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Djoser
05-14-2006, 03:02 AM
UPDATE!!!! You want to talk about police responsibility ...... It came on WBBM780 news this morning that the apartment she fell from is used to police surveilence ...... they did not appear to lock it up after they used it!! (There didn't appear to be forced entry). So there is now an 'investigation' into that as well as all the other little investigations going on due to this matter.

(FYI: The police were not involved during the actual fall ....I'd like to make that clear. At least according to the news report)

WHOA--this changes everything, or there's a good chance it does...if there's a police survellance apartment, you're not likely to get criminals taking someone there to rape and murder her--unless they are criminals in league with the cops somehow, and are either in collusion with them, or think they can get away with whatever they want, and got out of hand.

You know, we rarely get the whole story, not from the news, not from the cops, not for a while--and sometimes never at all.

I've seen it with news accounts of my own friends who were victims of crimes--there's always distortions, inconsistencies--and often, I imagine, bald-faced lies. This is much more likely to be true in a big city.

I have known women who could easily have freaked out and gotten so nasty and belligerent with cops that they would have cast them out like that--especially if as some she foolishly demanded to be let out immediately as she was tired of their shit or something--though to have done so in that area would have been unbelievably cold and cruel.

In a big city police force, though, a sizeable portion of the cops are literally and seriously criminals, capable of anything--so the scenario could have been much uglier than that.

Who the hell knows what happened, or why they really did it, or how much they knew about what would happen to her?

It seems to get more horrifying by the day, this story...

VenusGoddess
05-14-2006, 07:33 AM
UPDATE!!!! You want to talk about police responsibility ...... It came on WBBM780 news this morning that the apartment she fell from is used to police surveilence ...... they did not appear to lock it up after they used it!! (There didn't appear to be forced entry). So there is now an 'investigation' into that as well as all the other little investigations going on due to this matter.

(FYI: The police were not involved during the actual fall ....I'd like to make that clear. At least according to the news report)

Well, they weren't involved in the actual fall or the rape...but their lack of security aided in someone being raped and possibly murdered. I am so angry about this, I'm shaking. I cannot believe what I am hearing in regards to this case. It makes me want to march down there and demand that the city remove them from their positions...permanently. >:(

These cops are going down, big time. There is no excuse for what happened due to their actions or inactions. They knew better. They knew putting her out there would get her permanently maimed or killed and they did it anyways.

As a resident of Chicago, all of us Chicagoans need to make sure that this doesn't get swept under the rug or "lame" resolutions get done. We need to make sure that the cops who were responsible for this get fired and that the department heads, etc are held accountable for this abomination so this doesn't happen to anyone else.

Unbelieveable.

Pamela
05-14-2006, 12:54 PM
I say start writing to the Opinions Forum of the newspaper ASAP. Let your voices be heard for her!!!

Pamela

blondhottie
05-15-2006, 07:21 AM
According to this article in the Chicago Tribune yesterday, her condition is still the same for the fourth day in a row. Sorry, my computer's kind of fucked up right now and I can't just link to the article:

************************************************** ***********
Friends recall hours before fall
Woman's family tried to rescue her

By Tonya Maxwell, David Heinzmann and James Janega, Tribune staff reporters
Published May 14, 2006


As calls and messages from a young California woman who was stranded in Chicago last weekend grew more and more distraught, friends and family members tried to stage a rescue to bring her home to Los Angeles.

Text messages and cell phone conversations became heated, as the friends frantically called the woman's parents to describe a situation increasingly out of control.

Their efforts finally came to nothing in a turn of events that led to Chicago police arresting the woman last Sunday for causing a disturbance at Midway Airport, then releasing her the next night into the tough neighborhood around the women's lockup at West 51st Street and South Wentworth Avenue.

Hours later, she plummeted from the 7th-floor window of a Robert Taylor Homes apartment, where investigators believe she was sexually assaulted. The 21-year-old woman had massive internal injuries and remained in critical condition Friday at Stroger Hospital, police sources say.

Police now are investigating the department's involvement in the case because members of her family say they tried to prevent her release from the lockup because of her mental state. As that probe continues, the last few days and months of the woman's life play in the minds of friends and family members.

"I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to help her," said Anthony Rayes, 24, of Los Angeles. "She was such a good girl, such a sweet girl."

As the woman's condition remained unchanged for the fourth day, her friends described the mounting concern with which they watched her descend since January into an erratic and distant lifestyle.

She began staying in Las Vegas for long stretches with people her longtime friends did not know. She stopped going to school at the University of California Los Angeles. Once thought-provoking conversations with her became jarring and nonsensical.

"She'd done a 180-degree turn," said Sophia Morris, 21, of Los Angeles, who has known the woman since they grew up in Rocklin, Calif., near Sacramento. "She started acting different. She started lying."

Rayes and Morris traded text messages and phone calls with the woman, who had come to Chicago about two weeks ago and spoke to Rayes from a bathroom with her hand cupped over her phone on the afternoon of May 6, Rayes said.

She later talked to Morris, saying the man she was with had "ditched her," Morris said. She reported being kicked out of a hotel the night before. She wanted a plane ticket out of Chicago and needed a place to stay.

It was while shouting over the phone with a family member the next afternoon, May 7, that Chicago police arrested her at Midway Airport for causing a disturbance, police sources said. The night after that, she fell to the ground in her underwear outside the Taylor Homes apartment building at 51st and State Streets, a block from the police station where she had been released hours before.

Police were searching for the suspected assailant, a man who witnesses said held the woman against her will in the 7th-floor apartment. He may have sexually assaulted her, law-enforcement sources said, and was alone in the room with her when she dropped from the window.

The apartment had been used by Wentworth District tactical unit police officers for drug surveillance, a police source said.

Internal affairs investigators are looking into police handling of the case, including the allegation that the woman's family telephoned during her incarceration to warn officers that she suffered from bipolar disorder.

The last hulking beige brick fortress of the Robert Taylor Homes stands just across raised Metra tracks from the Wentworth District police station.

Sixteen stories tall, it is the remnant of a 28-building project that once stretched two miles down State Street. The Chicago Housing Authority Web site says the structure was scheduled to be emptied last year.

Jesse Williams, who lives a few blocks from the Robert Taylor Homes, said the area has improved in recent years, particularly with the steady destruction of the high-rises. But gang problems persist.

"The thing is, they sell a lot of drugs around here. They see a Caucasian woman, they know she was just released or she's a drug addict," he said. "She's wandering around, being herself and being friendly, people will take advantage of that. It doesn't matter what color you are. If you're a target, you're a target."

Witnesses first reported seeing the woman a block past the building Monday evening in the King JJ Fish & Chicken restaurant, 51st and Wabash Avenue, a place where orders are rotated out to customers through a bulletproof plastic window.

Employees there said the woman at first seemed agitated but bought a bottle of water, took a pill and seemed to calm down. Anthony Johnson, 20, was walking by the restaurant when he said he saw the woman. She had long blond hair, a white baseball cap and tight white shorts. He and a friend talked with her.

"Nothing she said made sense," he said. "I thought she was drunk."

Johnson said he saw her later, walking through a field where another high-rise once stood, toward the basketball court. She passed a currency exchange and a boarded-up church. Residents of the public housing complex often cross the grassy area as a shortcut home.

"She was following a group of teenagers. I asked them why she was with them. They said she was following them," Johnson said.

He didn't see her again.
************************************************** *************

This is really sad and it makes me angry at the Chicago cops too. I used to live in Chicago and the area that the Robert Taylor homes is in is one of the worst parts of Chicago. It's dangerous for people of any race, and the odds of a petite white girl with blond hair coming out of there without being beaten up, raped, robbed, or killed are very slim.

It doesn't look good-most people who fall that many stories die. Even if she survives, she will most likely be fucked up for life, unless some miracle happens. Very sad. :(

VenusGoddess
05-15-2006, 07:27 AM
Well, this article makes the police look worse. Witnesses report trying to talk to her and she's incoherent and not making sense. Hello?? Why didn't they transfer her to the hospital??

Djoser
05-15-2006, 09:37 AM
Christ, I have been there--albeit driving past in friends' cars, and not for long, and never to get out and mingle...

I didn't recognize the building but they all look alike.

I knew it was fairly close to where I had been in college, but had no idea it was that close.

That's a mile and a half from where I went to college. 51st St. is known as Hyde park Blvd. The University of Chicago is in Hyde Park.

That mile and a half made a big difference, too--but nonetheless the U of C Security Police was the third largest police force in the entire state of Illinois!! Second only to Chicago and the State Troopers--just to protect the nerds from the surrounding ghetto.

It wasn't far from there at all that I was robbed on the El platform. People told me I was crazy to ride the El through there, but it wasn't until then that I stopped.

I was at a college reunion a few years ago, and walking down 51st St. in the No-Man's Land area (about a mile from where that happened) where the college enclave ended and the ghetto began, and was very much aware of how I'd lost my street sense. No way would I have gone further west!

She was wearing tight shorts and acting like she was drunk or high? Even more of a target. Those cops knew damned well she was doomed, utterly and completely.

Hello_Kitty27
05-15-2006, 03:51 PM
I'm emailing some of the articles and some comments to some of the local (and popular) radio shows. I'm hoping to draw some attention to this. The whole situation seems to involve a lot of idiocy....for the cop's part, resident's part and yes, even her part, I'm sure. I whole-heartedly feel that people need to be aware of the situation. This should not happen to anyone in Chicago, whether they are black, white, mexican asian, a chicagoan, a tourist, etc.

So hopefully, people in Chicago will be hearing this on the radio, even if it's just coming up in discussion.

doc-catfish
05-15-2006, 04:53 PM
Could you imagine living in a place that if you stepped out to help someone, and you survived the gang members who run the place would kill you and anyone else close to you? It's unfathomable to me and I would never wish that living condition on anyone.
This is a listing of crimes in just this one city block over the last six months.

http://www.chicagocrime.org/streets/federal_st/5100s/all/

Anytime you see 'CHA' thats the building this gal fell from. I can only imagine the hell this place was when the entire complex was standing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_Homes
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0GER/is_1999_Summer/ai_55127438

Hello_Kitty27
05-15-2006, 07:43 PM
doc-catfish said:
This is a listing of crimes in just this one city block over the last six months. http://www.chicagocrime.org/streets...l_st/5100s/all/

Multiply this by about 3 or 4, b/c what is listed is only what has been reported to police. I see prostitution and (what looks like) drug deals and misc other things on almost a daily basis on my ride to/from work in the area. I never knew so many $5 prostitutes worked at 8:00 AM until I started working in that area!

There are gang-related activities going on in that area all the time, but luckily my company is completely fenced in and has armed security 24 hrs a day.

VenusGoddess
05-16-2006, 06:32 AM
This is a listing of crimes in just this one city block over the last six months.

http://www.chicagocrime.org/streets/federal_st/5100s/all/

Anytime you see 'CHA' thats the building this gal fell from. I can only imagine the hell this place was when the entire complex was standing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_Homes
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0GER/is_1999_Summer/ai_55127438

It's horrible. It's worse than Cabrini Green.

The bad thing is that the state government moved all of the Robert Taylor people out of those buildings and into the suburbs (the South Suburbs) like Chicago Heights, Sauk Village, Ford Heights (which was a mini RT...and is now out of control) and Park Forest. All so they could rip those buildings down and build "mixed income housing"...but I've seen all the plans for that area and it involves homeowners purchasing $750,000+ homes.

It's a sad, sad situation. I, personally, say that there should be harder punishment for criminals. Not the slap on the hand...here spend all day honing your craft while we feed you 3 meals a day and give you a place to sleep. Do it 3rd world style...you may or may not eat this month...your cell has no roof and a dirt floor. Enjoy! Oh, and if you come back here more than once...you'll start missing some body parts. >:(

Hello_Kitty27
05-16-2006, 03:11 PM
This story took the whole topic of Richard Roeper's column in today's Sun Times.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/roeper/cst-nws-roep16.html

It is very well-said, in my opinion. Here's a piece of it:

<snip> One resident of that building, who did not want to be identified on camera, told ABC-7 she saw the woman in the courtyard and outside her own door.

"She got up on MY floor, she tried to come into my place," said the woman. "I said 'Oh no no no, you know, white people and us, we don't mix.' "


Where's the outrage?

...The residents of the Taylor Homes are black, and it's not as if they see a lot of white visitors.

...But even if that resident somehow felt threatened, why not call the cops? Maybe it's because she doesn't trust the police. Maybe it's because she has enough problems and she doesn't care to get involved with things she doesn't understand. Maybe it's because she wants nothing to do with white people under any circumstances.

"White people and us, we don't mix." So sad.

You can imagine the outrage if a young black woman had wandered into a white neighborhood, and a white woman had told the local news, "You know, black people and us, we don't mix." You can imagine the press conferences and the protests and the calls for action. We should be equally outraged when something like this happens.

As one e-mailer said to me, "I wish someone could explain to me how a 21-year-old girl ends up in the Robert Taylor Homes, is [allegedly] raped, begs for help and is told by a black woman she isn't going to help because she is WHITE, the young woman is pushed or jumped out of a seventh-floor window, and NOBODY is outraged? [Where are] the religious leaders like [Jesse] Jackson and [James] Meeks? Where is it on the news coverage? This is a young woman with mental problems and NO ONE is speaking up on her behalf."

It's a legitimate point. Wouldn't it be something if community leaders reached out to the victim's family, pledged support to the police in their investigation, called for residents of the Robert Taylor Homes to come forward with any information they might have, and issued statements condemning the mentality that says whites and blacks don't mix? </snip>

Djoser
05-16-2006, 05:42 PM
That is sad, but that's the way it is in those areas.

I still can't bring myself to read any of these links yet. I feel bad for her family, too--and I bet they are very pissed off!

Pamela
05-16-2006, 06:17 PM
Bridgette i said for her to have a RIGHT to call from the station. As mentioned BEFORE release! I don't expect anyone to call anyone once they are out on the streets. People just start walking or thumb it at that point. Why release her without her purse? Don't know...not enough details yet.

A call from the station...but it seems as though we are hearing alot about the police here. What about her?? Maybe she was angry enough to dent a call. Wanted to walk out at release time. This does not make the situation right if she did not have her purse. But didn't she hit a place for water and ask to take a PILL after release? Where did she get her pill?

This story is confusing. Again here manic or not, people are released on the streets all the time. There it seems the cops take training to send a person to a facility for treatment if they are not stable.

However we don't know how competent she was actually. And if she was so upset with them she wanted out bad.

I do not side with what the Dept. did. I don't get it. There has got to be more...there has to be. Cops fucked up. Or she was acting fine during release. maybe the officer who released her did not get the message to hold her...more needs to come of this.

Again, my prayers are with her. I thought about her while i laid in bed last night. No, i can't imagine what this woman went through.

Pamela

Djoser
05-16-2006, 06:57 PM
I should just gpo read the damned links, but did they let her walk out the front door of the station, or let her out of a police car? That makes a big difference, though even in the first case it was clearly wrong...

Hello_Kitty27
05-16-2006, 07:01 PM
It's my understanding they released her from the front doors of the station by women's lockup, by the Taylor homes. Her luggage was left at the station across the city where she was initially picked up (by midway airport, I believe that would have been 8th district at 63rd & St Louis)

Bridgette
05-16-2006, 11:27 PM
That's what I read. They released her from one location while her belongings were held in another across town. AND the location where they released her, at 6:30pm, is in one of the worst ghettos in the city. There is no way in hell they thought she'd be ok. She couldn't get a taxi to pick up her belongings, couldn't make a phone call, couldn't get to a train station or airport, and she's from out of state. Those fuckers knew full well she would be harmed when they let her out the front door and they sent her to this fate.

Also if her parents were calling telling police she's bipolar, they should have taken her to the mental hospital upon release - especially since that's policy. They clearly chose to ignore her mental instability and her parents' pleas. Shit - they probably should have taken her to the hospital FIRST, since it probably would have been obvious something was wrong with her if she'd been causing enough of a disturbance at a freakin airport to get arrested in the first place. Her behaviour MUST have been crazy from the getgo.

The 'more' to this story is that the cops were treating her like a piece of shit, punishing her with a type of street justice because she was probably a pain in the ass to deal with. But it is their JOBS to deal with that type of thing properly, not throw people to the fucking dogs because they don't like them :mad:

And YES. Where is all the outrage that a girl was wandering around the ghetto begging for help and didn't get it because of her skin color??? Where are the screams of injustice, police wrongdoing and racism??? You know full well that that same bitch who wouldn't help this girl because she's white, would be screaming racism at the top of her lungs if it had been a black girl not getting help from white people. Why isn't this shit plastered all over the news like the story of the black girls who allegedly got raped by white frat boys????

I don't care if you're purple or green. This crap is just sickening and it just keeps getting worse.

VenusGoddess
05-17-2006, 03:47 AM
^ It's appalling. It doesn't matter where she got the pill, Pamela. The different witnesses interviewed said that they heard her talking and that she was not "normal". She wasn't making sense, she was just all over the place...that she wasn't "right". And, if "everyday" people can say that, you cannot tell me that she was acting "normal" or "right" at the police station.

I've already written my letters. And, I'll keep writing them. What the Police did was wrong, it was, as far as I can see, Attempted Murder by facilitation.

Fuck...this pisses me off to no end. Every single one of those cops should be suspended without pay and then arrested.

Yes, it pisses me off that I live in the fucking city of Chicago and it takes forever for me to find information on this. I have been in touch with a few of the reporters and have asked them to email me with updates as they come...but so far...there's not been much. Why not?

I think it's a "fear" that the black community here will feel like the "whites" are banding together for their own and lashing out against the black community.

They've effectively lost every sympathy from me. Those residents should now also be charged with facilitation, as well. >:(

Can you tell I'm mad?

I'm writing some letters now...to the mayor, governor, and a few more people. In fact, I encourage EVERYONE who knows about this (whether or not you live in the City) to write letters and let them know that you live in other parts of the country and this still outrages you. If no one else will stand up for this girl, then the citizens must step in...and that's where it's at, now.

Pamela
05-17-2006, 07:50 AM
Yes Vg i hear you, and again this story sucks. You'r not getting any info. because there is not enough yet, and they are investigating i am sure. With all due respect, no one here knows what happened except she was released, and badly injured by some one.

I doubt very much she is the only white woman to be released into that area! My question is why the hell have a station there that will hold and release people in that area? If this was a black woman released in a white area the story changes, not because we are better, because we still do drugs, have gangs, commit murder etc. I think colour does not have much to do with it. It's trash if it's black or white in a high crime area!

Wait for more info. to come along. This woman was of age! As for her talking to herself, they need to get the people who saw this and ask questions.

Also she was asking for help. A ride? money? We don't really know. Any person that came along she probably would have went with if they said they are going to get her a ride or money or just a place to stay for the night.

There is not enough information yet as to WHY she was released.

Again, is it illegal to release a person from a station into an area that the doors open into? No, black or white. Her being manic may play a uge factor into this. I understand the police who released her where not trained for "drug treatment" facilty.

And cops being cops..they did what they do. I agree 100%, they don't like it when people scream or talk shit to them, so they probably could not wait to release her. As for her belongings. This happens too. We don't know the nature of the call/s she made to family when they fought. Or a call that may have happened after release, she did make it to a place for a drink of water. A restaurant? They have phones, she could have charged it to home. She was already fighting with her family i read. She may have been to upset to call them again...Not enough information.

I know this is like family, she is a dancer! And this is a stripper forum. But she is not the only one!

Again, my prayers are with her every night.

Pamela

Pamela
05-17-2006, 08:18 AM
New link i believe to her story.

Pamela

VenusGoddess
05-17-2006, 08:22 AM
It's the story that came out right after this happened. There's no new information in it.

VenusGoddess
05-17-2006, 08:35 AM
I doubt very much she is the only white woman to be released into that area! My question is why the hell have a station there that will hold and release people in that area? If this was a black woman released in a white area the story changes, not because we are better, because we still do drugs, have gangs, commit murder etc. I think colour does not have much to do with it. It's trash if it's black or white in a high crime area!

Releasing a person is not a big deal. Black, white, latina, whatever. It's done everyday. However, MOST of these people are picked up and not left to wander aimlessly through an area that they do not know, with nothing to get them home.


There is not enough information yet as to WHY she was released.

She did not commit a crime, the police cannot hold someone without charging them for more than 24 hours. However, if she was incomprehensible in public, you can bet she didn't get that way the moment the doors opened to release her.


Again, is it illegal to release a person from a station into an area that the doors open into? No, black or white. Her being manic may play a uge factor into this. I understand the police who released her where not trained for "drug treatment" facilty.

Her being unaware of what area she was in and how dangerous it was. Manic or not...she had none of her belongings. You don't know the RT area. Businesses do not allow ANYONE to make phone calls from there. I mean, come on, Pamela...the "restaurants" there have BULLET PROOF serving windows. Do you really think they are going to let someone who they don't know who is incomprehensible walk into the back and make a phone call? There are NO working pay phones in the area. Why not? Because the majority of those pay phones were used in crime related incidents. Besides, in my suburb there are no pay phones...and it's no where near a ghetto. Phone companies removed or stopped repairing pay phones because there is no money in it anymore. Everyone has a cellphone...and if you don't...you're just out of luck.

As for the police not trained for "drug treatment" facility. That's a bunch of bullshit. Anytime someone displays erratic behavior or is acting 'questionably' the police are supposed to have a psych look at them. This is in addition to the police being told that she was bi-polar. It is not like they didn't know. They didn't care.


And cops being cops..they did what they do. I agree 100%, they don't like it when people scream or talk shit to them, so they probably could not wait to release her. As for her belongings. This happens too. We don't know the nature of the call/s she made to family when they fought. Or a call that may have happened after release, she did make it to a place for a drink of water. A restaurant? They have phones, she could have charged it to home. She was already fighting with her family i read. She may have been to upset to call them again...Not enough information.

Whatever. Anybody from that lockup hauls ass out of that station in the complete opposite direction. But, they know the dangers there...this woman had no clue. If someone said they'd help her, she probably believed it. Much to her demise.

Again, you cannot tell me that the police did not know that releasing this woman with no money, no cell phone, no id, no possessions into the worst part of town, on top of being a FOREIGNER of the city. You cannot tell me that they thought she'd be fine and find a "nice person" to help her get home or to the station that she was originally booked at. ::) I would be just as outraged if this was a black woman, a latina woman, or any other "color". What they did was wrong and they need to be held accountable for it.


I know this is like family, she is a dancer! And this is a stripper forum. But she is not the only one!

This is not about her being a dancer. It is about fundamental human rights and accountability. The police fucked up and someone is in serious critical condition. If these roles were reversed the good ol reverend Jackson would be screaming for some heads...he's turned his back because it doesn't forward his cause. That's really nice. So much for his stance on equality and justice for all.

The only people that are blaringly shining are the massive hypocrites who refuse to take a stand and demand answers and offer support.

Pamela
05-17-2006, 09:55 AM
I guess i am not saying the police thought anything at all. They released her.
I read she was arrested. Public disturbance, trespassing, that is a crime. They held her over night, and released her. Again, i am not saying the police thought this through. They just did the job as they do with god knows how many people a day, week month out of that station.



Pamela

Djoser
05-17-2006, 10:30 AM
I know from personal experience that to survive as a white person on your own in these areas requires total self-control and the absence of any fear whatsoever--or at least the completely convincing outward appearance of this state.

She may have been fearless--but I doubt it. She certainly wasn't in control. Being a young woman makes the odds utterly impossible for survival, as we have seen in her case.

Pamela, I know what you are trying to say, and police in Chicago, especially in these areas, are notoriously callous and indifferent--due to having to deal with an amount of lawlessness and sheer craziness that cannot be believed.

The reason they have a holding facility right down in the zoo, is that that's where it's most needed.

However, to let that woman walk out the door in her condition, in that area, was quite literally to be an accessory to kidnapping, rape, and attempted murder.

When police become so inured to the less rational side of human nature as to allow this to happen, they are 'protecting and serving' absolutely no one but themselves...

Deogol
05-17-2006, 12:19 PM
This tiny blurb from the article should tell you something about the people in this neighborhood



And they did nothing? :O She was held for almost THREE HOURS, screaming for help and none of the people in the building did anything to help. No one called the police even?!

That right there should tell you something.

This is from abc7.com's article:
:O WTF???

Reading the full article Venus linked is makes me sick. This situation is really something else.

This is why I have little sympathy for "the poor" or those who live in such housing. It's "not their problem" until it "is their problem" - and then there is no one around to help.

Deogol
05-17-2006, 12:30 PM
Well, this article makes the police look worse. Witnesses report trying to talk to her and she's incoherent and not making sense. Hello?? Why didn't they transfer her to the hospital??

Of course it makes the police look worse - it is written by a bunch of "hate the system" main stream press types.

I like how

1) a gang member rapes her and
2) throws her out the window while
3) everyone hears it and
4) doesn't call the police --

and yet it is the police's fault this happened, that they should be fired and imprisoned and sued over an action they had no idea was happening.

And people wonder why society is screwed up! This is an example of communism and gun control at work.

Deogol
05-17-2006, 12:37 PM
This story took the whole topic of Richard Roeper's column in today's Sun Times.



It is very well-said, in my opinion. Here's a piece of it:

<snip> One resident of that building, who did not want to be identified on camera, told ABC-7 she saw the woman in the courtyard and outside her own door.

"She got up on MY floor, she tried to come into my place," said the woman. "I said 'Oh no no no, you know, white people and us, we don't mix.' "


Where's the outrage?

...The residents of the Taylor Homes are black, and it's not as if they see a lot of white visitors.

...But even if that resident somehow felt threatened, why not call the cops? Maybe it's because she doesn't trust the police. Maybe it's because she has enough problems and she doesn't care to get involved with things she doesn't understand. Maybe it's because she wants nothing to do with white people under any circumstances.

"White people and us, we don't mix." So sad.

You can imagine the outrage if a young black woman had wandered into a white neighborhood, and a white woman had told the local news, "You know, black people and us, we don't mix." You can imagine the press conferences and the protests and the calls for action. We should be equally outraged when something like this happens.

As one e-mailer said to me, "I wish someone could explain to me how a 21-year-old girl ends up in the Robert Taylor Homes, is [allegedly] raped, begs for help and is told by a black woman she isn't going to help because she is WHITE, the young woman is pushed or jumped out of a seventh-floor window, and NOBODY is outraged? [Where are] the religious leaders like [Jesse] Jackson and [James] Meeks? Where is it on the news coverage? This is a young woman with mental problems and NO ONE is speaking up on her behalf."

It's a legitimate point. Wouldn't it be something if community leaders reached out to the victim's family, pledged support to the police in their investigation, called for residents of the Robert Taylor Homes to come forward with any information they might have, and issued statements condemning the mentality that says whites and blacks don't mix? </snip>

Haven't you heard? Blacks cannot be racist. Only white people can be racists. >:(

Djoser
05-17-2006, 12:48 PM
Of course it makes the police look worse - it is written by a bunch of "hate the system" main stream press types.

...And people wonder why society is screwed up! This is an example of communism and gun control at work.

Ordinarily I'm inclined to agree with you on many socio-political issues, but not this time...

The article might have been written by a "Hate the rapists" type, who also hates the fact that the people who are charged with 'serving and protecting' are the ones who brought this about through gross negligence. The police may not have raped the woman or thrown her out the window, but they might as well have.

If you are deranged and/or stupid enough to cause a scene in an airport, mouth off enough to get arrested by security and/or cops brought to the scene, and later at a holding facility, you don't deserve to be taken somewhere where your subsequent release (even if you demand it) means sure death or mutilation.

You don't deserve to be released without your belongings, which might enable you to remain safe or possibly even get where you were trying to go in the first place. And you don't deserve to have your next-of-kin's urgent and repeated pleas to have your debilitating mental condition taken into consideration ignored as though you were just another piece of street trash...

This isn't about communism or gun control. No one has brought up either subject. We don't even know whether guns were employed in the kidnapping/rape/attempted murder. Quite likely they were entirely unnecessary.

This is about police not doing their jobs, and in fact aiding and abetting the most monstrous sort of criminals, by tossing this woman into a situation in which she didn't have a chance in hell.

Hello_Kitty27
05-17-2006, 04:53 PM
I'm trying to put together my thoughts to begin sending my letters to the editor(s)......I really don't know what to think anymore when it comes to this. I did write to Richard roeper in response to his article about it yesterday....I'm hoping enough people may have done the same thing so that he could possibly do a follow up of some sort.

I'm glad Venus and Djoser are also familiar with that area .... as I've said before I work just west of there and I see it and drive through it everyday. It's no exaggeration that the restaurants have bulletproof glass with the bullet-proof turnstyle-thing that they put your food on. Even in the chinese restaurant....everything is like that. There are no payphones or even seats in most fast food restaurants there. They want people to get in and get out as quickly as possibly.

At work, in the middle of the day, we never even grab food alone, there's always at least two of us and we've still been harassed. That's why I brown-bag it almost every day....I don't like to deal with it.

Well, I'm off to try to write some good letters now.

VenusGoddess
05-19-2006, 06:48 PM
This is the part that scares me:

In a written statement, Cline said: "We appreciate NOW's concerns. . . . Once the investigation is complete, if it is determined that any wrongdoing or . . . department policy was not followed, the appropriate disciplinary action will be taken."

The Chicago Police have been known not to punish officers for wrong-doing, instead just putting them on leave until the storm blows over...

Djoser
05-19-2006, 07:16 PM
They should put them on leave, alright--how about a free room in that building she got tossed out of? Like that one with the busted lock on the door?

Hang a sign out saying "Do not disturb! Police resting inside."

Bridgette
05-20-2006, 11:07 PM
Pamela, are you reading these news stories??
From the last news link: officers knew of the woman's illness but released her anyway -- in violation of department policy
How can you keep defending these guys when it's obvious they were in the wrong here?


Anyway, I can hardly stand to look at this info anymore. It is sickening.

Lysondra
05-21-2006, 02:20 AM
I just read this entire thread and, honestly, I'm not entirely sure that surviving the fall was the best thing for her. I would not be surprised, with her biploar disorder and her traumatic events, if they found her in a bathtub with her wrists cut in a week. :/

Magdalena_666
05-21-2006, 04:09 PM
I just read this entire thread and, honestly, I'm not entirely sure that surviving the fall was the best thing for her. I would not be surprised, with her biploar disorder and her traumatic events, if they found her in a bathtub with her wrists cut in a week. :/

I agree. I just read the whole thread last night. It's as heartbreaking as it is sickening. I hope some good can come out of this by at least making the public aware of the atrocious actions of the chicago police.
Since I moved here in October, I have been told by so many people; 'Stay as FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE' from the southside. Now I see why. That could have been me, or any one of us really.

Yes, she did lose her temper, but man, how many of us wouldn't be stressed to the max after what she was going through.
Stranded in chicago, nobody will help her back to california. Dealing with the notoriously cruel treatment from the chicago police. I would probably be a bit of an emotional wreck by that point myself.
I feel so bad for her and her family that it's just beyond words.
Let's just hope that some small amount of justice is served and some good comes out of this.
Let's hope that this situation at least made the police scared enough and that there will never be a repeat of it.
Maybe they will think twice next time they are faced with a similar situation.
Maybe this story saved some other girls life.
Some little bit of good has to come out of such a sick tradgedy.

blondhottie
05-21-2006, 04:17 PM
A new article on this case:

Bond denied in woman's plunge

By Jason George
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 20, 2006, 6:41 PM CDT


A Chicago man believed to have been the last person to see a California woman before she plunged from a 7th floor Chicago Housing Authority apartment window was denied bond Saturday on charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault and unlawful restraint.

Marvin "Red" Powell, 23, has denied the assault charges, maintaining that after the woman performed a sex act with him in a vacant apartment, she inexplicably jumped out a window, said Assistant State's Atty. Julie Egan.

A group of people told investigators that on the evening of May 8 they were hanging out in front of the Robert Taylor Homes, 5135 S. Federal St., when they were approached by the 21-year-old woman that none of them knew.

They invited her up to a vacant apartment on the seventh floor, where the group and the woman socialized for a while before Powell arrived at the apartment just after 10 p.m. and ordered everyone out except the woman, Egan said.

Powell, of the 8300 block of South Saginaw Avenue, then allegedly locked the apartment door for 30 minutes, refused to open it when members of the group demanded him to and sexually assaulted the woman, prosecutors said.

The woman was next seen about 11 p.m., lying next to the building, wearing only her bra and panties. The woman, who is now on life support, was critically injured with two collapsed lungs, numerous broken bones and brain hemorrhaging, Egan said.

Powell was seen running from the building, according to witnesses quoted in court.

Powell is a reputed gang member and parolee from a conviction of unlawfully discharging a weapon in 2002, according to court and Illinois Department of Corrections records.

The woman, from Los Angeles, was in the neighborhood after being released earlier in the evening from the police's nearby Wentworth District lockup. She was there after being arrested the day before at Midway Airport for acting erratically.

Magdalena_666
05-21-2006, 06:09 PM
^
So what the above article makes me think is that she either A) Was pushed from the window by the man who was raping her.
Or B) What was happening to her in that room was so horrific that jumping out of the window was a better option than being locked up in a room with a man who was raping her or worse?

God, This story just keep's getting more appaling the more I hear about it.
And that article didn't seem to be very sympathetic to the victim. And notice there is barely a mention of the fact that the police are the one's who put her there in the first place! Or the fact that she was mentally unstable and stranded.

I didn't know she was in that bad of a condition
''The woman, who is now on life support, was critically injured with two collapsed lungs, numerous broken bones and brain hemorrhaging, Egan said.''

If she does pull through and survive. I can't even imagine the emotional tramua she will have to deal with, or how she, or anyone, could get over that.

Djoser
05-21-2006, 06:50 PM
If she hit her head after falling 7 stories, she might not remember what happened, which would be a blessing--but I still have my doubts as to how much she will be able to regain any semblance of normalcy, physically.

"Broken bones" has to be an understatement as to the trauma she sustained.

Lysondra
05-21-2006, 09:57 PM
^^^ Not remembering what happens doesn't always mean anything. I've been raped and I don't remember it but now if certain things happen to me I trigger and freak out and I don't even know why. Therapists and psychologists say they're all rape triggers... but I don't remember. Your subconcious reacts anyway. There's this small spot on my lower back that, when touched, I start crying uncontrollably. Fuck if I know where it stems from. :(

Hello_Kitty27
05-23-2006, 04:22 PM
Magdalena .... you're pretty much right about the south side. There are only a few good neighborhoods on this side (I live in bridgeport) that have anything to offer aside from crime. Growing up here, you get to know REAL fast where not to go!

To everyone else, I still am torn up about this. I did write to a few people about it (in the papers) but have heard nothing. I had a death in the family late last week, so I've been unable to stay on top of it. As Venus mentioned, the police here have a tendency to let things fall to the wayside. I wonder if anything will happen to any of the officers involved.

Did anyone happen to catch Mary Mitchell's article in the sun-times about this? It's disgusting to me, she tries to compare it to the Duke case and make it a racial thing. I hate her to begin with, and I wanted to send her a nasty letter, but that was the day my grandpa passed away. I still may write to her .... here's a link.....

http://www.suntimes.com/output/mitchell/cst-nws-mitch18.html

She did touch upon the mental illness aspect a few days later, for those interested:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/mitchell/cst-nws-mitch21.html

Hello_Kitty27
06-15-2006, 07:29 PM
You read my mind Pan Dah, I was logging on the this very reason ....to post this article and let everyone know the update. I've heard nothing, which is sad considering it happened right in my city!

Here is the Tribune article, which seems to have more details than the suntimes article you posted:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060609plummet,1,6844796.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Bridgette
06-16-2006, 02:30 AM
Wow. She's still unconscious. That is just terrible.

I am not surprised her family is suing; I think it's definitely warranted in this case. The fuckers at the cop shop who dealt with her should be in prison getting acquainted with Mr Ben Dover for the next few decades :mad:

Bridgette
06-16-2006, 02:36 AM
"She may have been exhibiting normal behavior," a police spokesman said. "And she is an adult. If she signs herself out, we couldn't keep her unless we had an arrest warrant." from this article:

WTF kind of bullshit is this piece of shit trying to pass off here??? The girl got fucking ARRESTED for causing a disturbance at an airport stop. Of COURSE she wasn't exhibiting fucking normal behaviour!!!! OMFG I want to fly to Chicago just for the pleasure of dropkicking this asshole in the teeth :beat:

VenusGoddess
06-16-2006, 06:03 AM
You don't know how frustrating it is to try and get information out of the "investigation" of this matter. In fact, I was told that it's still being looked in to and as far as they can tell (reporters who've been following up) the police are saying that they did nothing wrong. Obviously.

I wonder how many people we Chicagoans could gather together and get the ball rolling. I fully support this family getting this lawsuit and I would be willing to do anything to help them win it.

But, Bridgette, the Chicago Police are NOTORIOUS for covering up their fuck-ups. They're a bunch of half-witted monkeys at best and really do deserve to be put with the general population of the prison they would go to. Maybe then, they'll get some sense of what they sentenced this young lady to.

Hello_Kitty27
06-16-2006, 10:42 PM
And what about the lady that died in a different lockup like a week ago? They even have record of her asking for help, saying that she needed medical attn. Of course, the autopsy came back "inconclusive".

And you know what else bothers me about this girl that fell ..... her family is all from CA, right? So how are they able to afford being here at the hospital with her? I imagine someone is staying here to look after her. Of course, it's just specualtion on my part, but that concerns me as well. On a person-to-person level, you have to wonder about that side of things too. What would I do if my close relative, like my sister, had a near-fatal accident thousands of miles away ....I honesty think I'd leave everything to be by her side. So, have people in her family done this? If so, how are they affording it, or getting time off of work, etc. Maybe it sounds silly, but I keep thinking about that side of things as well.

colleen
06-16-2006, 11:02 PM
Why do the words "Chapelle" and "When keeping it real goes wrong" come into my mind?

It's a shame, but it sure sounds like that girl had a mouth that got her into A LOT of trouble.

Let me add, I don't want to pay the police department to be 1) A taxi service for criminals getting out and 2) paying the police to drop criminals just out of jail into "safe" areas - aka low crime keep the doors unlocked areas.

What an asinine thing to say. I'll ask you about that statement again if (god forbid) something ever happens to YOUR daughter/sister/cousin/girlfriend/friend.

Actaully, I DO believe the police dept. should have arranged for her to get to safety. I think it was thier responsibility. Their motto is "to serve and protect" after all. Especially if they knew she was going to Midway to fly home.

When I worked in an ER IN CHICAGO, we gave indigent patients and those who arrived by ambulance cab vouchers to get them home. The cops should at least be able to provide people with that much.

VenusGoddess
06-17-2006, 05:53 AM
What an asinine thing to say. I'll ask you about that statement again if (god forbid) something ever happens to YOUR daughter/sister/cousin/girlfriend/friend.

Actaully, I DO believe the police dept. should have arranged for her to get to safety. I think it was thier responsibility. Their motto is "to serve and protect" after all. Especially if they knew she was going to Midway to fly home.

When I worked in an ER IN CHICAGO, we gave indigent patients and those who arrived by ambulance cab vouchers to get them home. The cops should at least be able to provide people with that much.

Well, in this case, they should have transported her back to the ORIGINAL booking station where all of her personal effects were.

Another thing is that she wasn't a CRIMINAL. >:(

Djoser
06-17-2006, 06:18 AM
Yes, at the very least, they should have taken her back to the original station she was booked at--though of course she shouldn't have been released at all, with her family trying to get her detained until they could make sure she was safely on the way home.

She was obviously deranged to go with a big group of people into that building--no one in their right mind would have done so.

The police in high crime areas have a tendency to get jaded, and to some extent this is understandable--but what happened to this woman is unspeakably foul.

I doubt very much if anyone responsible from the police dept will get in much trouble. I also bet that the rapist will be cleared of any attempted murder charges handilly, since noone saw him throw her out, and she may well have been trying to escape this fucking animal.

BTW, Colleen, I worked in a very large hospital on the South Side--which may well have been the same one, it was right off Midway Ave. (60th st.). Actually it was a group of hospitals clustered together, under the overall direction of University of Chicago.

We actually had two murders take place within a few feet of where I worked--one down the hall in the cafeteria, and another right outside the doors which were close to my area (it was a friend of mine who got killed).

JettaNyx
06-17-2006, 11:35 AM
the bigest problem with cops isnt so much that many are incompetent or just dont care (there are good ones, but for some reason the only ones i've meet fallinto the first two catagories) but the police force and most other city departments that work with them act like a fratirnity. all for one one for all, they will all lie and cover up things to cover each other's asses. all cities have a history of this, i dunno why but it is what i've seen and it is a huge problem.

Nicolina
06-17-2006, 11:44 AM
Actaully, I DO believe the police dept. should have arranged for her to get to safety. I think it was thier responsibility. Their motto is "to serve and protect" after all. Especially if they knew she was going to Midway to fly home.



When I worked in an ER IN CHICAGO, we gave indigent patients and those who arrived by ambulance cab vouchers to get them home. The cops should at least be able to provide people with that much.



I agree. And I'm sickened and appalled by this story--and by the sorry state of mental health care in this country. It's just disgusting. Those of you who have had to deal with mental illness in your circle of family and friends will know exactly what I'm talking about. There is so little understanding of these diseases that police officers can easily see "crazy bitch" instead of "ill person who needs assistance and treatment." Clearly, that's what happened here, and they acted accordingly. That they ignored the pleas of her family is just unconscionable. That is what is "criminal" in this story.



But, you know, your comment also made me think about something else: If the arrestee had been a resident of those projects, we wouldn't be saying how awful it was that he or she had been allowed to walk home. And granted, a 21-year-old white girl in a manic state is in more immediate danger in those surroundings. But they're also dangerous for the people who live there each day. Yet, when a resident of those projects gets raped in an empty apartment, I doubt it makes the news. Even murders that happen there don't always make the papers. In my estimation, it's shameful that a place like this exists at all in our country. And as for the woman who wouldn't help her, saying "white folks and us don't mix"--well, that's shameful, too. But then again, we reap what we sow, don't we?

JettaNyx
06-17-2006, 11:45 AM
VenusGoddess-

Can you PM me with addresses to send letters to? (govenor, police, DA, whomever you got, i suck at reserching them). i'd like to write to them about this too. i suffer from bipolar myself and can understand what kind of state of mind she might have been in, she should have been droped off at a hospital before being allowed on the street again, and most certinaly not the street they put her on.

blondhottie
06-17-2006, 03:59 PM
Fuck the Chicago cops, I hate them. They are all assholes on a power trip. When I lived in Chicago, I was harrassed by them on two different occasions. Once I was wearing a skimpy top, short skirt, and heels while walking to a friend's house, and a cop stopped me and asked for ID. I said "Why?" and he replied that there were a lot of prostitutes in that area. I told him to fuck off, I wasn't a prostitute and he should have better things to do instead of harrassing innocent people, and I walked away. On another occasion I was waiting for the bus and I had a suitcase with me, and two cops who were stopped at a red light were just being really nosy and asking me where I was going, where I was from, and a bunch of other shit. They weren't speaking in a friendly manner; they were very condescending.

That's really sad about the girl. She will probably die or be paralyzed for life. :'( I agree that the mother is justified in suing the Chicago police. I looked up Christina Eilman (the girl who fell or was thrown out the window) on MySpace and she has a page here:

www.myspace.com/commentallez

Very pretty girl. Of course, I'm not saying this situation would be any less tragic if she were unattractive. Someone must've hacked into her account because it shows that she last logged on May 31st. I find it odd that none of her MySpace friends have commented on this tragedy.

Another possibility-since she was bipolar and no one saw her get thrown out the window, is it possible that she attempted suicide?