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Kayley Whalen, Trans Murders and Erika Keels

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  • #16
    Several things are suspicious here.... (and, yes, ACTUAL murder is wrong and should be investigated)

    Here are some problems I see with the story:

    A) Firstfloor posted it
    2) The only sources I can find are from gay / lesbian / atheist advocacy groups
    C) When I click on some of the links to "source", I get 404 errors, like youngphillypolitics.com which was supposedly a press conference
    D) Firstfloor posted it
    5) It APPEARS that some of the "source material" has been deleted, and links to them can't resolve
    6) Firstfloor posted it

    I think before we all weigh in on a topic, we should consider the source and see if it's actually a topic.
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

    Comment


    • #17
      Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
      Several things are suspicious here.... (and, yes, ACTUAL murder is wrong and should be investigated)

      Here are some problems I see with the story:

      A) Firstfloor posted it
      2) The only sources I can find are from gay / lesbian / atheist advocacy groups
      C) When I click on some of the links to "source", I get 404 errors, like youngphillypolitics.com which was supposedly a press conference
      D) Firstfloor posted it
      5) It APPEARS that some of the "source material" has been deleted, and links to them can't resolve
      6) Firstfloor posted it

      I think before we all weigh in on a topic, we should consider the source and see if it's actually a topic.
      Yep, thus my very general post.
      "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

      Comment


      • #18
        Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post
        Yep, thus my very general post.
        And it MAY BE TRUE, but even according to some of the links FF provided, Keels was "thrown out of her car and repeatedly run over by the driver", or was "standing in the street" and accidentally run down by a 70 year old, --- one of them even said "nobody knows".
        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

        Comment


        • #19
          Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
          And it MAY BE TRUE, but even according to some of the links FF provided, Keels was "thrown out of her car and repeatedly run over by the driver", or was "standing in the street" and accidentally run down by a 70 year old, --- one of them even said "nobody knows".
          This reminds me of another Philadelphia case... Mumia Abu-Jamal. There are so many sites claiming he's innocent of killing a cop, but I looked into the case and it seems fairly obvious that he's guilty based on the actual evidence.
          "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

          Comment


          • #20
            Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post
            This reminds me of another Philadelphia case... Mumia Abu-Jamal. There are so many sites claiming he's innocent of killing a cop, but I looked into the case and it seems fairly obvious that he's guilty based on the actual evidence.
            It also reminds me of when CHRISTIANS come up with a "campaign" that is unwittingly based on fiction, but we spread it all over the internet and get people to sign petitions and flood the phones and mailboxes of congressmen, and "forward this to 10 friends - act quickly"..... it just makes us look silly. (and some of us don't need any help )

            When somebody sends me one of those kinds of hyperventilating "get involved" emails, I first to to snopes.com or truthorfiction.com or some other place to research it. More times than not, it's a fabrication.
            The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

            Comment


            • #21
              Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
              And it MAY BE TRUE, but even according to some of the links FF provided, Keels was "thrown out of her car and repeatedly run over by the driver", or was "standing in the street" and accidentally run down by a 70 year old, --- one of them even said "nobody knows".
              If the police decide that a particular death is not worth investigating there will not be a reliable evidence trail. This is the nature of the complaint; that the police have the power to decide who gets justice and who does not and they are not even handed or simply that they are perceived to be not even handed. Good people will not tolerate even the suspicion that the police are not acting fairly.

              Visible Invisibility: The Lives and Deaths of Transgender Women of Color

              http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...80642063,d.d24

              "Erica Keel
              What we know of Erica Keel’s death is a complicated mix of eyewitness testimony and conflicting police reports and statements that don’t mesh up with the cause of death listed with the Medical Examiners Office. Keel, a 20-year old African American transgender woman, was struck by a moving vehicle, about 2 a.m. on March 21 and died two days later from multiple injuries.13 According to eyewitnesses and Savannah Hornbeck, who is identified as a close friend of Keel’s and a “peer educator for Youth Health Services,” Keel, who was engaging in sex work at the time, entered a car, only to be ejected from the car one block further. Keel hit her head on the pavement and as she lay in the street the driver of the vehicle proceeded to run over her by backing up and pulling forward over the Keel’s body four times. The driver then fled the scene.

              This narrative, which seems consistent with the medical examiner’s report, classified Keel’s death as a ‘hit and run” is corroborated by a “handwritten AID (Accident Investigation Division) log also listing Keel’s death as a “hit and run.” The AID’s Lt. John Hearns, disputes this evidence and restates it as accidental; “she [Keel] flies up in the air and strikes a parked, unattended auto, then a fire hydrant.” This is meant to account for her multiple injuries and disregards the possibility that she was struck multiple times by the driver.” Thus, the driver, identified as Roland Bottom, remains uncharged, as the police have “ruled Erica’s death an accident and have refused to conduct an investigation.”

              The gender policing that Namaste identifies appears quite strongly in these crimes: visible as women yet killed in an attempt to refuse their identity as women, a violent repossession of male space and reinforcement of the gender binary. The level of violence often beyond what is required to terminate life seems enough to classify these murders as hate-crimes, and yet this are often miscategorized because the police force or federal reports do not recognize transgender status. Because of transphobia, transgender women are often described as “men dressed as women” and grouped into homosexual crime or “men who date men” crimes statistical categories.

              Considering the narratives of Nakia Ladell Baker, Ruby Rodriguez, and Erica Keel this analysis by Namaste becomes particularly illuminating. Baker, Keel, and Rodriguez each lived as women. Baker was killed just outside of a transgender/transsexual bar, “a place frequented by men who dress as women,” while both Keel and Rodriguez appear to have been engaged in sex work at the time of their deaths. Baker’s death, situated within the rubric of anti-gay violence, further marginalizes both her life and her death. Rodriguez’s identity lingers between visibility and invisibility – a border existence – Rodriguez/Ordeñana, Latina/Nicaraguan/Californian, and male/female. Equally, the intersection of multiple identities –illegal immigrant, HIV positive, post-operative, Latina, male to female transsexual, Californian resident—conflate in unique ways
              only partially revealed in these narratives. Classifying Keel’s death as accidental and refusing to investigate her death emerge as gestures of dismissal and attempted erasure of her life."
              Last edited by firstfloor; 12-08-2014, 10:37 AM.
              “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” ― Oscar Wilde
              “And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence” ― Bertrand Russell
              “not all there” - you know who you are

              Comment


              • #22
                Is there an actual news article about Erika Keel's death? All I can find is what CP did, and most links seem to repeat other links, and are all on LGBT and Feminist sites. You would think there would be a reuters, or CNN or some actual news article about it.

                Might be because it happened nearly 8 years ago, or it could be a fake story that just got started on something like facebook and never died out.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Originally posted by firstfloor View Post
                  If the police decide that a particular death is not worth investigating there will not be a reliable evidence trail.
                  That's just goofy. All these gay / lesbian activist groups and websites keep reporting that the Medical Examiner's report says blah blah blah... how do they know this? Does anybody have a copy of the Medical Examiner's Report?

                  At one of the rallies in Philly, a blogger who claims to have been there says the Police were trying to stop them, but praises Governor Ed Rendell for sending his gay / lesbian liaison -- then proceeds to claim that this liaison didn't "have the facts" because she didn't support the story.

                  And, we have pictures out the wazoo of Michael Brown and other activist causes... where are the pictures of Keels? Here is all I could find....

                  keels.jpg

                  Note that there is NOT a picture of keels --- but the top picture in that "stack" looks amazingly like one of the bloggers who is still actively posting!

                  Did ALL the local news channels choose NOT to report this as an incident that day? Why is there no article at all in the Philadelphia Inquirer?

                  Why is Keels sometimes 20, and other times 21, sometimes black, and sometimes not, sometimes thrown out of her OWN car, and sometimes thrown out of some other person's car, and sometimes standing on the corner when hit?

                  This has all the earmarks of an urban legend, or, AT BEST, a very "slanted" account of something that MAY have happened.
                  The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Originally posted by firstfloor View Post
                    If the police decide that a particular death is not worth investigating there will not be a reliable evidence trail. This is the nature of the complaint; that the police have the power to decide who gets justice and who does not and they are not even handed or simply that they are perceived to be not even handed. Good people will not tolerate even the suspicion that the police are not acting fairly.
                    Listen Homer, do you have one non-bias link to this.
                    Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Originally posted by seer View Post
                      Listen Homer, do you have one non-bias link to this.
                      I couldn't find a single one -- and, as Sparko pointed out, most of the links seem to be circular... citing each other as the source, or linking to other gay / lesbian or atheist sites.

                      Let's ASSUME that this is based on a real incident that the Police "twisted". Where is that "twisted" news story or account? Did ALL the news media and community groups at the time choose NOT to record anything about this til well after the fact?
                      The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                        I couldn't find a single one -- and, as Sparko pointed out, most of the links seem to be circular... citing each other as the source, or linking to other gay / lesbian or atheist sites.

                        Let's ASSUME that this is based on a real incident that the Police "twisted". Where is that "twisted" news story or account? Did ALL the news media and community groups at the time choose NOT to record anything about this til well after the fact?
                        And if the facts of this incident, even if real, are so vague, with no sources, what gives FF the right to blame the police? He has come to a conclusion without any facts, just opinions and innuendo.

                        Oh wait, this is FirstFloor. Never mind, what was I thinking?

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                          And if the facts of this incident, even if real, are so vague, with no sources, what gives FF the right to blame the police? He has come to a conclusion without any facts, just opinions and innuendo.

                          Oh wait, this is FirstFloor. Never mind, what was I thinking?
                          Too bad, this would have been a worthy topic.
                          Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Originally posted by firstfloor View Post
                            This narrative, which seems consistent with the medical examiner’s report,
                            A copy of which is where, exactly?

                            classified Keel’s death as a ‘hit and run” is corroborated by a “handwritten AID (Accident Investigation Division) log also listing Keel’s death as a “hit and run.”
                            And a copy of this "log"? A recording of the 9-11 call? A FOIA request for information from the AID?

                            The AID’s Lt. John Hearns, disputes this evidence and restates it as accidental; “she [Keel] flies up in the air and strikes a parked, unattended auto, then a fire hydrant.”
                            A copy of the statement from Hearns? No problem finding a picture of HIM!

                            hearns.jpg

                            But no high school photo, friend's photo, family photo --- NOTHING on Keels.

                            This is meant to account for her multiple injuries and disregards the possibility that she was struck multiple times by the driver.” Thus, the driver, identified as Roland Bottom, remains uncharged, as the police have “ruled Erica’s death an accident and have refused to conduct an investigation.”
                            Is it Erica or Erika?

                            The gender policing that Namaste identifies appears quite strongly in these crimes: visible as women yet killed in an attempt to refuse their identity as women, a violent repossession of male space and reinforcement of the gender binary. The level of violence often beyond what is required to terminate life seems enough to classify these murders as hate-crimes, and yet this are often miscategorized because the police force or federal reports do not recognize transgender status. Because of transphobia, transgender women are often described as “men dressed as women” and grouped into homosexual crime or “men who date men” crimes statistical categories.
                            So, Keels was singled out because of his/her sexual orientation?

                            Considering the narratives of Nakia Ladell Baker, Ruby Rodriguez, and Erica Keel this analysis by Namaste becomes particularly illuminating. Baker, Keel, and Rodriguez each lived as women. Baker was killed just outside of a transgender/transsexual bar, “a place frequented by men who dress as women,” while both Keel and Rodriguez appear to have been engaged in sex work at the time of their deaths. Baker’s death, situated within the rubric of anti-gay violence, further marginalizes both her life and her death. Rodriguez’s identity lingers between visibility and invisibility – a border existence – Rodriguez/Ordeñana, Latina/Nicaraguan/Californian, and male/female. Equally, the intersection of multiple identities –illegal immigrant, HIV positive, post-operative, Latina, male to female transsexual, Californian resident—conflate in unique ways
                            only partially revealed in these narratives. Classifying Keel’s death as accidental and refusing to investigate her death emerge as gestures of dismissal and attempted erasure of her life."
                            OK, since we can ONLY find this in gay/lesbian/atheist sites, let's see if we can find any accounts that actually make sense, and are dated closer to the time of the offense.... (emphasis mine)

                            Here is an account that actually has a reporter's name and contact info... It CLEARLY identifies this as a TRAFFIC ACCIDENT.... \

                            Source: PhiladelphiaGayNews

                            The investigation into a fatal traffic accident that claimed the life of transgender woman Erika Keels was officially closed in March, with no criminal charges brought against the driver, Roland Bottom.

                            But a review of the investigative file released last week raised questions about the decision not to pursue criminal charges against Bottom.

                            The incident took place at 5 a.m. March 21, 2007, as Keels was crossing Broad Street near Stiles in North Philadelphia.

                            According to police records, Bottom admitted to driving south on Broad Street at about 45 mph on his way to work when he struck Keels.

                            If his statement is accurate, Bottom was traveling at least 20 mph in excess of the posted speed limit on Broad Street.

                            Bottom also told police he was driving without corrective lenses — a violation of the restriction on his driver’s license that he must wear corrective lenses when operating a motor vehicle.

                            Keels, 20, died two days later at Hahnemann University Hospital after sustaining multiple broken bones, a fractured skull and internal bleeding. She never regained consciousness after she was hit.

                            The investigative file offers sketchy details about the crash.

                            “I don’t know where [Keels] came from,” Bottom told police, describing the crash. “The first time I saw him, he was running right at me. I stopped right after I hit him. I really don’t know if I skidded to a stop or not.”

                            © Copyright Original Source



                            What is this gay reporter hiding? The grievance here is NOT that Keels was MURDERED -- but that charges were not filed against the old guy who ACCIDENTALLY hit him/her.
                            Last edited by Cow Poke; 12-08-2014, 11:36 AM.
                            The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                              A copy of which is where, exactly?
                              There is this too. Conflicting accounts. How fast is a car going before a person is thrown into the air? I’m trying to contact Savannah Hornback.
                              http://archive.today/Z2DhG#selection-213.159-217.0
                              “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” ― Oscar Wilde
                              “And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence” ― Bertrand Russell
                              “not all there” - you know who you are

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Originally posted by firstfloor View Post
                                There is this too. Conflicting accounts. How fast is a car going before a person is thrown into the air? I’m trying to contact Savannah Hornback.
                                http://archive.today/Z2DhG#selection-213.159-217.0
                                Really FF? That was a quote from the Philadelphia Gay News. Do you have any credible, non-bias references?
                                Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

                                Comment

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