Six Black "Prostitutes" and a White "Runaway"...

I'm just really upset about these serial killings. First, they've completely fallen out of the news. Second, the way the media and the police department handled this (42 dead prostitutes in 21 years in Milwaukee) over the years has me just livid. Could someone please mention when we have two women a year murdered, under similar circumstances in the same community, to us women so we can be aware of this problem a little sooner that 21 years later? Third, we have a failure to communicate.

I keep seeing this "six prostitutes and a runaway with drug problems" description of the victims attributed to this same killer. My cynical side noticed that I only saw the pictures of six black women all over the news and wondered if the "runaway with a drug problem" was white, then my practical side took over and for weeks, I've actually refused to check this out. I just didn't want to go there... really I didn't...

But the AP is asking questions too... questions that are just my speed...

Why is it that the black women are prostitutes and "crack whores" in the media, but the young white girl is a "runaway with a drug problem" who happened to have the same killer who's been killing strictly prostitutes for decades DNA on her? Why is it okay to say the black women were prostitutes, but when describing the white woman, she's a "runaway with a drug problem"? As if she wasn't selling her body to access a drug she was physically addicted to the same as the black women were...

This is my point. I'm not mad that they tried to soften the blow to her family that she was killed by a man while having sex for drug money.

I'm mad that the media and police department have gone OUT OF THEIR WAY to describe her any differently than the black women who were murdered by the same guy doing the same thing! The 19 year old's family and the 35 year old's family and the 41 year old's family, ALL of their families, have the same level of grief, pain and loss. At least two of the black women's family members deny the victims were prostitutes at all.

The loss first of their loved one to drugs that stole her future from her and them. The loss from the betrayal of their love when she no longer could be trusted around their possessions. The loss from watching someone you love descend into the depths of a hellish drug addiction that leads to a dangerous life on the streets supporting your habit with the only thing you have left as a woman...

Your body.

Subjecting it to the highest of the high men and the lowest of the low men in our society all preying on your illness by paying for the use of your body for their own twisted sexual needs.... Completely vulnerable to abuse, and suffering by the men who prey on them and the drugs that enslave them, they were also vulnerable to a police department that dismissed them as useless and unknown not worth more than a quick look at the evidence and an envelope that holds it for 20 years...

No woman chooses to be a drug addict or a prostitute. This is not a life you dream of living as you're growing up. It's the life around you that you endure that eventually leads you to this life. It's one bad boyfriend or abuse as a child that you must dull your mind from to forget because you cannot afford a therapist...

These women were human beings. They were real. They had families and children and once in their lives they dreamed of being doctors, or lawyers or fashion designers or marine biologists. Life didn't yield those careers for them and their illnesses, yes, drug addiction is a physical illness, untreated led them to a dangerous life.

Why did the police and media recognize that in the white 16 year old girl and so gently treat her murder and so callously treat the murder of the black women who still are not victims, but "murdered prostitutes" in their eyes.

I'm really upset by this and I want the families of all seven victims to know that I look at your family members as who they were women with families, lives and dreams and their skin color, age, addictions don't matter one bit to me. They were human beings with a right to life, a right to have a chance for sobriety and freedom from their hell, and that was stolen for more of them than might have been the case, should had someone actually seen what I see... and more are in danger...

If you have a loved one who is putting themselves in danger due to drug abuse or prostitution call the Benedict Center for help with programs for women you love and feel like you've lost. Hope always exists, some do come back. As desperate as it seems right now, help is out there.

Find it. Save a life. If you know anything about these murders, please call the MPD, this psychopath needs to be stopped now and now that we all know about it, I assume they are actively trying to find him.

SCOTUS Rules Access to DNA to Prove Innocence NOT a Constitutional Right

That's right. The Supreme Court of the United States said in a ruling this week that if a defendant has had a "fair trial", they have no right after the fact to access the DNA evidence available to prove their innocence.

Let me say that again. If you have been convicted of a crime and you believe you are innocent and a new DNA test method is developed years later that could prove your innocence, you do NOT have a right under the Constitution to test that evidence or test that evidence again even if you pay to do the testing!

In other words, the hundreds of people exonerated on DNA evidence around the country would no longer have had the right to prove their innocence. Even if it means they will die or spend the rest of their life in prison for a crime they did not commit. This means thousands of people in prison or on death row convicted before DNA testing became available or the newest methods were developed, could die or rot in prison if they are innocent.

I just want you to imagine this is you. You KNOW you didn't rape and kill someone. You are convicted of it on circumstancial evidence maybe just wrong place wrong time and sitting in prison every day locked up with people who did commit their crimes and you find out that a new testing method that could prove you did not do it has been developed, but the state you live in says, "No, you can't have the evidence to retest it." They can now do that and you will sit in prison for life or until the state changes it's mind.

Now what the court says is not that you can't have it, just that the STATE can tell you you can't have it. So in some states, the legislature will pass laws that say, yeah, you can have it and in other states they could decide, no, once there's a conviction we're done with it.

Now read this article and think of this ruling in the context of the Milwaukee serial killer. In particular pay attention to the last lines of the article posted below and the lines I bolded:

Police believe the killer had sex with the runaway, but she was killed by someone else.

The developments have prompted officials to form a local, state and federal task force to investigate the homicides. A state lab is working to determine whether the DNA of at least 23 other slain prostitutes matches that of the killer.

"In the past, we might have linked some of these homicides through their method of operation, but theory has given way to technology," said Edward Flynn, the Milwaukee police chief. "Within the last couple of weeks, we have been able to confirm a link."

Flynn, who described the killer as an "unknown suspect who conducts his business in secret," said the investigation would require tips from the community.

"This suspect has been able to avoid and evade law enforcement for these last 23 years. He has never been arrested for a felony as he does not appear in any DNA database," Flynn said.

Police said 42 prostitutes were killed between 1986 and 2007, and that 31 percent of the cases have been solved. There has been a higher clearance rate -- 78 percent -- in other homicides.

Of the seven killed, two were in 1986, three in 1995, one in 1997 and one in 2007. The runaway was one of the three killed in 1995.

Flynn said there have been "patterned homicides" discovered across the country as a result of advanced DNA technology, citing investigations in Los Angeles, California; Mesa, Arizona; and Las Vegas, Nevada. However, he said there is no link with the Milwaukee cases.

In discussing advances in DNA technology, Flynn said there were no matches in 1990s, two around 2000 and the seven have been linked in recent weeks.

"We already have determined that five suspects in murders of other prostitutes -- completely unrelated to this investigation -- have been identified because their DNA match open homicide cases. Three of them already are in prison for cleared homicides of prostitutes," police said in a statement Tuesday.

Three men were exonerated in Wisconsin this year because the state of Wisconsin finally decided to test the evidence with new methods. Those men sat in prison KNOWING they were innocent of rape and murder and yet had what was considered "fair trials" that were wrong.

They happen to be in Wisconsin and Milwaukee's new police chief apparently decided that 42 prostitute murders in Milwaukee in 21 years deserved a second look, but under the new Supreme Court decision, these three men had NO other recourse than to wait for the state to decide to retest evidence, while the real killer kept on killing...

50 states, 50 legislatures, thousands of police departments and each one gets to make up it's own rules on this.

The outrage of this is that the Supreme Court of the United States of America essentially decided that the right to prove innocence is no longer a part of the phrase "due process". Until Congress acts to restore it, this is now the law of this country.

State legislatures must act quickly to restore the rights at the state level. Congress must act to explicitly spell out this right nationally. Before potentially innocent people die on death rows in states that refuse to retest, before another innocent person spends another lifetime locked up for a crime they didn't commit.

Yes, this is the SCOTUS that George W. Bush gave us when he appointed Roberts and Alito to the Court. This is the new nightmare for individual rights in this country, a court that is dismantling them one by one... and the result is that Congress will be running around spending time passing laws trying to undo the damage instead of working on fixing our country's economic mess.

Can you tell I'm just a little upset about this one?

More on the serial killing in the next post... This deserves it's own discussion...

Juneteenth Day: Hope and Promise Delayed

Since 1865 when Galveston, TX made this day, June 19th an official holiday, the African American community holds this day in reverence as a sign of hope and promise.

It was the day the last slaves in Texas were told they were free. The day about six months after the Emancipation Proclamation, that freedom became a reality for all African Americans in the United States of America.

I never learned about this day in school in the 1970's. It happened after school let out and frankly, it wasn't part of the curriculum. I learned about this day as my father and his father and so forth, and most African Americans learned about this day, the same way most people learned about it (and celebrated it quietly for generations underground), from my father through a story at a seemingly spontaneous picnic as a child. It's become more prevalent in the United States with more and more cities recognizing the day as significant in our history but...

I think in many ways the celebration of Juneteenth Day is a mystery to the majority of the population of the United States.

The first obvious question I hear is why not just celebrate the day of the Emancipation Proclamation when people were legally freed?

The answer is simple really: Because legal freedom does not always equate to actual freedom. If it did the civil rights movement would not have been necessary.

In so many ways this day is symbolic of a nation that was willing to say one thing and do another. While passing the 14th and 15th amendments that gave African Americans full citizenship (well at least men), they quickly passed a slew of local laws that essentially took that citizenship away in the reality of everyday life.

It took 100 years of Jim Crow, the Tuskeegee Airmen, Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, Hank Aaron, Thurgood Marshall, separate but equal, lynchings, Brown v BOE, and more bloodshed than in the Civil War to pass the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, neither would have been necessary had the 14th and 15th amendments been adhered to in the first place. They were the law of the land, but the enforcement of those laws was all but ignored for a century.

African Americans understand that the laws in this country are always quite far ahead of the ways they are enforced and that they apply differently to different people.

Even today...
(if you read my blog regularly, you have an idea of what I'm referring to here...)

So in our community, we continue to celebrate not the day the laws changed, but the day six months later when the law was finally enforced throughout the Union and freedom was actually achieved by the very last slaves still held captive by their former owners.

I'm still waiting though for full freedom.

Felon disfranchisement, educational disparities, policing disparities, sentencing disparities, economic disparities, literacy, housing inequality, banking inequality, gender disparities, sexual orientation inequities, health care disparities, racially charged immigration "debates", and full freedom still are plaguing minority communities all over this country, despite the feel-goodness of having elected an African American president that we all are experiencing today...

I'm patiently waiting, well, I'm not so patient on these issues actually, but waiting to fully celebrate the actions of a more reasonable President (who happens to have skin just slightly lighter than Boehner's), a more reasonable Congress and someday maybe a more reasonable SCOTUS...

I have hope and promise, I'm ready now for action!

So in the true spirit of Juneteenth Day, let's celebrate the successes and remember to keep an eye on the ball for the hope and promises of a day in the future, not yet established, when every man, woman and child born into this country is truly given a chance for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Not just in law, but also in practice.

Kagen and Erpenbach Take Central Role in Public Health Care Option

The press release says it all really. A public health plan option is the most doable option right now and while far from what the public is demanding (a single payer system would be the most logical), the PHP option is a good first step in that direction if it's done properly. Senator Russ Feingold spoke eloquently about this on Friday night as well!

Thanks to both the WI Congressman and the WI State Senator for their leadership on this issue on behalf of citizens and businesses nationwide and thanks to the 26 legislators from Wisconsin who have signed onto this legislative demand.

From Progressive States Network:

WISCONSIN STATE SENATOR JON ERPENBACH TO REPRESENT OVER 600 STATE LEGISLATORS IN DELIVERING LETTER TO WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESS URGING CHOICE OF PUBLIC HEALTH PLAN

As health care battle heats up on Capitol Hill, Wisconsin takes central role in pushing for progressive reform

WHAT: A dozen state legislators will hand off a letter from 600 of their colleagues urging health care reform including a public insurance option to Sen. Tom Harkin and other Members of Congress.
WHEN: Wednesday, June 17, 1:15pm
WHERE: Russell Senate Office Building, Room 385, Washington, D.C.
WHO: Sen. Tom Harkin (D - IA)
Rep. Steve Kagen, M.D. (D - WI)
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D - ME)
Connecticut State House Speaker Christopher Donovan (D - 84)
Texas State Rep. Garnet Coleman (D - 147)
Wisconsin State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D - 27)
Iowa State Sen. Jack Hatch (D - 33)

As battle lines begin to be drawn around provisions for a public health insurance plan in draft House and Senate health reform bills, Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach will take up a central role in the debate. At a White House meeting with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and a Capitol Hill press conference hosted by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Erpenbach will join a delegation of state legislators organized by the national group Progressive States Network as they deliver a letter urging comprehensive health care reform within the year. The letter, which was signed by over 600 legislators from 46 states, including 26 from Wisconsin, calls for any federal reform bill to include the choice of a public health insurance plan, strong affordability protections, and shared employer responsibility for health care costs.

The day's events will highlight an emerging consensus from Main Streets across the country that constituents want the choice of a public insurance plan, and it will call attention to the broadening discussion in which federal leaders are seeking input from a broad coalition at all levels of government. At the press conference, Members of Congress will discuss the importance of hearing voices from outside the Beltway in formulating a uniquely American solution to the health care crisis, and legislators who have been key leaders on state level reform will share how the lessons they have learned from pioneering reform policy at the state level support the drive for a national public plan and other progressive reform priorities.

The full text of the letter is available here: http://progressivestates.org/statefedhealth

Non-Profits, Fundraising, and Tough Economic Times

I sit on the boards of or work for at least 8 organizations in the state of Wisconsin. Some non-profit 501(c)3 organizations, some non-profit 501(c4) membership/advocacy organizations, some political organizations. For the purposes of this post, none of them will be named, because it's not necessary. This isn't about just my organizations that I care about, in fact, what's most important is that it is an organization YOU care about.

In tough economic times, things get tough for everyone, but for these types of organizations that rely solely or primarily on the generosity of their members, donors and benefactors, your donation means more now than ever before!

Membership and political organizations for example have lots (thousands or 10's of thousands) of small donors, $10-$50 that they give annually because they care about the work the organization does and want to give something to keep it going or just want to be able to say they are a member. These donors are often the hardest hit in a recession (or arguably a depression) because many donors just cannot afford even that level of giving. Often donations to membership organizations are not tax deductible and so, they are the first donations cut in a budget. In even a 10% or 15% drop off in a year, the effects on programs and staffing can be devasting! In off election years, political organizations in particular are forgotten in the donation mix.

Foundations that have tax deductible donations often have much smaller donor bases who give much larger donations. In tough economic times donations are altered by these larger donors. The donations are put off until later in the year, they are similar to the previous year's donation amount and sometimes are even downsized depending on the extent of the fiscal issues the donors are facing.

In times like these, your donations to the organizations you care about most are more critical than ever! Many non-profits are struggling in ways that are dramatic. I know of staffing cuts, program cuts, delayed projects, salary decreases, benefit cuts, and core services barely being preserved in so many organizations right now, it would blow your mind!

So as someone who has causes I care about that are teetering and as someone who knows that no matter your politics or critical issues, your organization is struggling:

• Give
• Give early in the year (early gifts help to delay disaster planning and layoffs)
• Give more than once (this can be done easily by setting up small monthly payments $10/month is $120/year and that's more than your usual $35 annual gift and will help more as a steady stream of income)
• Give more than you did last year if you can
• Join an organization you care about but have never given to before
• Renew your membership
• No matter the organization or cause you give to, let them know, you are giving because Crawford's Take asked you

The organizations you are about to give to will be sustained and the work you care about will continue ONLY if you reach a little deeper and give a little more on behalf of those who care, but just cannot.

Conservative Insanity and Sotomayor

Back in late 2005, George W Bush appointed John Roberts to the Supreme Court to replace Chief Justice Rehnquist.  We liberals grumbled internally, but there has been this unwritten presidential political truce... 

The first SCOTUS pick is a gimme for the opposition party, after that, all bets are off...  

So following the general rule and looking back, these are the president's first picks, all nominated:

Johnson:  Abe Fortas

Nixon:  Warren Burger

Reagan:  Sandra Day O'Conner

Bush:  John Roberts (note, the opposition party didn't end the Miers nomination, quite to the Dems surprise, the president's own party did...)

You have to go back to Hoover to find a first nominee rejected by Congress... and that's too far back to apply to my point today.  ;)

So for 79 years there has been this unspoken agreement between the parties that the first pick is a freebee.  Then comes President Obama who not only picked a highly qualified (although pretty moderate for my taste :) and highly experienced justice to nominate to the court in Sonia Sotomayor.

What happens?  Conservatives go ballistic.  We liberals waited.  Bush won the election, was president and he got the first pick without much ado.  In fact, I've searched my blog several different ways and I couldn't find one reference to the Roberts nomination.  If you find a post, let me know...  We went ballistic over Alito (and my blog history shows that blow back), but the first pick we respectfully declined comment on. 

The key word here is "respect".  A certain deferrence to the president, but more importantly a deferrence to the voters who elected him.

That said, "respect" doesn't seem to be the GOP talking head's best subject lately.  

Conservatives on Sotomayor this week:

Limbaugh:  "reverse racist" and a comparison to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke

Gingrich:  "new racism is no better than old racism." and a "Latina woman racist"

Tancredo:  When speaking about her called the National council of La Raza "Latino KKK without the hoods and nooses"

Coulter is on the "racist" rant as well, but she's irrelevant as her insanity is well documented

And my personal favorite insane quip of the week was by G. Gordon Liddy:

LIDDY: Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.

Another choice comment by Liddy is that she "speaks illegal alien".

Makes me wanna show him a real PMSing woman...

Cornyn and Hatch have sort of freaked out and realized that losing the female and the latino vote entirely wouldn't be good for the GOP's attempts to rebuild the party and have condemned these types of attacks to their credit both politically and personally, but the insanity rages.

Info from stories here and here and here

Where is the decency of these men? 

The simple answer is that they do not have any decency.

The GOP needs to give up these attacks immediately.  They are not substantive, not in any way.  They are so revealing to the ugly nature of these men as to be truly nauseating and disgusting.  These comments are horrible on their face loaded with blatant racism, sexism and hatred and underneath are just inhuman.

As the false veil of the now clearly dead compassionate conservatism and outreach to women, Latinos and African Americans has been raised, the ugliness underneath is truly stunningly awful and a place more than 57% of Americans never want to return to again...

Just keep digging that enormous hole back to political relevance deeper conservatives...