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This week's dose of horrific tragedy
13 years ago
So, this happened in Minneapolis, the same city where I live. On the night of June 5th of last year, a 23-year-old black woman named CeCe Macdonald and her friends (all black, many queer or allied) were hassled by a group of white bar patrons. They shouted racial and homophobic slurs towards the group, and one smashed a bottle in CeCe's face, cutting clean through her cheek. CeCe fled, but one of the attackers chased her. Fearing for her life, she pulled a pair of scissors from her purse with the intent of warding him off, but the man tackled her and was impaled on the scissors and died.
And this week, CeCe was put on trial for murder, despite it obviously being self-defense. The judge in the case condescendingly told her she was wrong to endanger her attacker with scissors, and though evidence was allowed to impugn CeCe's character (she wrote a bad check once), the judge did not allow evidence that showed the attacker was a white supremacist with three prior assault convictions. Facing the prospect of 40 years in prison, CeCe accepted a plea bargain for manslaughter, but that means she will spend 3 and a half years in prison, for the crime of not letting her attacker beat and possibly kill her. Because she is black and he was white. And for extra horror, CeCe is trans, so she will have to spend the time in a men's prison, which means she will almost certainly have worse inflicted on her than the original attacker planned. Our "justice" system has decided openly that black trans woman < white nazi thug.
Hopefully that pisses you off as much as it does me. So, though the chances are slim of things being turned around, there's a few ways to speak up for this brave young woman:
Sign the petition asking for her to be pardoned, and (especially if you're a Minnesota resident) write to the governor asking to fix this gross injustice. Find out more about the efforts to support this young woman here: Support CeCe
And this week, CeCe was put on trial for murder, despite it obviously being self-defense. The judge in the case condescendingly told her she was wrong to endanger her attacker with scissors, and though evidence was allowed to impugn CeCe's character (she wrote a bad check once), the judge did not allow evidence that showed the attacker was a white supremacist with three prior assault convictions. Facing the prospect of 40 years in prison, CeCe accepted a plea bargain for manslaughter, but that means she will spend 3 and a half years in prison, for the crime of not letting her attacker beat and possibly kill her. Because she is black and he was white. And for extra horror, CeCe is trans, so she will have to spend the time in a men's prison, which means she will almost certainly have worse inflicted on her than the original attacker planned. Our "justice" system has decided openly that black trans woman < white nazi thug.
Hopefully that pisses you off as much as it does me. So, though the chances are slim of things being turned around, there's a few ways to speak up for this brave young woman:
Sign the petition asking for her to be pardoned, and (especially if you're a Minnesota resident) write to the governor asking to fix this gross injustice. Find out more about the efforts to support this young woman here: Support CeCe
The legal system is set up so that they can use threats of extreme punishment to coerce people into these plea bargains. There was never any doubt that she killed the man; the question at trial was if it was murder or self-defense. Faced with a prosecutor who was aggressively going after her (they could have dropped the case as obvious self-defense) and a judge that only accepted evidence with bias, she had little choice but to accept the plea bargain.
A judge cant do that it was self defence that like saying a black has no self defence but a white does he attacked first
There was, jsut recently a racial modivated assult case that was swept under in West Virginia. Two white news reporters were draged out of thier car by a group of 30 black men. It was labeled as a "simple assult" verses a "racially modivated hate crime".
The justice system is totally fucked up either way. But once you take a plea, there's nothing you can do about it.
Oh, and I've read those stories; it was not a group of 30 black men that took part in the assault (that was the amount of people on the street at the time), the two reporters were not dragged from their car (a kid threw a rock at the car and the male reporter got out to confront the kid), the police found no evidence that the attack was racially motivated, it was labeled a "simple assault" because that's the title of the code for assault in the on-site police report and not the legal charge, and the teenager that started the fight has already been arrested and charged with a felony and multiple misdemeanors.
also, didn't know you lived in the twin cities! i'm like an hour away
but I digress...signed
And thank you for signing. If you get a chance, write to the governor, he might eventually take notice if a lot of his constituents speak up.
alas, by next september I shall be moving to the otherside of wisconsin
Boy tell me about it. It's like they're trying to go back in time to some backwards era where other races were just excuses for whites to get away with anything. Though if there's anything I can honestly say, we've made little progress in respecting others. So one step forward and fifteen steps back.
It feels like we're going backwards instead of forward nowadays.
I'm fuckin' signing this damn thing!
*Foxy is dead*
Account: DELETED
Let's just hope what she endures in the meantime doesn't cause any emotional, psychological, or physical trauma. Bless her, and best of luck.
Sidenote: I will be spending some time in Missoula this month with my girlfriend, so it'll be my first experience of visiting Montana! I hope it goes well. She says we'll be drawing in Glacier Falls and attending figure drawing seminars!
What the HELL IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD?!?!?!
Thanks for telling us. "Hugs"
"I remember CeCe McDonald!I've been following her for a while.On the third day of her trial she was forced to make a plea deal because the trial was played too overwhelmingly in favor of the gThe court would not admit his history of assault as evidence, but they would admit the one time CeCe filled out a bad check.uy with the swastika tattoo.CeCe was accused of murdering one of her assailants (she probably didn't do it and even if she did it was self defense), and the guy that died had a swastika tattoo and a history of convicted domestic assault.The court would not admit his history of assault as evidence, but they would admit the one time CeCe filled out a bad check."