Category: Hate

Conversations Of A Sistah, Hate, Hate crime, Host Conversations Of A Sistah, Texas, Tracy L. Bell, Tracy L. Bell - Blog Talk Radio

Remembering James Byrd Jr., Tonight on “Conversations Of A Sistah”

The ReadyWriter

byrd_sq-5a2fdac340a6984ea1924eb60a481ae382bbe80d-s6-c30James Byrd Jr. (pictured here), was murdered in Jasper, Texas on June 7, 1998. He was severely beaten, chained to the back of a pickup truck, then dragged three miles along an asphalt road.  Byrd, who remained conscious throughout most of the ordeal, was killed when his body hit the edge of a culvert, severing his right arm and head. Byrd’s murder is considered one of the worst hate crimes since the civil rights era of the sixties.

Chains Used to drag Byrd
Outline of Byrd’s Torso
Where Byrd’s head was found
James Byrd’s Grave

Byrd, 49, on a walk home from his parents home in Jasper, accepted a ride from Shawn Berry (age 24), Lawrence Russell Brewer (age 31) and John King (age 23). Berry, who was driving, was acquainted with Byrd from around town. Instead of taking Byrd home, the three men took Byrd to a remote county road out of town, beat him severely, urinated on him and chained him by his ankles to their pickup truck before dragging him for approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km). The men then dumped Byrd’s mutilated remains in front of an African-American church cemetery.

Joyce_KingJoin me tonight at 6:30 p.m. EST on “Conversations Of A Sistah” via Blog Talk Radio, as I sit down with my special guest, Joyce King, Author of HATE CRIME: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas.

The critically-acclaimed book landed King on CNN, BET, NPR, USA Radio, Book TV, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

All “Conversation links” in this post make it possible to access the show.

See you on the air but in the meantime, sound off here!

Crime, Hate, Law and order, Murder, News, Violence

Man who dismembered his mother and scattered her body parts throughout the Bronx took photos holding her decapitated head

The ReadyWriter

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A man who dismembered his mother and scattered her body parts around the Bronx, took pictures of himself holding her severed head before disposing of her body, the NY Post reports.

Bahsid McLean, 23, confessed to the gruesome murder of his own mother, Tanya Byrd, who was the only caretaker of her 6-year-old Down syndrome son.

Police say the grinning psycho used a power saw to cut up his mother, then posed with parts of her body in grisly photos that he wanted as keepsakes. McLean and a friend, William Harris, 26, then stuffed Byrd’s body into several black garbage bags and a suitcase. They drove around the Bronx dumping Byrd’s remains like trash.

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“He’s definitely sick,” a law enforcement source told the NY Post. Surveillance video from a hardware store shows McLean and his accomplice purchasing a brand new power saw and a refill blade with cash.

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The saw and the blade were later found in a  box in the home McLean shared with his mother and 6-year-old mentally disabled brother.

Friends described Byrd as a loving mother and caretaker to her Down syndrome son.

Police told the Post McLean killed his mother because she “wanted him to grow up and move out and be a man.”

Crime, Hate, Homicide, Marco McMillian, Politics, Tragedy, Violence

Mississippi town stunned by murder of openly gay mayoral candidate Marco McMillian

The ReadyWriter

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Marco McMillian was considered by many to be a man on the rise. The first openly gay mayoral candidate’s body was found near a Mississippi River levee Wednesday morning and stunned residents of his hometown in Clarksdale, Miss.  Authorities are investigating McMillian’s death as a homicide but declined to speculate on the cause of death. Authorities have also said a person of interest was in custody, but released no other details about his murder.

McMillian was a highly respected person in town, the 34-year-old Democrat wasn’t running what many would consider a typical campaign for political office in Mississippi, which is known for its conservative politics.

McMillian, was not only nice looking but he was promising. He had forged ties while serving four years as international executive director of the historically black Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Photos on McMillian’s website and Facebook page show him with a younger Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and with U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat.

Authorities had been looking for McMillian since Tuesday morning when a man crashed the candidate’s SUV into another vehicle on U.S. Highway 49. McMillian was not in the car.

McMillian was hoping to win the office being vacated by Mayor Henry Espy Jr.
Gossip, Hate, News, Performance, Sports

This girl ‘WON’ the gold and Twitterers are focusing on her hair?

The ReadyWriter

People are truly a trip!

The latest conversation tearing up the Twitterverse is the talk about Gabby Douglas’ hair.  Some women are taking issue with the fact that, Gabby is sporting a pony tail, pins and gel needed to hold her hair together during stressful performances. Some women think the girl’s hair look a mess! So is she suppose to have a full set of hard pressed curls while she’s jumping and running as real gymnast do?

Douglas has set the world on fire, and broken records in the process., yet she is supposed to be concerned about her hair? When it’s going to sweat out during olympic activities anyway. I doubt Gabby Douglas is concerned about styling and profiling while her eyes are clearly set on the prize.

This sad and pathetic focus on style over substance certainly defines the weak, superficial value systems that have been adopted by too many of us today.  The girl with the cute hair and Gucci shoes often thinks that she’s better off than the little girl who knows how to work hard to make something out of herself.

Gabby Douglas is an American hero and she’s every bit as beautiful as the little girl who missed gymnastics class or exercise last Saturday because she spent the entire day at the salon “getting her hair done.” Beauty is more than scalp deep, and our kids need to understand this message clearly.

These conversations are sad, weak and petty! Grow up people, she WON the gold so who gives a damn about her hair!!

Crime, Hate, Law and order, Lesbian, Murder, News, Relationships, Tragedy, Violence

Lesbian couple suffocates, torture, murder; and bury victim alive…

The ReadyWriter

This story is sad, tragic and horrific!

Ashley Barber, left and Jade Olmstead (pictured here), lured one of the women’s former lovers into the woods, beat her, strangled her, and finally buried her alive in a shallow grave as she took her last breaths.

Their victim, Olmstead’s 20-year-old ex girlfriend, Brandy Stevens, suffocated on the dirt, that these two heifers shoveled into the grave they’d dug in advance of the horrific crime, autopsy results showed.

This is what the pair confessed to state police Trooper Eric Mallory:

On May 17, the two women told police, Olmstead convinced Stevens to come see a fort she was building in the woods outside their home near Cochranton.

Barber, Olmstead’s new girlfriend, was lying in wait at the scene. They savagely beat Stevens, stuffing a cap into her mouth because “they were freaking out from her screams”.

Barber strangled Stevens with a rope as Olmstead continued to bludgeon her, and head-butted her so hard that she bruised her own forehead.

Olmstead and Barber then rolled Stevens into the makeshift grave. When they saw that she was still breathing, they slammed a rock into her face and poured water into her nose and mouth before piling on the dirt that eventually killed her.

Pennsylvania prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty for this murdering pair according to the Erie Times-News reported.