People always get pissed at me because they think I am a "racialist". (I still can't believe that's a word) Field, they say, why do you always blog about racial shit? Why is it that you always see race or class in everything? Why can't you just blog about stuff like music and sports like other folks? Well, to be honest, I would love to. I love sports and music, and it would be easy for me to talk about that stuff all the time. But I can't. Not when I hear about stories like the one I am about to write about out in Los Angeles. A story that has me seriously upset tonight, and that was so far below the national radar, that I bet most of you reading this post are hearing about it for the first time.
So here is the story: Out in Los Angeles a serial killer has killed at least 11 (that we know of) poor black women since 1985. And as I write this post the killer is still on the loose, and has probably killed as recently as 2007, again. This serial killer even has a name: "The Grim Sleeper".
Now I ask you, do you think if there was a serial killer on the loose in Belair or Malibu the LAPD would not have caught him or her by now? Of course they would have. But these women are poor, some were in the wrong profession, and they have the wrong skin color. So, as a result, it doesn't lead the evening news, and LA's finest isn't being kicked in the butt to solve the case. Did anybody ever have any doubt that Caylee Anthony would be found? And if she was found dead, that her killer would be caught? And I hope things work out for poor little Haleigh Cummings, but did her story have to lead the national news casts for three straight nights? And just as outrageous is the fact that the L.A.P.D. has failed to notify the very community that this animal is terrorizing.
I wouldn't have to blog about these murders in Los Angeles if rich white women were being killed, or if we were talking about-- god forbid-- pets. It would be all over the news cycle, and I am sure that there would be quite a lot of other people blogging about it as well.
But not this story. It's not sexy enough, and the victims are not people we can relate to. So, as a result, it remained stuck in the L.A.P.D. cold case files, and that's too bad, because these victims were human beings. They had families and people who loved and cared about them. Unfortunately their families didn't have influence or power, and the community that is at risk doesn't have any clout in city hall.
Now I hear that there is a $500,000 reward to help capture the killer, and that there are detectives assigned exclusively to the case. Well that's all well and good, but what the hell took them so long?
