Cleveland transgender woman brutally murdered

[Guest LizMarie]

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/04/brutal_slaying_marks_the_end_o.html

The article also misidentifies her as him, consistently uses incorrect pronouns, and tries to make it appear that being in possession of HRT drugs is a "crime" without explicitly stating that. This demonstrates that both the Cleveland police department and the newspapers involved are about as backwards as they can be in dealing with transgender persons. But having grown up in eastern Ohio, this does not surprise me.

[Carolyn Marie]

That is a horrible crime, LizMarie, and I agree that the article shows a total lack of understanding and a degree of bigotry I rarely see outside of Fox News. I really don't understand about the prosecution for possession of "dangerous drugs." There is either more to that story than meets the eye, or the reporter got some facts wrong. HRT drugs are not controlled substances in any jurisdiction I'm aware of. Nevertheless, the paper's citation of every minor crime she was charged with or convicted of goes to their desire to smear the victim as someone not deserving of respect or dignity.

May she have more peace in death than she apparently had in life. Thanks for posting the story, hon.

Carolyn Marie

[Guest Bellexia]

The comments in that article are so full of stupid I had to stand back and close it.

[Guest KimberlyF]

The article says drugs AND hormones.

They were charged w/dangerous drug possession in the past.

http://m.19actionnews.com/autojuice?targetUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.19actionnews.com%2fstory%2f22106038%2fman-found-in-olmsted-township-pond-has-criminal-history

[Carolyn Marie]

The article says drugs AND hormones.

Not to belabor the point, Kim, but this is the passage in the original article I was referring to:

"A month later, in January 2012, he pleaded no contest, and a judge found him guilty of possession of dangerous drugs involving the hormones."

It does appear that the writer got his facts confused. I wonder if it is standard editorial policy there to list the criminal history of all homicide victims, or just the ones they don't like.

Carolyn Marie

[Guest Wendy F]

Wow, that article is sickening...

[Guest KimberlyF]

What bothers me is not shoddy reporting. I don't like bringing up a victim's past. It's a lot like what was the woman wearing when she was raped?

But the real anger should be directed at the murderer.

I'm guessing the drug arrest is a combo of things. This is speculation. LP preaches no self-medding. I know there are certain drugs in the andro-blocker arena that are not legal in the US by our FDA. If they were somehow to make it here, I can see someone getting busted for drugs and hormones.

[Guest LizMarie]

My anger is directed at the murderer but the murder occurred a month and a half ago. The longer it goes unsolved, the less likely it is to be solved. And it seems trans murders go unsolved an awful lot of the time. I can't do anything about the murderer, Kimberly, but I can do something about the Cleveland journalists and police involved and I will.

Carolyn, yes, the journalist involved wrote this article in a "she was asking for it" tone.

[Guest Deanna]

Her having hormones or drugs. Has nothing to do with her being murdered. There was no respect given to this girl by the police or the media.

using the wrong pronouns is just there way of digging a little deeper. Shame on all of them. This reporter has a chance to do some good in.

[Guest KimberlyF]

So now, hypothetically, if the family reported that their feminine gay son was reported missing, what pronoun should be used?

[Guest Angel Heart]

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/04/brutal_slaying_marks_the_end_o.html

The article also misidentifies her as him, consistently uses incorrect pronouns, and tries to make it appear that being in possession of HRT drugs is a "crime" without explicitly stating that. This demonstrates that both the Cleveland police department and the newspapers involved are about as backwards as they can be in dealing with transgender persons. But having grown up in eastern Ohio, this does not surprise me.

makes me sick

[Guest Sarah Faith]

News like this is always awful and difficult for me to read, but the general lack of respect for the victim makes it so much worse.. There are a lot more supportive comments for the victim though then I expected.

[Guest sophia.gentry58]

We really shouldn't be surpised at the shoddy work of Cleveland.com. These days you're more apt to find drive-by reporters (reporters who "are like drive-by shooters except the microphones are the guns, and they drive into groups of people they report a bunch of totally wrong libelous stuff about people. they create a giant mess ...") than actual journalists. I think it is obvious to anyone who will be intellectually honest that there was a definite attempt to smear this young girl for and anyone to say otherwise is just plain wrong. You hardly have to read between the lines to see that this artictle stinks to high heaven. While I understand Kimberly's point about the girl's parents possibly addressing their child as a feminine gay son, but I think that is really beside the point when you take into consideration what the AP's policy is on the use of pronouns, i.e. "The style, as many have noted, is to follow the preference of the person". I admit they attempted to speak out of both side of their mouths by making light of the fact this young lady sometimes presented as male, yet the evidence presented in the article belies that statement. She was forced to state her biological sex when pressed upon or risk greater trouble. No where that I can recall does the article mention that this young lady was ever seen, stopped, or talked to while dressed in male persona. What it did say was that she was a person "who sometimes self-identified as a transgender woman. How did they know that since they could not reach her family for comment.

Albeit, we may still have to deal with people like this (drive-by) reporter, Cleveland.com, and the Ohio, PD folkes, still; it was encouraging to see that there were more positive comments in favor of support of the young lady murdered than there was for those advocating bigotry and ignorance.

Once last thought; when you see articles written like the one on Ms Acoff, what is your immediate reaction. If you are not sensitive to besmirching kinds of writing and reporting you are likely to have the iimmediate reaction that this was a bad person and somehow deserved her death. I submit to you that if she had been drugged out on crack cocaine and running up and down the street butt naked attempting to sell herself to every passerby coming along, she still would not have deserve death unless someone was protecting themselves because she threatened their life. The evidence thus far doesn't support that latter scenario. The whole purpose in writing such a article and many articles like it is to demean and cheapen the person and if you cheapen the person you are less likelly to want to get involved. Who do you think of those living in the area of the murder having been hoodwinked by that shoddy article will spend one second considering clues that might lead to the capture of the culprit; not many, if any.

Sophia

[Guest KimberlyF]

Cleveland.com is not the AP. One thing we can all agree on is there is never an excuse to be murdered and a whole lot of the info shouldn't have been in the piece.

I think reporters love crimes that seem sexualized. It seems to draw people in.

The AP's rules-"use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth. If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly"

This person is dead. Nobody can ask them. What do we know about their life? If they went out on weekends wearing female clothes are they a she? Did they have a job? How did they work?

To use a fav example of mine because we have someone who is a gay male, Ru Paul is called 'he' by the AP.

What I do is instead of assuming the worst is to look for different sources and also do a little research.

I found out that a few media sources aside from the one in the OP called this person 'he'. The media source in the OP has also covered numerous TG stories over the years including a few murder stories. I couldn't find another case of anyone being misgendered. So this does not seem to be a company decision. It seems to have either been a mistake or maybe there is something different about the case. Honestly I don't have a clue, but I was raised innocent until proven guilty is a decent philosophical position.

[Guest Jenn348]

I'm curious about the whole "drug possession" charge. I would suppose that if she didn't have a Rx for them, that would be the basis for the conviction, but if she did have the Rx, then there's a serious problem with Ohio courts.

[Guest Seanna]

It sounds to me like most of her "charges" were for sticking up for herself when harassed on the bus.

[Guest KimberlyF]

This has taken all kinds of normal turns with the anger and finger pointing.

What I've been able to piece together is the cops had a press conference at 1PM on Monday. Later that evening is when the media started to release the story.

Many picked up the national AP version where the victim was called 'he'. AP didn't follow the AP guidelines. Or maybe they had interviewed the few family members who had come forward and called the victim 'he'.

The AP version came out at least an hour prior to the one posted in the OP.

GLAAD came out against the local media for not following the AP guidelines, but forgot to mention the AP not following the guidelines. Don't read into GLAADs past relationship with AP. And they were critical of the blame the victim reporting these places did. The priors of the victim had no place in the report!!!!

A major gay media outlet also stepped in and did a report. The media screwed up again! Including the local Fox. Admittedly this person went by Carl Acoff, Jr. But they were female. They then ended the article by listing the victim's priors. GLAAD did not take the gay media source to task with the other groups for doing this.

GLAAD could have also pointed out to the gay media source that other sources had found out that this person went by Cemia Ci Ci Dove.

So who takes the high road here? In the meantime imagine all this energy directed towards finding a killer?

[Guest sophia.gentry58]

Cleveland.com is not the AP. One thing we can all agree on is there is never an excuse to be murdered and a whole lot of the info shouldn't have been in the piece.

I think reporters love crimes that seem sexualized. It seems to draw people in.

The AP's rules-"use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth. If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly"

This person is dead. Nobody can ask them. What do we know about their life? If they went out on weekends wearing female clothes are they a she? Did they have a job? How did they work?

To use a fav example of mine because we have someone who is a gay male, Ru Paul is called 'he' by the AP.

What I do is instead of assuming the worst is to look for different sources and also do a little research.

I found out that a few media sources aside from the one in the OP called this person 'he'. The media source in the OP has also covered numerous TG stories over the years including a few murder stories. I couldn't find another case of anyone being misgendered. So this does not seem to be a company decision. It seems to have either been a mistake or maybe there is something different about the case. Honestly I don't have a clue, but I was raised innocent until proven guilty is a decent philosophical position.

Of course, you are right; whomever it was that raised you to believe that a person is innocence until proven guilty gave you a good philosophy by which to live. Along with that philosophical belief I also was raised to be aware of the fruit that one bares. Historically, the media has been used to castigate and dehumanize whole groups of people for no other reason than that they were different. When an organization like the media reports on various issues the bar should be set high for them. One, because they have a history of abusing their power to shape opinions to suit their own hidden agenda and some not so hidden. Two, they above almost all else have been entrusted by the constitution of the US to have the freedom to promulgate the events of the day. In your research Kimberly do a little historical research on how various people at various times here in America were treated by the press in order that the press might gen up bigotry and hatred aganist those who were different; andI am not just talking about people who looked like me, but history bears it out that many other groups of folkes have been maligned by the press for no other reason than for who they were, hello women, hello Asians, hello Itallians, hello Polish, hello Catholic, hello Jews, ad nauseam.

When it comes to a trial by court and a jury of one's peers, certainly we should hold undauntedly to the primise that one is presumed innocence until proven guilty by a court of law. However, we can find ourselves sometimes hiding behind that concept when we really need to call folkes to task when they do things that lend itself to further perpetuating a narrow-minded and bigoted mentality. The media in my opinion does not deserve to get a pass, but the only reason it continues to write stories without any journalistic integrity is because we allow them. If we don't learn to "call them on it" every time we think they have crossed the line, they will continue unabated.

Sophia

[Guest KimberlyF]

Of course, you are right; whomever it was that raised you to believe that a person is innocence until proven guilty gave you a good philosophy by which to live. Along with that philosophical belief I also was raised to be aware of the fruit that one bares. Historically, the media has been used to castigate and dehumanize whole groups of people for no other reason than that they were different. When an organization like the media reports on various issues the bar should be set high for them. One, because they have a history of abusing their power to shape opinions to suit their own hidden agenda and some not so hidden. Two, they above almost all else have been entrusted by the constitution of the US to have the freedom to promulgate the events of the day. In your research Kimberly do a little historical research on how various people at various times here in America were treated by the press in order that the press might gen up bigotry and hatred aganist those who were different; andI am not just talking about people who looked like me, but history bears it out that many other groups of folkes have been maligned by the press for no other reason than for who they were, hello women, hello Asians, hello Itallians, hello Polish, hello Catholic, hello Jews, ad nauseam.

I am aware of this. I haven't lived in a bubble. I have arguments with my dad because of jokes about my wife's ethnicity which are mirrored in the media, which of course trickles down to my kids and his grandkids.

We can live with a half-empty or half-full attitude. It is healthier to live thinking more positive about those around you. If one wants to always expect the worst, that is their business. And their health.

As I've said I looked into the source in the OP. They do not have a history of misgendering people. They have a lot of positive coverage in the past on transgender issues. One positive about the net is their history is all there. I don't choose to believe this is a grand conspiracy. Just like I don't choose to believe CNN has an issue w/bombing victims based on their inaccurate coverage of the events in Boston.

I think it's more indicative of people wanting to sell their product and very little concern about fact checking these days. Get it out first and correct it later.

[Guest LizMarie]

In case there was any doubt, Cemia "CiCi" Dove only used her male name when forced to for legal reasons.

People who knew her point this out. That assumption that somehow it's an accident, unintentional, and that "we can't know" whether she was TG or not is hereby disproven because we can know the truth. Those who knew her have spoken up.

And now that this is established, can we finally admit that maybe the reporting done here was transphobic in the extreme?

[Guest LizMarie]

If you've been following the news, there are now calls for a state level investigation into the Cleveland Police Department, related to this killing, plus the fact that 3 women recently escaped after being held for 10 years at a home where neighbors made numerous reports to police but police failed to act.

It's beginning to sound like something is very wrong inside the Cleveland Police Department, not just related to trans persons but in general. I won't provide links since this is not directly trans related but the stories can be easily found on Google related to the kidnapping and 10 year plus detentions of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. They've also testified there was a fourth woman who simply vanished one day so there may be murder in that case as well. All of these women vanished from the same general area and one of them knew the father of one of his victims. It's an ugly story and it gets uglier as the details of police failures become apparent.

[Guest KimberlyF]

So what does the Cleveland PD have to do with this topic, and who is making calls for a state level investigation?

[Guest Jenni_S]

I find it rather astounding that amidst all the kerfuffle about how transphobic the newspaper was, or the police department is, or is not, no one has yet mentioned that on May 4, an arrest was made in connection to this case. So is this really about the victim of the crime, the "person brutally murdered" in the subject of this topic, and justice being done? Or something else? Just curious.

[Carolyn Marie]

Here is the first article I've seen (and I check every day) about the arrest and indictment of the murder suspect in this case.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/oh_cuyahoga/suspect-in-death-of-cleveland-transgender-woman-cemia-dove-indicted-for-murder-kidnapping

Carolyn Marie

[Guest LizMarie]

I'm very glad they are making progress on this!