Societal Treatment Toward Certain Victims of Crime- Part One

American Society Shows No Sympathy Toward Certain Women Victims Of Crime- Part One

This post is an ongoing series concerning how this society treats certain types of female victims of crime and how the media and the general public responds to such women.

We know that men are disproportionate victims of crime.  While women are less likely to be victims of crime generally, there are different groups of women who suffer disproportionately.  Many of such women come from ethnic groups such as Blacks, Latinos, American Indian, Pacific Islanders, Appalachian Whites.  Also, poor women of all races, also suffered from high crime victimization due to their circumstances.  Women engaged in sex work are victimized by crime as well

It's so easy to blame the poor for being victims of crime because we're insulated.  Crime happens to anyone regardless of class, where you live, or occupation.

The recent murders of Trinity Love Jones and Amber Evans should have gotten more attention from the media.  The problem is that they're Black, not White.  Not Asian.  Not rich and famous.   They're just ordinary Black girls/women going about their daily lives.   Instead of talking about their lives, the media goes through their backgrounds, those of their parents, friends, which neighborhood they came from, their educational background and so on.

When it comes to murder of prostitutes, the general public, media, and society in general has no sympathy whatsoever.  This culture has a Madonna/whore complex when it comes to womens' sexuality and behavior. We want women to be perfect in all areas of life, scorned and castigated when fall short of societal ideas.

For example, when the victims of serial killer Anthony Sowell were discovered and identified by Cleveland police and forensics in late October and early November, the media immediately labeled the women as drug addicts, prostitutes, mentally ill runaways.  Since Mr. Sowell's arrest back in 2009, Cleveland’s local radio-talk shows, which have been having a field day with the story since it broke and in the embedded local racial animus exposed by a white caller to one of those talk shows, who essentially blamed the victims—either for being crack whores, or for simply living in a black neighborhood.

Imperial Beverage Store owner Assad Tayeh has those same views as the callers.  According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mr. Tayeh said the following:

"No one knows the case against accused serial killer Anthony Sowell better than Assad Tayeh.

Mr. Tayeh,  who goes by the name "Sam," began with a disclaimer that he’s not a racist, just a "regular human being." He then launched into a tirade of the neighborhood’s dope boys and disreputable women – much like the 11 women whose remains were found in and around Sowell’s home in 2009.  He said the following:

"Whoever did that to these women, that is not right," he said. "But for me to have sympathy for these women – Zero…. What do you want? Police to be a babysitter for these women who get killed?"

This man has absolutely no sympathy for the victims whatsoever.

Tayeh told jurors he knew Sowell well. He knew his behaviors, his patterns, his girlfriends – even the brand of beer he preferred. And he recognized when Sowell’s behavior and personality had taken a dark turn.

The once well-dressed and polite Sowell had let himself go, seemed paranoid and acted like the crack addicts Tayeh said frequented the neighborhood.

Defense attorneys, who argued that Sowell’s behavior changed after a heart attack in early 2007, asked Tayeh if he was aware of Sowell’s health problems.

"So if he had a heart attack, that would make him change?" Tayeh asked incredulously. "What’s the heart attack have to do with it?"

Tayeh also described for jurors the stench of rotting meat that saturated the neighborhood during the years Sowell lived there.

Try as he might, Tayeh said, he never could pinpoint the cause. But during his testimony, he seemed to have accepted the prosecutors’ theory that the putrid smell emanated from Sowell’s backyard, basement and third floor dormer -- where the bodies were buried in shallow graves or left to decompose in the open air.

"I like Anthony," he said. "But he gave me a headache from that smell. Oh, my goodness. Especially in the summer time. … I lost a lot of customers because of it."

So he blames the sausage factory next door instead of Sowell's house.  There's a distinction between the smell of rotten meat and rotten corpses.  Is he insane?  Or was he covering up for his "friend?"  This man should've been arrested a long time ago for his complicity in the serial killer's crimes.  I'm sorry, I'm not buying his argument. He views the women in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood as not having any "morals" or whatever he defines what a good woman should be.  I think he has deep contempt for the people in the neighborhood despite having a convenience store there.  He still operates a convenience store a few blocks away from Sowell's former home and still has contempt for the people who reside there.

He, along with the rest of the people outside of Cleveland, has a strong contempt for Black people in general.  He sees us as being "problems", not as fellow citizens.  Law enforcement, the city media, and the general public share some or all of his belief concerning fellow Black citizens of the city.  

According to Tayeh, using the Madonna/whore mythology so prevalent in America and around the world,  Black women aren't deserving of respect or concern.  To him and his ilk, we're just "garbage."  Mr. Sowell thinks the same way about Black women.  Look up the trial transcripts online.

At least one writer in the Cleveland Plain Dealer gave the victims not just sympathy but also their humanity and character before unfortunate circumstances took their lives, but of their legacies the victims left behind.  Thank goodness for that.  Usually, the media labels such women as nobodies who don't exist.  But the lady took the time to know the families of the victims, humanize their lives etc.

I wish people take the time to sympathize with crime victims and not being dismissive of their families left behind.