Sustained!: A Political Scapegoat

Saturday, September 26, 2009

A Political Scapegoat

For years, the Houston Police Department (HPD) and area law enforcement have been trying to solve a string of murders in the Acres Homes area here in our city. The killings have involved prostitutes in a depressed area of our city. The women all had criminal histories for drug possession and prostitution. They had all been victimized by the part-time criminal which is unmasked as life's circumstances. And because the women were disenfranchised and the safety of a community was threatened, local Community leaders and activists have been rightfully putting pressure on HPD to solve the cases. Every citizen should be afforded equal protection of the laws irrespective of their socioeconomic background.

Last week, HPD charged one of my clients with one of the murders and, even though there was no evidence linking him to several other killings, HPD announced that they were confident that they "had the person responsible" for the other killings as well. It was shameful. For years, HPD announced that they did not suspect that the killings were linked. And within the last four years, HPD declared that the case was solved on at least two previous occasions - with the arrests and convictions of two different individuals. My client is the third person that HPD has labeled the killer. Although there was no evidence that he killed any other person, the police suggested that he was the killer in the press. What further upset me was that HPD spoke to my client's family, knowing that I was going to be hired on the case, and told my client's family not to hire a lawyer for him. I had dealt with some of the detectives in other cases prior to my client being charged and was disappointed.

Furthermore, there was evidence that many of the other victims' bodies bore the DNA from semen of multiple different and unidentified contributors. My client's DNA was not found on the bodies of any of these homicide victims. Yet he was labeled the "probable killer." So, when I heard the announcement and the defamation of my client at a recent press conference, I spoke up and told the truth - my client was being politically scapegoated. HPD was taking credit for solving cases with his arrest; even though there was no evidence proving he was the killer. As expected, some people took exception to my assertion that my client was being scapegoated by the Houston Police Department. But the truth remains that HPD is attempting to gain political favor off the back of one of my clients.

The negative press, orchestrated by a police agency that has been pressured to solve a string of crimes, will deny my client a fair trial. All we hear is "DNA....DNA does not lie. It is scientific and science will be one credible witness." If that is the case, why smear Mr. McWilliams outside the courtroom before ever filing charges? Why leak damaging, untrue information to the press prior to ever filing any charges? Why not plainly tell the media that many of the bodies had the DNA of other people on them and did not contain Mr. McWilliams DNA? To date, the media has not been shown any DNA test results. In fact, when asked where was the DNA found...HPD refused to answer? Why overstate and/or misstate the evidence in the press?

Poor women in Acres Home deserve equal protection of the laws. Just and equitable law enforcement efforts to protect women, irrespective of their socioeconomic backgrounds should be SUSTAINED! But why not really go out and try to protect the women in Acres Homes? Why not provide the women with much needed services to insure that they stay off the streets? Why try Mr. McWilliams in the press for cases that cannot even be charged in court?

2 comments:

AnonymousSep 27, 2009 06:48 PM
It is a strange faith because everytime we watch a movie where a police officer falls in love with a woman she always dies, it never fails. As a matter of fact we are watching "Law and Order" criminal intent now even as I speak and the children are radical because a officer just killed a suspect that he desired for love. The children are screaming "momma, do you notice how everytime a police officer falls in love with a women she gets killed?" "It never fails, Law and Order, Criminal Intent, C.S.I., It never fails, she always ends up dead. I never thought about it but it is true and it doesn't neccessarily have to be the women that he falls in love with. It can be the subtance the women is bringing to him because of his disposition displayed as a place of authority. I don't know it's just a thought, I hope your client is freed. Bless you and Thank you for having a true concern for all of your clients.
ReplyDelete
AnonymousOct 29, 2009 05:15 PM
I like how you said that these woman deserve equal protection regardless of their socioeconomic back ground because when you think back where did they get the bright idea to name that region Acres Homes in the first place. I have a feeling these women were disenfranchised long before today. As a matter of fact I'm sure that your clients D.N.A. has nothing to do with any of the press in the media therefore they have no reason to resolve scientific evidence before trying his case. Yes, he is being politically scapegoated but for unseen reasons. It could be that those who savaged these women to make them victims of the political arena are loosing grasp of their reins. It could be that some of these men who are also disenfranchised because of lives circumstances are starting to see these women as more than just a prostitude or a whore and have offered them other oppertunities. Usually the individual that offers a exit is the one who is targeted or trapped. Could it be that he was actually getting through to someone they had under their loop on the notch in their belt? Could it be that he is being persecuted for rightouesness sake because he tried to help a female they had bound to those 40 acre's with a mule? Or could it be that he decided another alternative in life and decided that he wasn't going to let women from diverse circumstances lead him into a life devoured of his full potential? Why should he be a home for 7 harlots when he could have a wife and 7 kids of his own. Why should he have less than he was afforded from the begginning just because he made a few mistakes? One thing about the system is once they get you in they don't want to let you out because you now become the strings on their harp, the ribbon on their bacon and the led in their mule but can I suggest one thing to you. Get the led out of the lead. It is the individual they are after not the political attention, he is a notch in their belt, a string in their harp, a tool for embodying a disenfranchised community. The media is just to make circumstances in life harder for your client, nothing more nothing less.
ReplyDelete

Add comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

The Gavel Goes Down on the 1%: Occupy This!

Protestors took to the Streets in New York, occupying Wall Street to protest corporate greed and corruption. The original protest began on September 17, 2011, and since then other protests have been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the U.S. Many of these protest are still on-going. Here in the City of Houston, protestors are staging rallies nearly every week. Internationally, other protest have modeled themselves after Occupy Wall Street, in over 900 cities worldwide. These protests have been growing. We are witnessing the beginnings of a social movement. With their goals yet undefined, but steadily becoming more defined; the gavel goes down on the "Occupy" Movement's objections to the explotation of the 99% by the 1%. It will only be a matter of time until the energies of the protestors are transferred to other vehicles: like voter registration drives and engaging in other activities to increase social awareness.

The Gavel Goes Down: Police Officers Committing Crimes

In many places police officers commit crimes with impunity. But on March 31, 2011, a federal judge in New Orleans sentenced a former New Orleans police officer to 25 years in prison for his role in the shooting death of a man and the burning of his body after Hurricane Katrina.

David Warren was convicted in December of shooting 31-year-old Henry Glover without justification outside a strip mall less than a week after the storm hit in August 2005.

Sentencing is scheduled later for former officer Gregory McRae, who burned Glover's body in a car near a police station.

A jury also convicted former Lt. Travis McCabe of writing a false report on the shooting. His sentencing is on hold while his lawyers seek a new trial. But the Gavel Goes Down on Police getting away with Police Abuse. Twenty-five years may seem a little light for murder (The feds do not have parole and he will serve at least 20 years), but it certainly is a start.

The Gavel Goes Down: Oppression and Genocide in Sudan

Sudan may be headed for a split, with Northern Sudan and Southern Sudan forming two independent nations. Southern Sudanese election officials posted early results Sunday, January 16, 2011, indicating that perhaps more than 95 percent of voters in this regional capital voted to secede from Sudan. The referendum, held last week, was the capstone of decades of civil war in Sudan, which pitted Christian and animist rebels in the south against Arab rulers in northern Sudan. All indications show the weeklong referendum passing.

While the results are the first concrete steps for the south to secede from the rest of Sudan and become its own country, the final vote tally is not scheduled to be announced until Feb. 14. And true independence would not come before July 9, when an U.S.-backed peace agreement between the north and the south expires. It was signed in 2005. Still, many issues need to be ironed out, including citizenship rights, oil sharing and the future of the contested and volatile Abyei region, which was supposed to hold its own referendum on whether to join the south or the north but never did. But, the Gavel Goes Down on the world's objections to the attempted genocide that occurred in Sudan that resulted in the indictment of Sudan's president by the International Criminal Court.

In Washington, President Barack Obama congratulated the south on holding a peaceful, orderly referendum, calling it an "inspiration." But he also warned against breaking the peace agreement timetable.

The Gavel Goes Down: Ignoring the impact of Slavery on American History

After more than eight years of street demonstrations, arguments, haggling and missed deadlines; after extensive public debate about the impact of slavery on life in the United States and on the life and moral character of George Washington; after countless news articles and TV programs, the site marking the intertwined lives of presidents and slaves opened to the public on December 15, 2010 on Philadelphia's Independence Mall. "President's House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation" chronicles the story of race and power at the heart of our nation's birth. President George Washington owned some 300 slaves. His ownership of these slaves brought him status and power, which positioned him for the presidency. Despite Washington's signing of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1793, many slaves owned by him struggled and obtained freedom. The exhibit is the fruit of the struggled of the Black community in Philadelphia. It is an acknowledgment that Black people were part of America and contributed to it from the beginning. The exhibit tells the story of the inhabitants of the first Executive Mansion: George Washington and John Adams and the nine enslaved Africans held there by President Washington during his two terms in office. It is a stark objection to the white-washing of American history.

The Gavel Goes Down: 55 Years After Rosa Said No

The Gavel Goes Down: Eliminating the Kibera

The Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya has long been known as "the largest slum in Africa." This assertion has been recently challenged and many observers now believe that Kibera is the second largest slum in Africa. In September of 2009, the government of Kenya began clearing the Kibera to -rehouse all of the Nairobi's slum residents. Kenya plans to move all of the residents within the next nine years to communities that will include schools, markets and other facilities. Through the use of U.N. funding, funds from other relief efforts, and its own resources; the Kenyan government is spearheading the project. I (Eric J. Davis) visited the Kibera in 2006 and had the opportunity to spend time with some of the residents. Due to my ethnicity and the fact that we were accompanied by some Kibera residents, we were able to blend in and pass for locals. The resilance of the people was amazing. It was a small city where the people appeared to govern themselves well. The Kibera was safer than many major American cities. Nevertheless, the effects of poverty were apparent. There were no schools, no clean water, no sewage and no hospitals. Should the resettlement survive legal challenge (some slum lords are claiming ownership of the land and are taking the government to court - people pay rent to live in the slums), this African nation will take a big step towards eliminating poverty in its borders. Kenya is proof that African nations can govern themselves. The gavel goes down on Kenya's objections to poverty.