NYC’s Homophobic/Misogynist/Ageist/Racist system of InJustice

On Aug 16, 2006, seven young African-American, lesbian identified friends from Newark (now known as the Lesbian 7) ended up in a fight with a man in the West Village following his repeated verbal and physical attacks on them. Though the instigator in the confrontation, the man was never charged and in May 2005, three of the women entered into plea agreements and received six-months in prison. On June 15th the remaining four (ages 19, 20, 20 and 24) received sentences ranging from 3.5 to 11 years in prison. Their crime was simply defending themselves from a homophobic/misogynist attack by a man who choked them, ripped hair from their scalps, spat on them and threatened sexual assault – all because they were lesbians who refuted his sexual advances. The mere fact that any victim of a bigoted attack would be arrested and convicted for self-defense is an outrage. But the length of the prison time demonstrates the political, racist, misogynistic, anti-lesbian, anti-youth nature of our U.S. (in)justice system.

The following is an excerpt of the details of the incident from Workers World as relayed by FIERCE NYC:

As they passed the Independent Film Cinema, 29-year-old Dwayne Buckle, an African-American vendor selling DVDs, sexually propositioned one of the women. They rebuffed his advances and kept walking. “I’ll f— you straight, sweetheart!” Buckle shouted. A video camera from a nearby store shows the women walking away. He followed them, all the while hurling anti-lesbian slurs, grabbing his genitals and making explicitly obscene remarks. The women finally stopped and confronted him. A heated argument ensued. Buckle spat in the face of one of the women and threw his lit cigarette at them, escalating the verbal attack into a physical one. Buckle is seen on the video grabbing and pulling out large patches of hair from one of the young women. When Buckle ended up on top of one of the women, choking her, Johnson pulled a small steak knife out of her purse. She aimed for his arm to stop him from killing her friend. The video captures two men finally running over to help the women and beating Buckle. At some point he was stabbed in the abdomen. The women were already walking away across the street by the time the police arrived.

Buckle was hospitalized for five days after surgery for a lacerated liver and stomach. When asked at the hospital, he responded at least twice that men had attacked him.

There was no evidence that Johnson’s kitchen knife was the weapon that penetrated his abdomen, nor was there any blood visible on it. In fact, there was never any forensics testing done on her knife. On the night they were arrested, the police told the women that there would be a search by the New York Police Department for the two men—which to date has not happened.

After almost a year of trial, four of the seven were convicted in April. Johnson was sentenced to 11 years on June 14.

Even with Buckle’s admission and the video footage proving that he instigated this anti-gay attack, the women were relentlessly demonized in the press, had trumped-up felony charges levied against them, and were subsequently given long sentences in order to send a clear resounding message—that self-defense is a crime and no one should dare to fight back.

All of the seven women knew and went to school with Sakia Gunn, a 19-year-old butch lesbian who was stabbed to death in Newark, N.J., in May 2003. Paralleling the present case, Gunn was out with three of her friends when a man made sexual advances to one of the women. When she replied that she was a lesbian and not interested, he attacked them. Gunn fought back and was stabbed to death.

“You can’t help but wonder that if Sakia Gunn had a weapon, would she be in jail right now?” Bran Fenner, a founding member and co-executive director of FIERCE, told Workers World. “If we don’t have the right to self-defense, how are we supposed to survive?”

The treatment these women received is outrageous and shows the lack of judicial protection youth, women, people of color, and queers really have, especially in NYC. Without a doubt the abusers are not these seven young women; but obviously Dwayne Buckle, Judge McLaughlin, and the Media. Dwayne Buckles’ abusive behavior is detailed above. The judge presiding over the trial was Justice Edward J. McLaughlin of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan. McLaughlin gave arbitrary sentences to the women, not based on facts but rather on his perception of young African-American lesbians.

The following is an excerpt of report from the hearing:

Judge McLaughlin said Patreese Johnson should have just “ignored” Buckle, and then began chiding her in court with the children’s rhyme, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.” How easy a thing that was for this powerful, affluent white male, a 1972 graduate of Georgetown University School of Law, to say. He blew off the fact that Johnson was tiny and vulnerable and trashed her for having brought a knife along and for wielding it against Buckle (which was caught on the surveillance video). He also accused the soft-spoken and timid Johnson of “putting on an act” at trial. He even said that he only gave Terrain Dandridge 3 ½ years in prison because she was the only one who “took responsibility” for what happened.

With NYC media headlines like “Lesbian Gang-Stab Shocker” or Bill O’Reilly spinning their self-defense into a “growing threat of Lesbian gangs”, the media misrepresented the situation from the beginning. In the initial news coverage last August, most of the articles focused on the condition Buckle was in and relayed the story from Buckle’s point of view and not from those victimized by Buckle.

The women’s lawyers are appealing the case. In the meantime, the NYC queer community group FIERCE has taken a leading role to act in solidarity with the women. FIERCE is asking for support in the following ways:

  • pro-bono legal work to aid in the appeals process
  • media contacts and writers to spread the story
  • pen pals to write to the women in prison
  • money to help with legal fees as well as expenses in prison

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