“It is like she never existed. I don’t live in North Minneapolis but I still care about the area. I want to know where the outcry is. This is very scary to me as a society no one cares. I Googled her name and nothing new comes up. It is really awful.”
…Comment from M. Cullen, sent to the Independent Business News Network
Again, Minneapolis/St. Paul residents of color, we have been “bamboozled, befuddled and bumped!” The self-appointed Black leaders have sold us out again for what we call, “chicken feed.” With no public outcry, the following incidents do not get the proper attention:
To refresh your memory, Annshalike Hamilton was the 15-year-old girl, 7 months pregnant, whose frozen body, found nude in a garage at 2222 4th St. N., killed by blunt force injury. North Minneapolis media outlets refuse to mention her name or even further cover this story. Local Black clergy have remained very quiet about the young woman’s death. Virtually no outcry from the community, Annshalike has become a distant memory with her death just added to the list of heinous incidents in North Minneapolis that get dumped in the “quiet zone.”
But we do have to stop and give credit to MADDADS director V.J. Smith and Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, who on one of the coldest days of the year held a gathering of community people on the street where Ms. Hamilton’s body was found. Other than these actions of integrity, caring and demanding justice no other group has moved forward in the ongoing investigation of the young girl’s death. “What’s up with North Minneapolis social service, advocacy, public policy groups?”
In more breaking news, Two weeks ago, Gregory Washington sang in the KARE 11 studio, promoting his new CD. Tuesday, the well known Twin Cities musician and gospel singer, who is 32 years old, is charged with statutory rape for allegedly having sex with a 15 year old girl. Police say Washington is an organ player and choir director at Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist in south Minneapolis. This is not the only incident for Mr. Washington involving his sexual appetite. Minneapolis Public Schools and Friendship Academy have a huge problem in regards to this case due to the day to day contact Washington had with young girls and his status as an outside contractor rather than someone who is in close contact with students. ”The idea of a person of trust, a person part of church having sex with someone half their age when the person is under 16 is repulsive,” says Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.
Prosecutors say the girl’s mother learned about the relationship when she saw her daughter wearing a new ring, a gift allegedly from Gregory Washington.
This brings another key issue to light. Community members have put their trust in “self-appointed” leaders who don’t have the community’s best interest in heart. We allege that this is probably not the first time this has happened to a young woman around “people of trust,” but an ongoing trend of deception and bad behavior that is common and kept quiet in circles of organized religion in the African American community.
Quincy Smith was an overnight disc jockey at public, non-profit community radio station KMOJ-FM. Quincy De’Shawn Smith survived an encounter with a police Taser in 2005 and in late November had learned that his suit alleging police brutality could go to trial.
On Dec. 9, however, Smith, 24, died after a second confrontation, this time with officers who had been called to the 1000 block of Knox Avenue N. on a report of a domestic assault involving a man with a gun. Smith struggled with officers as they tried to arrest him and once again was hit with an electric charge from a Taser gun.
Smith’s case remains in question and no progress in the investigations on why this young man was cut down in his life’s prime.
Ahmed Guled – a member of the Somali community in Minneapolis and St. Paul who regularly took elders to and from the store on a weekly basis was gunned down in February, shot more than 13 times by Minneapolis Police. This is not the first time that the Minneapolis police shoot inhumanely a Somali man. Recalling the shooting incident of a Somali man who was also killed inhumanely manner that was a mentally ill in 2005.
Sources say the alleged stolen vehicle was loaned to him to pick up his Father from the airport returning from Kenya.
There are many reasons why community members, self-appointed leaders and elected officials don’t demand answers for heinous actions that affect the quality of life for us. Maybe it’s time to take a closer look and let your voice be heard. If people didn’t stand up, we as a country would have never seen the likes of Malcolm X; Dr. Martin Luther King, Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson.
Furthermore, one day Blacks will not have the voices of the 60’s and 70’s. When your unjustly released from a project, job or get mistreated, who will you turn to for advocacy with complaints in the Black community falling on deaf ears?
Don’t let Annshalike Hamilton, Quincy Smith or Ahmed Guled just become distant memories of the past. Each person had goals and desires in life that were cut short due to “controllable” circumstances. If there was an outcry, from the community and accountability demanded, I would imagine we would could of one day passed these people on the street and said, “Hello!”
…Your move.
