for whatever you might need -- so long as you asked no questions. Again, Franklin’s "business connections" made him the go-to-guy for a job.

One man admitted that he was hired to burn a blood soaked car for Franklin, thinking that he was being paid to burn the car as a part of Lonnie’s insurance scam business. Franklin paid a friend that had a (likely off the books) carpet cleaning business who clean the murder sites (van and mobile home) getting rid of one stain that was an oil like substance. But the friend knew it wasn’t oil.

The alternate economy of the inner city, mostly involving not so serious crime, enabled Franklin to get rid of bodies and blood. But it was the sexism and misogyny that enabled Franklin to lure his victims and kill them without anybody bothering to notice.

Lonnie Franklin was just one of a group of men that went out weekly (at least) to pick up hookers, and/or drug addicts to pose for pornographic pictures. The filmmaker that produced this documentary covered for these “men,” calling them a sort of amateur photography club.

To many people’s ears this photographing of naked women “just” sounds harmless “boys will be boys” stuff.  But these men weren’t perusing nude women paid to pose in magazines. These men were going out with Franklin to find desperate, drug addicted women to have sex with and take pictures of. Franklin was sticking thing in these women and actually torturing them. The pictures were a way of reliving the debasement of these women.

One of Lonnie’s “friends” said that they paid as little as $2 to get these desperate, drug addicted women to go with them. A “friend” said he routinely witnessed Franklin torturing these women—and talks about the women screaming as X, Y and Z was done to

them.

Remember Delashaun,  the son’s girlfriend?
She said that Franklin’s third phone was "for his hoes, his crackheads."  This indicates that Lonnie Franklin and his pornography “friends” were hunting women barely able to give consent to "sex " and pose for sexual photos - weekly or daily.

Round mounds of flesh at chest level with a nipple, round mounds of flesh above each thigh, and a wet hole. That's all these women were to these men. Franklin was just the one with that certain something where obsessive objectification leads to murder.

There’s a lot of video of these “men” saying Lonnie couldn’t have been involved because they don’t want to believe that one of their pack was capable of this.

One of these friends/photographers talk about how Franklin showed one of them the gun, the .25 used to kill some of the women. The same “friend” tells of how handcuffs fell out of Franklin’s car one day.  Another of Franklin’s friends was actually in the car when Franklin stopped, cut a woman off who was walking, got out of the car, grabbed her by the hair and started dragging her to the car with a glazed look in his eyes, before he sort of woke up and let her go. This "friend" only thought this was “weird.”

As the documentary goes on, it becomes clear that these same friends knew that Franklin hated the women he was picking up. They said Franklin learned to hate black, female drug abusers after his wife became hooked on crack. He really loved her until he hated her, they said. There’s actually video of two men giggling, one of them laughing about female drug users, ‘You get in his car you won’t get out.’

There were so many signs that this man was a deviant and a predator. But how do you recognize this if:

A REVIEW: TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER, PART 1

Do you remember “The Grim Sleeper.”

Have you even heard of the “The Grim Sleeper” before?


Do you instantly recognize the name “Lonnie Franklin?"

I whizzed past “Tales Of The Grim Sleeper” in the TV schedule then came back to it because I'd seen a black woman’s face near the title.

When I saw the name of the documentary and the black woman's face together, it came back to me. “The Grim Sleeper” was the name given to a serial killer that murdered dozens if not 100s of black women over 25 years beginning in the 1980s.

Watching “The Grim Sleeper” documentary on HBO made me a little sick. I didn't want to watch it in the first place. I thought it would make my ears bleed to hear even one excuse for dozens of black women being murdered by a serial killer for 25 years without too many people noticing. This is especially galling since the police knew a serial killer was hunting black women in South Los Angeles by 1987 but didn't let the public know, didn't let black women in the South Los Angeles area know they were prey until 2008.






In 1985, Margaret Prescod started a black women’s group called “Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders.” She was handing out leaflets on the victims of an unknown serial killer in 1985. But leaflets were not enough. People virtually around the corner from where a body was found didn't know there was a serial killer in their midst. The police needed to make an announcement to the news outlets and they didn't let black women know they were being stalked for 22 years

It's possible that Lonnie Franklin killed hundreds of black women. The number being thrown around as the possible number of victims stands at 180.


Cops not moving due to racism is old news. Cops not moving due to the sexism and misogyny involved in not caring about sex workers, prostitutes, or “ho-s” is not new either. Yet I have to admit I was shocked when I found out that The Grim Sleeper’s sole survivor, “Anitra” Wilson, went to the police in 1988 and not 2010 when Lonnie Franklin was finally arrested like I'd assumed.

Police ignored Wilson as "unreliable" for years because they assumed that she was a hooker. And they assumed she was a hooker because she's black. (I've experienced this personally from white men at malls and art galleries) And hookers are some of those whom police "used to" mark as NHI (No Humans Involved) on police reports, when they are hurt or murdered as a way of prioritizing their caseload, obviously.

My mouth fell open again when I found out that that Wilson also had a police sketch done of the killer and took police directly to Lonnie Franklin’s street, only to misidentify a house only two doors down from Franklin’s as the one belonging to the man that offered her a ride, shot, and raped her. Again, all of this happened in 1988 not 2010 when this killer was caught.


Prescod and her Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders and victim's parents had been pressing police to catch this serial killer for years. Yet they didn’t get to see the Wilson sketch of the killer for a decade.


How many dozens of black women died between 1988 when Wilson took police to Franklin's street and 2010? We'll probably never know. For a while police thought this serial killer had stopped killing for 14 years then resumed, hence the nickname "The Grim Sleeper." But now it looks like he just got better at disposing of the bodies. (Franklin worked as a sanitation worker, a loader at the dump for a while.)

Still, there was so much more than racism and the usual lack of white police interest behind the Grim Sleeper’s ability to kill so many black women.

Lonnie Franklin was able use South Los Angeles like his own personal game reserve because the murderers of sex-workers, prostitutes, hookers, or hoes, whatever they’re being called at the moment, are rarely hunted down with any vigor, regardless of color. Women that fall off the virtuous woman pedestal into the pit of "hoes" are treated like so much garbage by police, rappers, and communities, including black communities.

Somebody other than Prescod and her group should have noticed so many black women were showing up dead, shot by the same caliber weapon or strangled - in a "tight knit community" where people have lived for multiple generations according friends of Franklin's.

Arthur Shawcross, for example, killed 12 white women, mostly prostitutes, in upstate New York and was hunted down within 3 years. The Grim Sleeper, by comparison, killed dozens if not hundreds of black women over 25 years and was never actually hunted down so much as stumbled upon.

Franklin’s son was arrested. The son’s DNA led to the father, whose DNA was on the breast of at least one murder victim. At Lonnie Franklin’s home, police found 180 photos of black women, many of them missing, some of them the faces of murder victims whose bodies have been found over the years. At Franklin’s home, police also found the gun that was used to kill a number of women


In addition to Franklin’s sanitation job, the crack epidemic in South L.A. appears to have made it easy to hide a few bodies among so many bodies dropping dead anyway in the 80s and 90s

The underground economy in the hood (due to legitimate industry and jobs having moved to the suburbs) also enabled him to dispose of bodies with relative ease. Franklin himself fenced stolen goods, mostly stolen cars and stolen car parts in addition to his straight, legit jobs. This made him the “rich one” in the neighborhood, the go-to guy for whatever you need, and more importantly the go-to guy to get a job.

One man admitted that he was paid to burn a blood soaked car for Franklin, thinking that he burning another car as part of Lonnie’s insurance scam business. Franklin also paid a friend that had a (likely off the books) carpet cleaning business. This man likely cleaned the murder sites (van and mobile home) He said he got rid of a hard to get rid stain, like oil but he knew wasn’t oil.

Crime, some serious and some not so serious -all the usual parts of the alternate economy that comes to exist in destitute neighborhoods, enabled Franklin to get rid of bodies and blood. But it was the sexism and misogynoir in this same neighborhood that enabled Franklin to lure his victims and kill them without anybody noticing.




Photo #147 “Delashaun” (not shown) of Lonnie Franklin's photo collection is one of those women that is still alive. She turned out to be Christopher Franklin's, his son's, high school girlfriend. Her photo was mixed in with what appears to be his father's “sexual conquests,” and murder victims


“Delashaun” said she spent a lot of time at the Franklin house when she was in 11th grade. A decade or so later(?), she described the Franklin's at home:

“They seemed normal typical family. If you ever needed anything, he’d get for you. Don’t ask questions. He would go and beyond to help you…

He would have a conversation with you. During that conversation, something perverted would come out. That’s just who he was. He was just a horny old man. That’s exactly how everybody would look at him. A horny old man.


When she was alone with the son, Chris Franklin, in his bedroom. She said, "You could tell he was listening at the door. Sometimes it seemed like he was a pervert."


When she asked Lonnie Franklin why he had three cell phone, she he told her that his third phone was for his hoes, his crackheads.


TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER, PART 2http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2015/11/tales-of-grim-sleeper-part-2.html

"Amateur Photography Club" 

Franklin's First Wife

Franklin's Current Wife (at time of the arrest)

 Witnesses to torture who reported nothing

 Other survivors

You Promised Me You Wouldn't Kill Me

The words above are some of the last words spoken by a schizophrenic Natasha McKenna before she was tasered to death in jail.

On April 28 2015, the 5 foot 3 inches tall black woman, weighing just 130 pounds, was ruled an accident.

This was not an accident.

"Her death was the brutal, intentional, and of force so excessive that both of her eyes were blackened, a finger was amputated, she was covered in bruises, and never woke up again after being repeatedly Tasered by the police. Mind you, this was all done to her after her hands were cuffed, her feet were shackled, and a hood put over her head. [S]he was apparently stripped completely naked as well."

 Shaun King

Read More.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/11/1383983/-Let-s-be-clear-The-brutal-death-of-Natasha-McKenna-was-not-an-accident

In September of 2015, the criminal investigation into the officers' excessive use of force came to an end with nobody being charged.


The video of McKenna's death was released by a Virginia Sheriff two days later.



Read More. Watch at your own risk.  #SayHerName  #AllBlackLivesMatter 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/video-natasha-mckenna-death_55f1cd23e4b03784e278680e