The DC Stabbings (another trans murder)

[SarahG]

Surprised no one has mentioned this on here yet.

But, yesterday in Washington DC a guy walked up to two trans girls in the city, at 2 in the afternoon, in the middle of the day, and stabbed both of them while saying slur(s), and then ran off whilst the two victims started running for help in the opposite direction.

One of the two were stabbed in the neck, severing an artery and causing her death. The other survived but I haven't seen anything talking about what her injuries were, other than them being serious.

Despite being in broad daylight, in the middle of the day, on a city street- no one has come forward (yet anyway). This guy, whoever he was, was able to stab two girls (one in the neck) in broad daylight in the middle of Washington DC but "no one saw a thing."

Possibly related to the story; according to some articles on this, this all went down in close proximity to a "agency"* in the area that aims at working with trans children/young adults (the murdered girl was fulltime and 21 according to the articles, no word yet on the age of the surviving victim). It makes me seriously wonder if this was a planned attack, with the victims chosen by watching for trans people coming & going from the agency.

The Washington Post's coverage of the case has been so bad that Fox News, yes Fox news (their local affiliate) covered it more delicately. Upon reporting the case Washington Post has decided that the best way to bring about justice for these girls is to repeatedly state they are "biologically male," repeatedly use incorrect pronouns, and repeatedly state their legal names when that information is known (ATM only the murdered girl's legal name and female name have been publicly released).

I said it before, and I will say it again: there is no reason for any newspaper, let alone a major newspaper, to go to such lengths to talk about "biological sex," how passable a trans victim was, or any other such useless information. In fact they don't even have to use gendered pronouns if they are that uncomfortable in doing so (you can use "they" instead of he/she, this used to be part of English101 before all our colleges went PC-crazy and started forcing people to use "he or she"/"his or hers" for genderless pronoun usage). Considering that fox's coverage (although far from perfect) was so much better makes me wonder if the Washington Post's coverage was intentionally intolerant in order to poison the jury pool by making the victims appear less sympathetic. Why else would this dead girl's female name be referred to as a "street name"?

Like all papers the Washington Post has done special interest stories on trans people before. You know, those cliché pseudo-journalism stories that interview a (almost always MtF) trans person, while showing them clothes shopping or crying after getting SRS or putting on makeup. They do not refer to a trans person's chosen name as a "street name" when their story is discussing a middle class white transitioner... but when its a trans youth, in a city like Washington... the paper chooses to go with terminology that makes the victim out to be some kind of an illicit thug. All they had to do was say "alias." Would that have really been so hard!?

Although not the best article ever written about a trans victim, this one is by far the most tolerantly worded one I've seen yet on this specific case. Unfortunately, more people will end up reading the one from the Post or Fox.

And people wonder why criminals so easily get away with targeting trans citizens. Now is a good time to remind us all that with VERY sporadic data-coverage, a recent statistical survey has found that a trans person is murdered somewhere around the globe no less often than once every 3 days. That does not include statistics from the United States because we refuse to track these crimes when they happen here, out of fear that such tracking would create a "privileged class" of minorities protected by hate crime legislation.

You want to talk about privilege? Let's talk about the non-trans people that are freely allowed to walk around stabbing people in broad daylight... or the witnesses who don't give enough of a shit to help catch the guy.




* According to the one article, the "agency" was the North Capitol Street offices of Transgender Health Empowerment. Their website is here: http://www.theincdc.org/

I think I edited the errors out here- I shouldn't rush posts like this.

[Legend]

WTF these trangsender killings are getting ridiculous.You know something really has to be done if morons are doing it in broad day light.

[rockabilly]

I hope the surviving girl recovers and id's the bastard. No witnesses my ass :

[JeniferTS]

omg..this just saddens me.

girls becareful..always carry
some type of protection.

i've been through sooo much
that i'm very lucky to be here today.

[SarahG]

Now that I've read that "agency"'s website, it appears to be a government program run by or funded by DC's department of health to supply young LGBT people with emergency housing (due to stuff like being kicked out of their parents home for being gay or trans, or for impoverished LGBT people who need emergency housing), vocational training of some kind, and helping to find medical services for young LGBT people in need.

This might explain why the Post decided to word things the way they did, they probably assumed that the victims were in the area because of the agency knowing it caters to impoverished LGBT youth.

[2009AD]

No witnesses my ass :

Do you know the neighborhood they are talking about? I do. It's a fairly quiet street in D.C.

Despite being in broad daylight, in the middle of the day, on a city street- no one has come forward (yet anyway). This guy, whoever he was, was able to stab two girls in the neck in broad daylight in the middle of Washington DC but "no one saw a thing."

Let's talk about the non-trans people that are freely allowed to walk around stabbing people in broad daylight... or the witnesses who don't give enough of a shit to help catch the guy.

I've lived in D.C. for over 20 years, and I can tell you that not every street in bustling with tourists and members of Congress. You can walk 5 or 6 blocks away from the Capitol and find yourself on a quiet residential street, where a mugging or stabbing could take place and no witnesses are present.

[Silcc69]

Good lord people are barbaric and savage and the guy had balls to do this shit in broad daylight.

[Quiet Reflections]

I love DC but its terrible how ugly the city can be sometimes

[SarahG]

I've lived in D.C. for over 20 years, and I can tell you that not every street in bustling with tourists and members of Congress. You can walk 5 or 6 blocks away from the Capitol and find yourself on a quiet residential street, where a mugging or stabbing could take place and no witnesses are present.

Are you familiar with this location?

[JeniferTS]

dc is horrible especially southeast.