Victim: Simmie Williams Jr., shot as he stood along Sistrunk Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, died at Broward General Medical Center.
By Brian Haas and Sofia Santana | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
February 23, 2008
FORT LAUDERDALE - The shooting death of a gay teenage boy who was dressed in women's clothing is being investigated as a possible hate crime, while detectives try to determine whether he was targeted because of his sexual orientation.
Simmie Williams Jr., 17, was attacked on the 1000 block of Sistrunk Boulevard by two young men who wore dark clothing and might live in the neighborhood, police said. Williams, who was wearing a dress and was known in the area by his first name or as "Chris" or "Beyonce," was shot about 12:45 a.m. Friday and soon afterward died at Broward General Medical Center, police said.It's unclear what Williams was doing in the area, about four miles from his house, but police are investigating whether he was working as a prostitute, officials said.
Almost two weeks after the shocking death of Lawrence King in his California classroom, a gay black teen has been shot dead in South Florida. Police in Fort Lauderdale say 17-year-old Simmie Williams Jr. was dressed in women's clothing and his death is being investigated as a possible bias crime.
"We're looking into the possibility of a hate crime," Sgt. Kathy Collins with the Fort Lauderdale Police tells News 10. "There were some words exchanged prior to the shooting ... Witnesses said he was in a verbal argument with two men and then they heard several shots being fired and the men took off running."
Detectives say Williams was wearing a dress and at the corner of 10th Avenue and Sistrunk Boulevard at around 12:45 a.m. Friday. It is unclear what he was doing in the area. The vicinity is frequented by transgender prostitutes.
Williams' mother tells the Sun-Sentinnel she knew her son was openly gay, but, did not know her son wore women's clothes or what he did after dark. "I gave him $2 for the bus and he never came back," says Denise King, who lived with her son west of Fort Lauderdale. "He was a quiet person, kept to himself. He had a lot of friends. He wasn't a troubled child. He was a happy person."
The distraught mom also says her son "planned to get his GED":and then go to culinary school. "That's what he really wanted to do. That's all he talked about," says King. "He spent the whole day with me yesterday, played with his nephew and cooked dinner."
Although the Lawrence King murder is making national headlines and the community is pulling together, there probably will not be a stampede in Fort Lauderdale to apprehend the men who killed Simmie Williams. Authorities are historically slow to solve murders of black gay young menâ€"a la Rashawn Brazellâ€"and "being black, gay and dressing in women's clothing made Williams 'a minority within a minority within a minority,' says Grant Lynn Ford, dean of Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale, a congregation that ministers to gays, lesbians and their families.
I absolutely hate the media and don't watch the news and rarely will pick up the paper. The power the media has is incredible. For example, all this talk of a recession...I strongly feel that if the media didn't harp on it constantly, there would be no recession. The media only hastens and worsens it because people hear it and thus believe it. If the media instead reported on the positive side of things more, I bet there'd be a quicker turnaround! It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I will admit that I don't know how the process works. But I assume that there are people who decide what stories to cover and what ones not to. I think often they might decide why do to stories about the same thing this one sounds most interesting. I'm sure there is some bias involved also. That could even be who your readers are. If you think they are mostly rich white stright men then why cover a story about a gay black teen if no one would care. I think there are other factors to like is the source reliable and does it entertain and how much space is left in the paper. I think that is why it is good to have at least 2 Major papers in every city.
For clarification: I am not expected news sources to be able to report on EVERYthing...the point how they pick and choose what does get covered... and how we can't expect that these are mere coincidences or inability to cover it all, but rather that this we are fed a carefully chosen few stories while others are INTENTIONALLY left out. and then to take into consideration WHY they are not included and see what that says about this country.
And do you know what they fill those x minutes and y pages with?
"Area Dog Entertains Elderly at Nursing Home"
"Traffic Lights: Boon to Local Businesses?"
"Dickface Smith Middle School Students Collect Caned Food for the Dead"
People would be more outraged if they weren't caring so much about local bullshit. I can't watch a newscast or read a local paper without choking on bullshit.
What Jason said - news organizations have limited resources and are expected to report globally. CNN isn't going to become the hate crime journal anytime soon. That doesn't mean that these organizations are callous, or that hate crimes aren't newsworthy. There are a lot of issues to worry about. Another consideration - as always, and I wish it weren't true, but if it isn't one topic that people perceive as being underreported then there will always be another topic somebody will complain about in the same regard. Americans are the world's most prolific complainers. The media are by no means perfect and deserve criticism but in this instance I am not prepared to lambast them.
The news companies have X minutes and Y pages to fit in as much information and advertising as they can muster. They cannot possibly fit in every outrage (I happen to think there are many such things). It would probably be more controversial and unacceptable if the alleged hate crimes were totally ignored.
A constructive solution, if a specific alleged hate crime needs to be brought to everyone's attention, is to take a full page Ad in the New York Times or some other purveyor of information.