I wish New York State had the death penalty. Now after committing these crimes Pearson and Hendrix can relax in their cells knowing they will always have free food and shelter for the rest of their lives.

I cant help but notice that everyone is getting too caught up in the race topic, to stop and think that maybe the reason the police didnt investigate the her dissapearance sooner was because of something much less pertinant. Have we thought about how many times parents of all races call the police depts around the world seconds after their children were supposed to be in a certain place at a certain time, that they are so bogged down with these that they have to take most with a grain of salt? I mean how many times can they hear a worried mother call about a missing child only to find out an hour later that she stopped by a friends house to say hi on the way home. Precisely why they instituted policeis that state a person isn't considered missing by their standards until 24 hours after they've gone missing. Not that it's right, it's just a fact that overworked PD's have to face.

I am a resident of New York City, and a black woman. I had not even heard of the Romona Moore case until a friend from Brooklyn had told me the about this horrific crime which was perpetrated against this young woman. It is a tragedy what happened to this lovely, young woman, by two descipable pieces of garbage, but what is even more of a tragedy, is the way, the New York City police department dismissed her family and friends when they reported her missing, as a nusiance. She was a resident of NYC, and her parents are tax papers who pay the salaries of the NYPF. They have a right to the same resources as anyone else who reports a missing person, yet, they were ignored.

It is no secret that racism, bias and classism, resonates within the NYC police department. When it comes to the way the NYC police department handle crimes perpetrated against blacks and crimes perpetrated against whites, it is very different, especially when the perpetrator is black, and the accuser is white.

We have had several cases over the years, where the police department did not take an active role in investigating crimes which had been reported by African Americans, and the crimes never even made the news because the victims were African American. When the victim is white, such as the Central Park Jogger, and the Imette St. Guillen case, and the missing college student on the upper west side, it makes the local and the national news. The same week the Central Park Jogger was raped and left for dead, a black woman in Brooklyn was raped and thrown off a roof that same week, but most residents of NY did not hear about the case because it was not widely reported.

Romona Moore's case did not make the news due to the fact that she was black, West Indian, and not worthy. The detectives in her local precinct where she resided concluded that she was with a boyfriend or just took off. This who was a young woman who was an honors student and a young woman who had close family ties to her community. Her family did everything they could to convince the NYPD in Brooklyn, that their daughter was not a runaway but no one listened to their pleas. The NYC police department treated her case and her family with disdain. She was 21 and they considered her an adult. Imette St. Guillen was 24, but they moved heaven and the earth to try and locate her, and they did. Romona Moore was not important to the police department unlike the Imette Guillen case. Her perpetrators were black, so the NYPD didn't care, and neither did the NY press. They only care when it is black on white crime, and then they sensationalize it, and make it a priority. If more people had known about Romona Moore, the people of her borough would have organized and made a conscience effort to try and find her.

I have a message for the poster who criticized the man who knew about Romona Moore's kidnapping and torture, and did nothing to aide or assist her. Yes, he is as guilty as the murderers of Romona Moore, and he is just as descipable as the murderers of Romona Moore. However, are you as outraged about the man who witnessed tha attack on black little 7 year old Sherrice Iverson in 1997 and did nothing to assist this little girl? On May 27, 1997, their was another case where a young white man, by the name of Jeremy Strohmeyer who lured this little girl in a restroom after playing hide and seek with her. He sexually assaulted and murdered young Sherrice Iverson in the stall of a ladies room in a bathroom casino, in Primm, Nevada. David Cash who was a friend of the murderer did nothing to aid or assist this little girl during the commission of a crime even though he watched the entire crime unfold. He had no conscience and of course he will one day reap what he sows. It is reprehensible that a young man could commit such a brutal act, and another young man witness it, and not even so much place a 911 phone call to the police. Jeremy Strohmeyer has received life in prison, but deserved the death penalty in my opinion.

I thought I was done, but I'm back.

What's curious Suz, is if you make pains to distinguish yourself as a "good" white person whose attitudes differ from your racist counterparts (which means you acknowledge that racism exists and has negative effects) why is it so difficult to imagine that the racism that your academic peers exhibit exists in larger society and often affects the actions that people do take and do not take?

I am curious to hear your answer.

i agree with petrice. suz's arguments smack of cultural elitism, and she always misses the point. yes, there are poor people of many different racial and cultural groups, but generally all of those groups can take comfort in the fact that in american society they are always considered better than black people--something implied in our culture through either action or lack of action (hurricane katrina!--ohmigod, racism in INACTION!)

but poor whites always had the luxury of being "white" and hence having an advantage over their black counterparts. race matters, girl. get a grip.

As far as I am concerned, when I use the word ghetto, I am referring to black ghettoes. That is what disproportionately makes up the inner city on the East Coast.

I don't buy into this whole idea that poor/disadvantaged =anger and crime. Only in certain communities is this the norm. There are other poor communities throughout the boroughs and what differentiates them from blacks (and a lot of Latinos) is a tight family structure and a respect for education.

How about West Indians who suffered the same kind of slavery as US mainland blacks? They definitely do NOT have this same kind of self destructive, whining, underdeveloped attitude. So it's not slavery and it's not segregation. Because poor whites have the same kind of sluggish n'er do well approach to life.

It's poor values. Nothing else. Poor values and no incentive to improve.

Petrice

Take a wild guess about how much I give a shit about what blacks with chips on their shoulders think of my opinion?

Petrice, why don't you calm down? I wasn't giving you my own personal reaction to these two murders, and I wasn't saying that a rich person's life (like that white millionaire Imette, [rolling eyes]) is worth more than a poor person's. I'm just telling you that it's human nature to not have the same reaction to every single nasty event that happens on this planet.

I am curious: when a Chinese girl goes missing in Chinatown and is later found raped, headless and bound under the Brooklyn Bridge, does Harlem get all worried and indignant about it?

Is Harlem supposed to get all worried and indignant about it?

Let me try a new angle: people feel the most upset and alarm over incidents and news stories in direct proportion to the possibility of the same thing happening to them.

Imette's murder made people concerned that a killer was on the loose who could potentially victimize any one of us.

Like it or not, East Flatbush is a universe unto itself that most of us do not experience and cannot relate to. Therefore when a murder occurs, we don't raise the alarm about it. Chances are it's not going to happen to us. It's not like people don't care. It's just that it doesn't strike the same chord.

And no amount of whining is going to ever change that.

Again I ask: Does the Amsterdam News painstakingly report every single murder in Harlem (and the New York black community at large)?

No?

I didn't think so. So STFU

Snippy scarcasm aside, Suz, who are you to tell blacks who their real friends are?

If a majority of African Americans feel one way, what is more logical, that their thoughts and feeling have some merit and rationale, or that they are all brainwashed and complacent because they don't agree with you?

My main problem with your whole "ghetto culture" refrain are the implications and wording of your argument. You've adopted the current cultural usage of the word "ghetto" which makes the world synomous with "black poverty" when in acutuality, many people of many backgrounds live in ghettos (now before you even argue that you didn't say "ghetto" meant "black", you've only talked about black people and how they need to change their foolish ways with their "ghetto culture."

There is a crisis in the black community, but your assumption that the root is some vaguely defined and poorly labeled "ghetto culture" is offensive. There are a variety of factors in work in the black community, and no one will listen to you, or accept your offer of "friendship" until you are able to show that you understand the complex and intricate relations between, race, class, history, and economics, as well as culture.

Peace. I'm out. This thread is dead.

May you continue to grow as a person.

Oh, and Suz. On behalf of all black people, let me extend my thanks for your heartfelt and understanding advice--at the next meeting when we all get together, I'll tell everyone what you said.

Thanks Suz, you're always soooo helpful.

Suz,

I'm not misconstruing anything. Your words speak for themself.

"So yeah, there is a human tendency to put less value on people like that. Until it became established that Romona Moore was an achieved young lady who was going somewhere, there was a perception that she was just another piece of ghetto trash who suffered at the hands of her own."

Now, I won't argue that you condone violence against women of a certain background, but your argument justifies the "blame the victim" attitude that allows society to feel justified about paying less attention to victims of violence from certain backgrounds.

Suz, I recommend you hang it up. Your elitist, racist arguments are tiresome.

misandrist

"i.e. if that woman didn't have a certain lifestyle she wouldn't be harmed--and if she did have a risky lifestyle, she got what was coming to her."

Petrice--I did not say that. And I sure as hell hope you are not misconstruing my words on purpose. That suggests desperation.

My point was: your chances of being murdered in an inner city environment are a lot more likely than if you live in other parts of a city. That's a fact. We all know that.

Therefore, people are desensitized to it. They see the victim as another likely statistic with the odds stacked against them. That's the way people think after awhile, without doing it consciously. Do you want me to apologize for it?

Additionally, I think when it became known that Romona Moore was a college student with good grades as opposed to a crack addict (I am not passing judgement here, I am just giving my objective observations of how people react ), the story became more poignant to the public at large.

I am tired of the hypocrisy as well, because I am not all that sure that people in the ghetto environment get all rankled and rattled over the murder of innocents either. I just know the Amsterdam News is not making every murder and rape of a young school girl the top story of the day. That newspaper cherry picks too. So hang it on up.

I'm an independent who leans conservative, but I vote dem at times too. So let's just clear that little presumptuous stereotype out of the way first.

Next: Liberals love to coddle those whom they consider inferior, by pouring money into the abyss, without setting standards and conditions for improvement. And that's because they expect none. They have no confidence that it's possible.

Who is it who buys into genetic predetermination anyway? You know..like Bell curve? Who buys that argument?

I'll tell you who. Liberals in academia, that's who. They won't say so to your face. But behind closed doors, they believe it 200%.

I've worked with biologists at university , and guess what? These guys were progressive libs in every way imagineable...except for one. They thought blacks were genetically inferior in the iq department. I even got into an argument about it with them and they brushed me off saying I didn't know anything about genetics.

Academia, in large part, buys into genetic predetermination including the idea that ethnic groups have differing intelligence.

Don't believe me? Try raising the subject sometime and see what you get back. Unless you are black. Then they won't have the nerve to say what they think.

Judgemental and conservative leaning I may be. But I don't believe for one second that low achievement and crime etc etc etc in the ghetto has anything to do with innate intelligence. Huge cop-out. It has to do with a culture of low achievement and bad habits. I KNOW that if the culture changed, the potential for excellence would emerge. But it's not going to happen until ghetto culture changes its values, its destructive lifestyle (i.e. fatherless children with mothers not much older than themselves), AND PUTS A PREMIUM ON EDUCATION.

It's up to them. It's up to their leadership to raise the bar and apply the pressure. Because without the willingness and motivation: all the money in the world won't do a thing. If the last 40 years hasn't taught you that, then you have gladly consented to be blind.

In the end, maybe blacks need to consider who their real friends are and stop being so effing defensive and paranoid.

I sure wouldn't put my money on liberals or Al Charlatan Sharpton

Suz,

your argument that I am just engaging in "victim" arguments is nothing new or particuarly revolutionary. Conservatives always like to cry that those who are cognizant of the impact of race, gender, or class are being "victims."

Your argument is instead the familiar "blame the victim" refrain that conservatives are so fond of. Hence your "ghetto trash" argument--i.e. if that woman didn't have a certain lifestyle she wouldn't be harmed--and if she did have a risky lifestyle, she got what was coming to her.

Your attitude belies, callousness and a lack of sympathy for fellow human beings. It is always the "ghetto culture's" fault, always the fault of "those people" who "choose" that lifestyle, and you never once question the factors that might lead people to "choose" a certain lifestyle.

I'm tired of your "ghetto culture" refrain. The simple fact is many kids don't have hope, they don't see people like them rising to the top, and some people buy into negative patterns of thought, because they don't believe they have a choice.

You see Suz, society will always pay a price. We can either choose to spend our money positively and help "those people" in those "ghetto cultures" or we can choose to spend our money negatively and finance jails, and police forces and more institutional violence and corruption.

Racism exists Suz, and it's filtered through the arguments you're so desperate to offer. Racism doesn't have to be overt anymore--there's no more Klan burning crosses on front lawns. Racism is reflected not so much in what is done, but what is NOT done. Who is Not hired. Who is Not helped. And who is Not listened too.

Yes, I generally feel sorry for people who are so ignorant and misguided that they are unable to see how nonsensical their stances are. It is a shame that you fail to understand nuance and the complexity of this race called humankind. Your stance is no better than that of the raging liberal who fails to see that some people take advantage of ideology for selfish reasons. You and such person are part of the same tumor that has partnered with the likes of tabloid media, celebrity-worship culture, extremist thinking, and failed history lessons to stifle real public discourse that advances our society.

King Kong

You feel sorry for ME??? lol!

Yeah, I feel sorry for me too. Oh how I wisht I lived a ghetto life, a ghetto life, a ghetto life. Oh how I wisht I lived a ghetto life, so I could be easy and free.

*snort*

Petrice

Maybe it's time for you look at the reality beyond your own world of victimhood and reconsider what it is about the values and culture of the ghetto that keeps people down. All sorts of government money has been poured into programs to try and eradicate the problem...but the core issue still remains: poor values and poor habits, an insistence on glorifying the black ghetto identity, and no premium put on education. There lies the culprit.

As for white lives having more value...again, look outside at the real world: I can guarantee you that some poor white woman, raped and murdered in rural New Hampshire or Appalachia, or heck, even Rochester, New York, is not going to garner a lot of press. So put that worn out handkerchief away and get over yourself. It's disgusting already and only liberals are buying it. They aren't in power anymore. Time to wakey wakey.

Suz, I really feel sorry for you. People like you don't help anyone because you're too self-serving. Your mentality belongs on Massa's porch.