When a Serial Killer Targets Poor Black Women (402 hits)
CNN went further than any national media outlet ever went when it recently implored viewers and its website readers to help Los Angeles police hunt down the Grim Sleeper. That’s the macabre play on the Grim Reaper; the old English term and symbol for death. The Grim Sleeper has been on the prowl for nearly two decades in South Los Angeles neighborhoods. His targets have been mostly poor women, some have been prostitutes, others drug addicted or with petty criminal records. All have been black.
This brought the standard charge that police foot drag in catching the killer when the victims are poor black women. Critics say that if the Grim Sleeper’s victims were middle class white women, police and city officials would pull out all stops to catch the killer... Police and prosecutors bristle at the charge that they are less diligent when it comes to nailing serial killers who kill blacks than whites. In Los Angeles, officials pleaded that they were under staffed, lacked the resources, and technology to make a swift arrest when the killings began there years ago.
There’s truth to that. In the past decade, there’s been a tremendous advance in the use of computer matches, and forensic and DNA testing. This has helped police quickly zero in on likely suspects. In Los Angeles, police officials have gone further and set-up special task forces to track down the killer. Yet, it’s also true that the serial killer’s victims in inner city neighborhoods are not the type of women who reflexively ignite police and public outrage. There are reasons, troubling reasons, for this...
CNN’s admirable crusade to catch the Grim Sleeper has certainly made the public much more aware of the peril that many black women face on the streets; and part of that peril is the possibility of being the victim of a serial killer. That’s also made police even more determined to nail their killer. Unfortunately, it took an ugly and embarrassing media spotlight on the gruesome serial killings in Los Angeles to heighten police and public awareness that serial killers come in all colors, and more often than not their victims are poor, black women. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst.
