Megan Williams thought she was going to a party with some friends. For more than a week, authorities say, the 20-year-old mentally disabled black woman was kept captive in a shed, tortured, beaten, forced to eat rat, dog and human feces, and raped by six white men and women who taunted her with racial slurs. "They just kept saying 'This is what we do to niggers down here,'" Williams told The Associated Press in one of her most extensive interviews since the shocking case made national headlines last month.
According to evidence gathered, Megan was sodomized with a stick and a noose was tied around her neck for lengthy periods during this week long ordeal that is verified by confessions from several of the co-defendants. At one point, she was sexually assaulted while scalding water and melting hot wax from a candle was poured on her body. At another point she was forced to lick the toes of the sadistic defendants. She was stabbed in the leg at least four times and both of her ankles were cut by a female suspect who allegedly taunted her, saying, "This one is for Kunta Kinte, and that's what we do to niggers around here."West Virginia does not have a death penalty, but the six suspects could spend the rest of their lives in prison if convicted of rape and kidnapping charges. Still, Williams and her family want more. They want the case prosecuted as a hate crime as well, something authorities have so far stopped short of doing.
How to Help: Sign the online petition in support of Megan Williams
Hat Tip: Electronic Village for background information
The Case of the Dunbar Village Assault & Rape
Four Black teenage boys — ages 14, 15, 16, and 18 — have been charged as adults in a 14-count indictment that could send all of them to prison for life.Hoping to steal money and jewelry, Avion Lawson, 14, said he and someone else wore masks when they entered a 35-year-old woman's apartment on the evening of June 18, 2007 in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to court documents. Once inside, Lawson said, he and his accomplice, whose name is blacked out on the report, encountered the woman in bed with three other masked males around her. Lawson told police he sexually assaulted her and stole two video games and the victim's truck.
The victim returned home from her job delivering phone books about 9 p.m. the night of the attack, according to her statement to police. While fixing her son something to eat, a young male with braids knocked on her door to tell her the tires on her truck were flat. Once outside, she said, she saw a male with a large gun and two others armed with guns. They wore black clothing over their faces, she said, and ordered her back into the apartment, where they demanded money.
After being told there was no money, the attackers tore off the woman's clothes and raped her until five others arrived, according to the documents. The new arrivals took turns having sex with her and then sodomized her. The mother was then ordered into a tub filled with vinegar and water where they used hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, nail polish remover and ammonia on her. At gunpoint, the assailants forced the mother and son to have sex.
Throughout the attack, the victims suffered beatings, including having a bowl and light bulbs smashed over their heads. The encounter was recorded on a cell phone camera, according to the mother.
Before leaving, the males looked for a lighter to set the two on fire but couldn't find one, she told police. They ordered the pair to stay in the tub and took off. About 30 minutes later one of the males returned to sexually assault the mother one last time. Before leaving, he scribbled a man's name and 6-CO, the name of a local gang, on a piece of paper and told the woman he hangs out on Sixth Street and that's where he could be found. He grabbed a Sony PlayStation 2 before fleeing the scene.
Police believe at least ten teens/men were involved, but only four have been charged.
Read the Sun-Sentinel article here.
How to Help: St. Ann's Catholic Church will accept donations on behalf of the family. Checks can be made payable to the Dunbar Village Victim Assistance Fund - St. Ann's. The address is: St. Ann's Catholic Church 310 N. Olive Avenue West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Hat Tip: What About Our Daughters for background information
plez sez: in these two incidents, over 13 lives have been destroyed by hate, bigotry, and inhumanity. the west virginia case is horrific and beguiles me with the depths of human depravity. the case in florida is horrific and beguiles me with the depths of human depravity.
i cannot think of a person or thing that could evoke such a desire to destroy, humiliate, and violate... the behavior in both cases goes beyond negligent indifference to barbarism and the inhumane. a jail cell for any of these perpetrators is luxury; surely this country has a few gallows and nooses capable of hastily ushering these individuals to the depths of Hell where they belong as companions for their hellish acts.
some have a desire that the west virginia six be subject to hate crime statutes, but wasn't what happened in florida just as hateful? to my way of thinking, any crime of terror, horror, and inhumane treatment is a crime of hate... why the need for additional laws and statutes? the criminals in florida are no less hateful just because they share the same race as the victims of their rampage. don't all of those Black boys have Black mothers? what drove them to brutalize another Black mother in such a depraved manner?
both cases are sickening and worrisome to plezWorld because my mother, my wife, and my sister are Black women and Black mothers. i shudder to think that either of them would be subject to such inhumanity. my blood boils with the desire to "reach out and touch and dismantle" all of the perpetrators of these crimes.... i only pray for the mental and physical recovery of the victims. AND i pray that the criminals and rapists get the worst punishment available.
National March Against Hate Crimes: Black Lawyers for Justice (BLFJ), the Williams family, and the usual cast of characters have called for a march on the state capitol of West Virginia on November 3, 2007. plezWorld does not support this march because another march will do little to shed light on an isolated case of mayhem by a bunch of slack jawed hillbillies in West Virginia. i don't see what a lost day of work or classes for students will solve or fix or illuminate for those who don't see that anything is broke. and as i stated earlier, the black-on-black crime in the dunbar village rape case won't be addressed by this march... so who is marching and pontificating against Black people who ravage and destroy Black communities turning them into ghettos that attract the lowest dregs of society?
i hate to get biblical on you, but "stop looking for the speck in another's eye when you got a friggin' log poking out of yours!"
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