How is it that "we" hear of some things and not others in the news? It is beyond my ability to understand the ways in which we are manipulated through basic access to information...for those who don't search it out on their own, which is many of us, are we not just submissive infants swallowing all they hold in front of our faces? This is not to de-emphasize the tragedy of Lawrence King's murder, but rather to question why we get to hear about his death and not the death of Simmie Williams Jr.? How many alleged hate crimes go unnoticed, unprinted, unrecognized while other are lifted up to level of idolization? Was Lawrence King more "innocent" that Simmie Williams Jr.? Could we idolize a street walker, a potential prostitute, someone who stepped out if his place? I am disgusted at this possibility...that somehow one person's death is more or less credible, legitimate than an anothers. How wonderful that people hear about the death of Lawrence King, that people understand the brutality of it all, but I know that there is more to it than that... if Lawrence King had worn is female clothes out into the streets, if he had been just a little bit older, if he had "hit on" some straight man, the list goes on and on about what can and can not be taken into the hearts of the american people.
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.
so ah... that deserved two fliers?