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[–]MarkTwainiac 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Expanding on my earlier comment, here's something I posted on another thread a month ago:

Trans lobby groups portray every male trans-identified person to die a violent death as an innocent victim attacked and killed merely for being trans. For example, HRC's list of transgender people murdered in 2020 includes a presumably innocent victim named Jayne Thompson. The HRC's entry on Thompson is as follows in its entirety:

Jayne Thompson, a 33-year old white transgender woman, was killed in Mesa County, Colorado, on May 9. She was killed by a Colorado State Patrol trooper and misgendered in initial news reports.

https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-trans-and-gender-non-conforming-community-in-2020

What the HRC leaves out is that according to the police account, Thompson, whose legal name was Jayson, was aggressively approaching and brandishing a 10-inch knife at the police officer who shot him.

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/05/11/man-shot-state-trooper-mesa-county-identified/

Of course, what the police say in officer-involved shootings and killings needs always to be taken with a grain of salt. However, based on video, audio and witness accounts, the DA said the officer was acting in self-defense, and that had Thompson lived he would have been indicted on several serious charges:

District Attorney Dan Rubinstein announced Wednesday that Trooper Jason Wade will not face charges for killing 33-year-old Jayson Thompson, The Daily Sentinel reports.

Thompson ran toward Wade with a knife on a roadside near Grand Junction May 9, authorities said.

Rubinstein determined Wade acted in self-defense based on video and audio evidence and witness interviews.

Felony assault, attempted assault and menacing charges would have been filed against Thompson if he survived the shooting, Rubinstein said.

An investigation found Wade responded to a report of a person standing near Highway 50 for two hours.

Thompson pulled a knife from his waistband and ignored Wade’s orders to drop the weapon. Wade shot him when Thompson lunged at the trooper, a report said.

A jury would likely conclude there was a reasonable belief of imminent danger if a person ran at someone with a knife, Rubinstein said.

Rubinstein’s office, the Colorado Bureau of Investigations and three police and sheriff’s departments took part in the investigation.

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/05/21/no-charges-mesa-county-trooper-shooting/

Similarly, the HRC says this of another of its presumed murder victims:

Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears, who sometimes used the name Rocky Rhone, a Black transgender woman, was killed in Portland, Oregon, on July 28. According to Facebook, she studied at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and was the owner and founder of International Barbie, a Portland-based clothing brand.

What the HRC leaves out is that Spears was one of 15 people to be killed in Portland in July in a spate of violence that made it the city's single most deadly month in 30 years. The HRC also leaves out that Spears died whilst attending a small memorial service in a private home where "a fight broke out" and two people ended up being stabbed:

Portland police say the stabbing happened at a vigil for Tyrell Penney, who was killed in a recent shooting. Police say about 20 or 30 people were at the vigil, when a fight broke out among several people that led to the stabbings.

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/07/police-identify-victim-killed-in-tuesday-stabbing-in-ne-portland.html

I've been to many dozens of funerals, memorial services and vigils. At none did anyone break out in fisticuffs, and at none did anyone end up getting stabbed or killed by other means.

The HRC further leaves out that none of the other persons who attended the vigil with Spears, some of whom were presumably acquaintances or even friends of Spears, is bothering to help find out exactly who killed Spears:

Portland police have said little about Rhone-Spears’ death, other than the stabbing occurred at a vigil for Tyrell Penney, a 27-year-old who had been shot and killed a few days prior. Police said several people were at the scene and may have witnessed the stabbing, but most have refused to talk to police.

“No one is standing up for Aja,” said Tina Pillias, a close friend of Rhone-Spears. “No one is speaking out that was there and knows exactly what happened.”

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/08/family-of-aja-rhone-spears-still-in-limbo-after-her-july-homicide.html

Yet this hasn't stopped trans advocates, Spears' family and the mainstream media from claiming that Spears was "murdered for being transgender."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/celebrity/murdered-for-being-transgender-witnesses-saw-her-stabbed-at-vigil-but-no-one-has-been-arrested/ar-BB18jpqw

And the fact that Spears was killed attending a vigil in a private residence did not stop the HRC from claiming that Spears' death is more proof that “Black transgender women are being violently killed in our streets. ”

https://www.hrc.org/news/hrc-mourns-aja-raquell-rhone-spears-black-trans-woman-killed-in-oregon

On its website, the HRC also says this of everyone who has died in the spate of "fatal violence against transgender" people in an attempt to make them all look like saints:

These victims, like all of us, are loving partners, parents, family members, friends and community members. They worked, went to school and attended houses of worship.

That's a statement that's patently not true of each and every one of these so-called victims. Nor is it true of the "all of us" whom the HRC presumes to speak on behalf of. Whilst the majority of TIMs who come out in mid and later life are indeed fathers, plenty of trans people - like the rest of the population - are not parents, and this seems to hold true for those who this year have had the misfortune to die of violence. Similarly, whilst perhaps at one time most of these people worked, went to school and attended houses of worship, it seems a bit of a stretch to portray them all as loving, devoted family types and upstanding community members who spent their lives holding down steady jobs, dutifully going to school and regularly attending church/mosque/synagogue.

IMO, the HRC's attempt to hide that a number of these persons who unfortunately died of homicide had criminal histories, drug and alcohol problems, had violent relationships, did sex work & street hustling, dabbled in all sorts of dodgy and dangerous activities, and were school dropouts as well as atheists and religious apostates seems classist, insensitive to and disdainful of the reality of these mostly black young men's lives, and both religiously conservative and, well, transphobic.

When raising understandable objections to US police violence, high rates of incarceration especially for minorities and the racist prison industrial complex, trans lobby organizations like to play up the fact one of every two American black TIMs have served time behind bars - by some, estimates 67% of black TIMs have. But when some of these males end up dying of violence like so many American males of their age, race, locale, socioeconomic status and background do at such high rates, we're supposed to believe they're all choir boys.

https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/TransgenderPeopleBehindBars.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5441521/

[–]MarkTwainiac 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The HRC's - and mainstream media's - reporting on the death of Tony McDade, a TIF, is similarly disingenuous as in the other cases I cited. On its website, HRC says only this:

Tony McDade, a Black transgender man, was killed in Tallhassee, Florida, on May 27. His friends and family shared how he was an energetic, giving person with a big heart.

What the HRC and most of the press reports leave out is that McDade, a convicted felon with history of violence (assault, domestic battery, gun theft and illegal possession, and armed robbery) who unfortunately suffered from major mental health problems (bipolar and schizophrenia), was killed by police after McDade stabbed to death 21-year-old Malik Jackson.

Malik Jackson was the son of Jennifer Jackson, who years ago had been romantically involved with McDade before McDade went trans. Jackson's family says McDade had been stalking and menacing Jennifer since McDade was released from prison after 10 years in January.

The day before McDade killed Malik Jackson and McDade was killed by police, McDade is reported to have broken into Jennifer Jackson's home after two days of sending her text messages professing to love her and threatening to kill her and others (including McDade's own mother and self). Malik Jackson, reportedly in the driveway at the time, then apparently joined with four other guys and beat up McDade.

Exactly what happened isn't clear. Jennifer Jackson's sister, Abigail spoke to WFSU and gave a confusing report that the station didn't do much to clear up when they recounted it. Excerpts:

“I will kill for you and you. You said you’d never leave…," Abigail Jackson is reading from text messages sent by Tony McDade to her sister, Jennifer.

Jennifer is the mother of Malik Jackson, the 21-year-old McDade stabbed and killed immediately before being shot to death by police.

"Malik was a special kid," says Abigail. "Malik loved to fish, dance, listen to music. He worked day in, and day out. He was just a good kid."

A common narrative has been that McDade was killed because of his gender identity. There’s been little mention of the fact he killed Malik before being shot and killed by police and some argue, it's not relevant.

While activists call for justice for McDade, Abigail wants justice for Malik. She believes those arguments dismiss what she feels was the real cause of McDade's and Malik's death.

Several videos taken a day prior to McDade and Malik's death, show McDade getting beat up by a group of men. Activists have pointed to that as an example of violence against transgender people. Yet Jackson says the video alone doesn't tell the full story.

In the days before Malik Jackson and McDade were killed, Abigail said Tony had even threatened to kill his own mother and presented text messages from McDade where he states that. Police were called the night of the fight. Jackson says she told them McDade was armed, and had made threats to kill. She says police went to McDade’s door and knocked, but no one answered.

“At that time they told us, if she comes back call us. And I told them, who would wait around for a crazy B—— with a knife and a gun…?”

After a while, officers left. In January, McDade was released after serving a 10-year prison sentence. Weeks before the killing, he’d had another run-in with police when they were called to a Circle-K in response to McDade allegedly threatening someone with a fake gun that looked real. Jackson questions why McDade was allowed to stay out of jail after both incidents.

“I just feel like they didn’t take the situation serious(ly) With her being a convicted felon, and having a knife and a gun, and because she’s a convicted felon she has no businesses with a knife and a gun.”

https://news.wfsu.org/wfsu-local-news/2020-07-03/malik-jacksons-life-mattered-too-family-tells-its-side-in-tony-mcdade-shooting