ladyinred
12-16-2007, 08:45 AM
I guess self defense against being a potential murder victim of a hate crime is now a crime.
WASHINGTON (Nov. 30, 2007) – November 14 marked six months since the New York City sentencing of Renata Hill , Venice Brown, Terrain Dandridge, and Patreese Johnson, four Newark, NJ African-American lesbians aged 19 to 25. Their sentences ranged from 3.5 to 11 years. Yet many allege their only crime was self-defense.
On August 16th, 2006, Brown, Dandridge, Johnson, and Hill were out with three friends in New York’s West Village when Dwayne Buckle, 28, began verbally harassing and threatening them. He spat on them, threw a lit cigarette at them, and told Dandridge that she “looked like a man.” The confrontation then turned physical.
Buckle was choking Hill when Patreese Johnson took a 99-cent steak knife out of her purse and swung it at him in defense of her friend. At least two male bystanders helped break up the fight. It was found that Buckle had been stabbed in the lower abdomen, and he was hospitalized.
Three of the women pled to 6-month sentences. Brown, Dandridge, Johnson, and Hill were tried for assault and attempted murder, and sentenced by Judge Edward McLaughlin to 3.5 to 11 years in prison, despite the fact that none of the seven women had prior records and two are parents. Hill's attorney called the sentences, "off the charts."
All seven women knew Sakia Gunn, a 19-year-old lesbian from Newark who was stabbed to death in May 2003, in a fight started by similar sexual comments and physical aggression by a male onlooker who objected to Gunn’s boyish appearance.
"This case shows the complicated intersection of race, gender, and sexual orientation. These women were disadvantaged on each front, and by all reports the legal system has done them a terrible injustice," says Lindsay Bond, a youth advocate for human rights at the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition. “It’s tough enough being young, female, gay and black if you’re also masculine in appearance. We hope their lawyers will mount a prompt appeal and we call on the courts to ensure that this time justice is done.”
TAKE ACTION!
Sign the online petition to the appeals court here: http://www.petition online.com/ theseven/.
Write to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer about the case. A letter template is here: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/justice4ne wark4/message/ 48
Visit www.fiercenyc.org to learn about writing letters or sending care packages to the women in prison.
Sakia Gunn's death is profiled in GenderPAC's 2006 human rights report, 50 Under 30: Masculinity and the War on America's Youth. To read the 50 Under 30 report and to support the campaign, visit http://www.gpac.org/50under30/.
WASHINGTON (Nov. 30, 2007) – November 14 marked six months since the New York City sentencing of Renata Hill , Venice Brown, Terrain Dandridge, and Patreese Johnson, four Newark, NJ African-American lesbians aged 19 to 25. Their sentences ranged from 3.5 to 11 years. Yet many allege their only crime was self-defense.
On August 16th, 2006, Brown, Dandridge, Johnson, and Hill were out with three friends in New York’s West Village when Dwayne Buckle, 28, began verbally harassing and threatening them. He spat on them, threw a lit cigarette at them, and told Dandridge that she “looked like a man.” The confrontation then turned physical.
Buckle was choking Hill when Patreese Johnson took a 99-cent steak knife out of her purse and swung it at him in defense of her friend. At least two male bystanders helped break up the fight. It was found that Buckle had been stabbed in the lower abdomen, and he was hospitalized.
Three of the women pled to 6-month sentences. Brown, Dandridge, Johnson, and Hill were tried for assault and attempted murder, and sentenced by Judge Edward McLaughlin to 3.5 to 11 years in prison, despite the fact that none of the seven women had prior records and two are parents. Hill's attorney called the sentences, "off the charts."
All seven women knew Sakia Gunn, a 19-year-old lesbian from Newark who was stabbed to death in May 2003, in a fight started by similar sexual comments and physical aggression by a male onlooker who objected to Gunn’s boyish appearance.
"This case shows the complicated intersection of race, gender, and sexual orientation. These women were disadvantaged on each front, and by all reports the legal system has done them a terrible injustice," says Lindsay Bond, a youth advocate for human rights at the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition. “It’s tough enough being young, female, gay and black if you’re also masculine in appearance. We hope their lawyers will mount a prompt appeal and we call on the courts to ensure that this time justice is done.”
TAKE ACTION!
Sign the online petition to the appeals court here: http://www.petition online.com/ theseven/.
Write to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer about the case. A letter template is here: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/justice4ne wark4/message/ 48
Visit www.fiercenyc.org to learn about writing letters or sending care packages to the women in prison.
Sakia Gunn's death is profiled in GenderPAC's 2006 human rights report, 50 Under 30: Masculinity and the War on America's Youth. To read the 50 Under 30 report and to support the campaign, visit http://www.gpac.org/50under30/.