The Sable Verity

July 15, 2008

Originally posted July 14, 2008

Take a close look at these faces

There is a simple question many in Seattle want to know the answer; which of these girls are witnesses, and which of them are accomplices in the death of James Paroline of Rainier Beach, Seattle WA?

If you’re new to this story, this is what you need to know:

At about 7:45 p.m. last Wednesday, Paroline was watering the little garden he had planted on the traffic circle at 61st Avenue South and South Cooper Street. He ran a garden hose from his house at the corner to the traffic circle — one of roughly 700 that city transportation officials estimate have gardens on them.

Paroline put a traffic cone in the right lane to keep drivers from driving over the hose.

Several young women and girls in cars told Paroline to move the cones so they could pass. He refused, and the girls eventually got out of their cars, a police report said. The confrontation escalated, and the girls later alleged Paroline squirted them with water from the hose, according to court documents.

A video shot by a neighbor doesn’t show the alleged spraying, and it appears to show Paroline ignoring the girls, according to a police report. The girls can be heard yelling that he squirted them with water and that he assaulted one of them, according to court documents. The girls circled Paroline continuing to scream before they eventually walked away.

A few moments later, police say that Brian Brown — dressed in a do-rag, gray tank top and blue jeans — arrived in a silver Buick.

“He walked up to Paroline, paused as though he may have been saying something, then suddenly sucker-punched Paroline hard in the jaw or face,” court documents allege.

The 60-year-old’s hands were at his side when he was struck, and he fell backward, possibly being knocked unconscious when his head hit the street with a loud pop, police say.

This picture has purposely been altered out of respect for the victim

That is Paroline, near death just moments after being attacked, his skull caved in for all to see.

One of the girls was quoted in the paper:

“You already have the story, but you have it wrong,” said Ebonie Shephard, a 22-year-old interviewed at the scene on Monday. “I have a lawyer. I’m not going to talk to you or anybody about this.”

I wonder if she was aware at the time of her smart ass comments that someone had captured the entire incident on tape; which was clearly what police and prosecutors used to decide if he would be charged, and with what (2nd degree murder, as it stands).

The girls, a few a which are pictured above, are named in the King County documents as Ebonie Shephard, Patrina Hicks, Shawanda Meneese, Tawnetta Wyrick, Asanti Brown, and Prissa Martindale.

We know that three of the girls were involved in taunting Paroline and then calling Brown to come and do something to him, and the other three are “witnesses” .  We do not know which is which, but many want to.

On one of the girl’s myspace page, it reads “”People change, things go wrong, stuff happens life goes on”.

On yet another, is this colorful message:

Hi my name is Ebonie. I am a coo ass person very laid back and love to hang out and do fun stuff and be around alot people I hate fake ass people can't even do it. I am so past that part of my life i am on my grown women. I just like to have fun i get along with mostly everyone i meet and as long as you dont piss me off it will be all good so if you can obey my wishes then holla at me when can kick it sometimes.

Based on the last login dates, it seems the girls are going on about their lives not having a care in the world.

One of the pages was listed as private, but I was struck at the fact that the 15 year old girl it belonged to lists herself as “Miss Hottie.”  Talk about lack of self worth.  Where are her parents?

As it stands, police are stilling looking for this man, Brian Brown:

 Lastly, and simply a pet peeve of mine: It would be great if someone could remind the Department of Licensing, from which this photo originated, that one is not allowed, legally, to have anything on their head for their driver’s license photo, unless it is of religious affiliation.  The doo-rag, no matter what some brotha’s might claim, is not now, never has been and damn sure never will be a religious item.

Update July 15, 2008:  Prosecutors have charged none of the females involved in this situation? 

Will they, or did they agree not to in exchange for their testimony.  While that is possible, I don’t find it likely or necessary; too many people saw what happened to Paroline, hell, yesterday we found out the entire altercation and subsiquent attack were caught on video, so they have Brown dead to rights…while they were able to get the identity of the suspect out of the girls a day later, they really didn’t need anything from them.  A few days of waiting it out and watching their cell phone activity would have led to Brian Keith Brown, the suspect charged with 2nd degree murder.

But what about these girls.  Fine, three were witnesses.  But what about the other three?  Those that got out of their car to taunt Paroline and throw water on him, doing their best to intimidate him because of the cones he had placed in the street.  What abou t the one who called Brown (or called their sister to call Brown) to the scene to ‘handle it’.

Did they think Brian Brown was going to mediate the dispute using his brilliant oral skills?

No.

They called Brian Brown to the scene because they wanted to see him punch the life out of this man, which is exactly what Mr. Brown did.  Paroline hit the ground so hard, the loud pop (of his skull caving) described below could be heard halfway down the block from the traffic circle garden.

There is much more than a moral responsibility here, there is a legal, criminal one. 

When you have messages on myspace that say, basically, do as I say or suffer the consiquences, don’t piss me off and you won’t get fucked up…when that is your “about me” message, sister girl you have real issues with yourself.  It has nothing to do with what other people do, it has to do with what you do. 

And for this same young woman, Ebonie Shephard, to claim that we don’t know what really happened…there was a video camera not thirty feet away, dear, so shut the hell up with all of that.  Forgive me, but no one is inclined to give you or your friends the benefit of the doubt on this, no one. 

This is the real mean of menace to society.  Get the “Natural Born Killers” image out of your head.  To taunt and intimidate an older adult, throw water on him outside of his house…

Truly, for the life of me, to the neighbors and the girls, what the hell is the big deal?!  Some cones up to protect a hose.  I can’t understand why anyone wanted to get snotty about it or call the police; when people block one side of the road with a moving van and put up cones, who is calling the police if you can still safely get down the street?  No one.  Could the street be safely traveled down in this case?  Yeah.  Go the othe way.  Big deal.

They went after this man in his immediate neighborhood, and then called someone to come reinforce their attempts to intimidate the man.

Intimidation, assault, planning or soliciting assault, intent to do bodily harm, those are all things that point to a crime.

They should be charged.  Then let “a jury of your peers” decide what should be done.

A copy of the charging papers can be found at:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2008/07/14/2008051243.pdf

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/370721_circle15.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008051182_webtrafficcircle14m.html

 http://sableverity.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/seattle-murder-leaves-us-all-shocked/

http://sableverity.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/breaking-suspect-idd-in-shocking-seattle-garden-murder/

Originally posted July 12 2008:   It is an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu; seven years ago I sat down in the middle of the night at my aging PC, to write about a police shooting I had witnessed in my neighborhood, Rainier Beach.  At the time I was just weeks away from delivering my youngest child, and the violence I had seen that day forever changed me.  I wrote the first words that came to mind:

It is a rare thing to know you are seeing a man living out his last moments.

The man shot and killed by police, a youngish looking Black man, had just minutes before, brutally attacked a group of people while high on drugs; including children.  I still remember vividly the image of a police officer carrying a child from the duplex, her dark brown legs dangling limply over his arms.  It was heart breaking.

I also wrote about the reaction of by-standers at the time.  I happened to be walking home from the library, but many others, who were passing by in their cars, pulled over and got out, watching the events unfold.  I said then:

Things became quiet as the calm arrived before the storm. I stood and watched my people, my brothers and sisters who were responding to the crowd as a time for bonding. I was shocked to see those who were watching the same thing we were, take time to talk about hair, babies, upcoming events and social gatherings, recent deaths and births, divorces and marriages. My husband and I stood in a sea of faces, none of whom we knew, but all felt like family — the aunt who knows everyone’s business, the cousin you never see, and too many of our beautiful babies, all standing around, connecting.

I felt the need to point this out at the time because I was struck and disturbed by how un-effected people seemed to be by what was happening just a few hundred feet away, and how some had claimed the police shot the man “in cold blood”, even after he ran out, shooting at police for all to see.

Fast forward, and here I sit.  I still do all my grocery shopping in Rainier Beach…still use the cleaners too.  But I no longer live in Rainier Beach.  I’ve graduated to a handy lap-top, and my youngest child has since passed away.  Many things have changed in seven years.

But some things have stayed the same.  Senseless violence and death in Rainer Beach seems to be one of them.

I was shocked and sickened yesterday when, in one of my many trips to both daily papers online, I heard about the senseless assault of James Paroline, an RB resident who was attacked while tending to the garden in the traffic circle by his home.  Paroline had set up traffic cones to prevent drivers from running over his hose; this act led to a few altercations, and culminated in him being punched in the face by a twenty-something Black male; Paroline hit the concrete so hard, his scull was crushed- an image that the Seattle PI displayed for all, and which led me back to my computer with these words again in my head:

It is a rare thing to know you are seeing a man living out his last moments.

 

This photo has been purposely altered to dim the image, out of respect for the memory of the victim

That image of Mr. Paroline, lying helpless in the middle of the street, assaulted my senses, nearly making me ill.  The blood.  The caved-in skull.  The limpness of his body.  There was a man living his last moments.  Taking his last free breaths, and for what?  A few traffic cones in the street?  I have seen a lot in my life.  But this…

I am aware that there are some reports that Paroline was a difficult neighbor, while others say the man simply cared about where he lived, and tried to do his part in many ways, one of which was the traffic garden.  Difficult neighbor or not, he didn’t deserve to be punched in the face by a complete stranger.  He didn’t deserve to die just hours later at Harborview Hospital.

I find myself focused on the same issue that I was seven years ago; we as a people, and as a community have a problem.  Seven years ago, a few accused me of portraying Black people as uncaring and flippant, even indignant at what they saw that day.

I suppose I may be accused of those same things today, but a man has lost his life, and another, when caught, will spend most of the rest of his in prison, and for what?  For what?  We should all demand to know the answer to that.  It had nothing to do with traffic cones in the street.

Rainier Beach is a beautiful place.  There are families that have lived there for generations who embody the true essence of community. There are plenty of young adults who live there, that care about it, that are neighborly, that don’t get into trouble.

But then of course, there are many who do not.  They have no respect for themselves or anyone else, and not enough is provided to keep them on track; there can be no solutions to a problem if the problem is left undefined.  If we don’t like it, then what are we prepared to do about it, and when are we going to do it?  I can’t keep track of the number of homicides involving Black youth over the past nine months in the south end and in south east Seattle.  How many more makeshift memorials are we going to have to lay flowers at?

My perception of RB can’t be pawned off on the media’s often disproportionate reporting; I lived in Rainer Beach.  I spent years listening to gun fire all night, waking in the morning to hear accounts from neighbors, watched the fights in the street between young Black men and young Black women, endured the teen-agers and twenty-something’s pushing everyone else out from under the metro bus shelter in order to carry out a quick drug deal, or smoke some marijuana with friends, the police on the other side of the block, or not around at all.  I remember all to well my seven year old coming in crying, because another seven year old threatened to shoot her, because she wouldn’t give him her toy; he told her he was going to get the gun in his house and ran off.  She remained petrified after that.  I passed by the funeral home on Rainier and Henderson, in the heart of “the Beach” every day on my way to work and saw the Black mothers crying for their dead children, while in a jai cell, another young Black man sat awaiting his fate.

The decision to leave Rainier Beach was made solely because of the visible dominating culture; I wanted to get out before it began having a negative impact on my children.  For all of those children you see in RB “hanging out”, there are dozens more whose parents are keeping them in the house, and this is exactly why.  Because someone can walk up to you, who feels they have the right to assault you, or take your life, and do just that.  Rainier Beach has its bullies; anyone who has ever lived there knows that.

The sidewalks have been improved.  A new school is being built.  Spiffy new housing units have gone up, a stone’s throw from light rail, but some things have remained the same.

Another person is dead, and another, will likely be on his way to prison for killing him, unless of course he is justifiably shot by the police first. 

****

I want everyone to know that the photo used in this article, was not used lightly.  When I first happened upon it while checking the local news, it had a profoundly painful impact on me.  I sent an email to the newspaper, asking them to post a warning to readers, so that they could make an informed decision about whether or not they wanted to see it, and I received a gracious reply.  When I first saw the photo, one of my many instincts, was to make a copy, because I knew that it wouldn’t be up for long, because of how graphic it is.  I know that if I saw the need to send a note to the paper, thousands of others did as well; not long after it first went up, it was gone, replaced by a blood stained sidewalk in stead.

I took time to think about whether or not I was going to use it or not, but as you can see, ultimately I decided it’s inclusion was important, vital even. 

Peace,

Sable Verity

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/370578_rainierbeach12.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/370576_robert12xx.html

A lone Oklahoma U.S. senator has finally dropped his inexplicable opposition to a congressional bill that would created a U.S. Justice Department “cold case unit” to investigate unsolved civil rights crimes.

With White House support, the U.S. House voted 422 to 2 in support in the proposed “Emmett Till Cold Case Bill” - named after the 15-year-old African-American youth from Chicago who was murdered in Money, Miss., in 1955 for whistling at a white woman.

The legislation would authorize $10 million per year over the next 10 years for the Justice Department to revive its crack cold-case unit to prosecute pre-1970 civil rights murders. Read more »

May 2, 2008

Austrian investigators are examining a police file on “house of horrors” father Josef Fritzl for a rape in the city of Linz dating back to 1967.

The file has been handed to prosecutors in St Poelten, a local paper, Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten (OOeN), reported on Friday.

Normally it would be locked away for 50 years under Austrian law.

Mr Fritzl, 73, is being questioned by police over his 24-year imprisonment and rape of his daughter in a cellar.

 May 1, 2008

Elisabeth Fritzl before she was taken into the basement by her father, where she would stay for 24 years.

• Story Highlights
• NEW: Former tenant says he saw Fritzl’s son enter basement
• NEW: Noises from basement explained away as a heater in a boiler room
• Incest dad spent entire days and nights in cellar, sister-in-law tells newspaper
• Josef Fritzl kept daughter imprisoned for 24 years; fathered her seven children

A man who previously rented an apartment from a now-73-year-old man accused of holding his daughter captive in his cellar for 24 years told CNN Thursday he saw the man’s son enter the off-limits basement.

Alfred Dubanowsky said he rented a ground-floor apartment at Josef Fritzl’s home from 1995 through 2007. He said there was a verbal agreement between Fritzl and the house’s tenants that they were not to enter the cellar or the garden or photograph the premises or they would be kicked out. Read more »

From the NY Times: