On Race and Hate Crimes Against Disabled Victims

Melissa Stoddard, light brown skinned natural brown haired
biracial autistic holds a mirror and smiles wearing a pink
two-toned sweater and a rainbow clown wig at McIver
Education Center, Greensboro, NC photo credit Herald Tribune

Melissa Stoddard, pictured on the left, is one of the murder victims who I keep writing about because I will always feel that she was ignored in the worst way by the Autism community after her murder. She is, to quote the Herald Tribune, “The Girl Who No One Saved.” A young and vibrant 11-year-old autistic girl, she was slowly starved, tortured, strapped to a board and left in an empty pool in her family’s backyard at all hours until she died.

I will always be furious about the fact that Melissa was happy with her mother and her school in Greensboro, North Carolina, and that it was the very stepmother who abused and murdered her who called Child Protective Services on her intellectually disabled brother, accusing him of molesting Melissa. I believe the acts of Melissa’s father and stepmother witnessed and related by Melissa’s white stepbrothers should have been adjudicated as hate crimes. The Autism community that continues to roar in outrage at the commuting of Dorothy Spourdalakis' sentence for the brutal stabbing murder of her nonspeaking autistic son Alex simply did not care enough to pursue this.

Could this be because she was not white but the perpetrators of her torture and murder were?

The abuse, neglect, and murder of Melissa Stoddard are sadder in that everyone in Florida, regardless of political affiliation or approach to disability, was equally outraged by her torture and murder. Only the Autism community casts Melissa aside, with the exception of listing her name among the countless numbers of disabled people murdered by parents.

Today, I'm reading in the news that there was a violent assault on a disabled white adult male presenting victim named in some news sources as Austin Hilbourn broadcast on Facebook live. The young woman who live broadcasted it and the suspects responsible have been arrested. The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment. The press seems to be spending very little time wondering about the state of mental and physical health of the victim. I have not seen the video of the assault nor read more than the barest details. But here is why I'm bringing this up today. Those arrested were charged with a hate crime. Should they have been?

Well, of course, they should have been charged with a hate crime! Yes, this is a hate crime against a disabled young man done because of his disability and should be adjudicated as such. Yes, it was made worse by the anti-Trump slurs but those slurs were added to justify the crimes committed and are not the hate crime in and of themselves and this is critically important. This is not about Trump. This is violence against disabled people.

Now is where I state emphatically, no, not every African-American teen in America is culpable for this crime. No, African-American youth is no more dangerous, hate-filled, violent or cruel targeting vulnerable victims than white American youth. We hear about horrific crimes of this nature against disabled youth every month. Many crimes go unreported because prosecutors won't pursue them or parents don't press charges against the criminals responsible. Let me digress a minute and give an example of another horrific crime against a disabled teen where the perpetrators also used a current event to draw attention to their act of violence and broadcast their crime on the Internet.


Remember the horrific ice bucket challenge assault on an autistic teen in Ohio? The perpetrators also filmed and broadcasted their horrible assault. The victim's parents insisted on allowing the broadcast to remain on the Internet, and their solution to this crime against their disabled son, evidence of their own ignorance and ableism, was to endanger more autistics instead of punishing the guilty by insisting the criminals perpetrating the assault be given community service to autistic people instead of prison time . Innocent autistic youth were placed at further risk of emotional harm from these individuals. The wrongheaded idea autism parents have that somehow those who visit physical harm on their children should get to know them in order to understand and possibly befriend them upsets me deeply. Our offspring are not hopeless charity cases so desperate for friendship that those who abuse them should be allowed to continue doing so.

The ice bucket challenge assault, like a similar case of months of torture to an autistic teen filmed by two girls who convinced him to go along by claiming they were his girlfriends, should have been adjudicated as a hate crime against a disabled person. But those who perpetrated the crime and filmed it where white, thus the language used for the assault was not assault but "prank gone wrong" and those who committed this crime were not labeled criminals but called bullies who just needed 'autism awareness.' Autistic youth was presented to the public as a pitiable group, to be looked down upon. This is a variety of victim-blaming as this young man's disability was made an excuse for the criminal actions of his attackers.

The demand for hate crime status in the wake of the Alex Spourdalakis murder presents a new set of ethical issues to our community. If the equally gruesome murders and assaults of countless nonwhite disabled victims like Gilberto Powell and Melissa Stoddard prompted no effort or demand for hate crime classification. and therefore were not adjudicated as hate crimes, then the outcry at this point for hate crime status is again, a matter of the racial makeup of the victims and the perpetrators rather than the severity of the crime. We need to define what we as disability rights activists will do when a crime against any disabled victim, white or nonwhite, should be adjudicated as a hate crime but is not. We must be consistent with our standards for calling crimes against disabled victims hate crimes regardless of the race of the victim or the race and position in society of the perpetrators.

Violence against every minority has increased in the aftermath of Trump's election. It is imperative for everyone in the disabled community to seek safety in new, united, ways not sought after before. Everyone caught up in this polarized glorification of hatred will seek to harm those who appear to be the most vulnerable targets.

To the African American perpetrators of this hate crime: hatred is not the way to hold the President-elect or the racist white supremacists' organizations who backed him accountable for anything. What you have done to this innocent young man is that much more heinous because it harms him as an individual and harms the disabled communities and the African American community. This horrific thing that all of you did and broadcast can now be used to justify all the excessive use of force by police against Black communities across our nation. It can be the excuse for Trump to do any manner of things to us, all from your ignorant act of naked hatred perpetrated on an innocent victim. You may wish to harm yourselves, and that is your choice, but you have no right to harm so many others.

In our rush to declare these acts of violence hate crimes, let us ensure that we are shouting with equal vigor for every member of our disabled community.

Remember, do not allow current racial polarization to hijack the case here. This is an act of violence against a disabled person, despite all the libelous attempts to brand it outlandish things like a Black Lives Matter kidnapping. More crimes like this should be tried as hate crimes, regardless of the race of the perpetrators, not only when the perpetrators are a racial minority shouting anti-Trump slurs.

Melissa Stoddard and Gilberto Powell deserve that and more, they deserve our continued remembrance and support. They don't get it. Let's hope that changes.

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Further Reading:
On Melissa Stoddard:
    As an Invisible Autistic Filicide victim:
http://intersecteddisability.blogspot.com/2013/12/autisms-invisible-filicide-victims.html
    Comprehensive story of her life/death with timeline in the Herald Tribune
http://extra.heraldtribune.com/2014/06/15/stoddard/
    Autistic Hoya on Melissa:
http://www.autistichoya.com/2015/01/black-lives-still-matter.html
On the Hate Crime against Austin Hilbourn, a young disabled man in Chicago
     CNN coverage of the assault along with explanation of what constitutes a hate crime
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/us/chicago-facebook-live-beating/
The latest on the Murder of Alex Spourdalakis
     Emily Willingham, Ph.D. On Alex Spourdalakis /why disability is not an excuse for murder
http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2016/12/13/heres-why-you-dont-want-to-view-disability-as-an-excuse-for-murder/#607af248243d
Examples of other Assaults on Disabled Youth By White Peers Who knew them
      On the Ice Bucket Challenge Assault:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/teens-dumped-bodily-fluids-autistic-boy-fake-ice-bucket-challenge-prosecutor-article-1.1974154
     Autistic teen boy tortured by two white girls who filmed their abuse
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/maryland-girls-tortured-autistic-boy-sheriff-office-article-1.1718983
     White high school football players in Idaho charged with sexually assaulting black, disabled teammate with a coat hanger

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/05/25/white-high-school-football-players-in-idaho-charged-with-raping-black-disabled-teammate-with-a-coat-hanger/?utm_term=.547a5bd8cca7

On the Checkered Career of the Cop who Assaulted Gilberto Powell
Miami-Dade cop Fernando Villa had problems long before his DUI
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-dade-cop-fernando-villa-had-problems-long-before-his-dui-6385652

Invisible Autistic Filicide Victims

"We must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but  about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers." 

 - Martin Luther King Jr. Eulogy for the Martyred Children (1963)

Melissa Stoddard, biracial, autistic, age 11,
tortured and murdered by her stepmother and father
photo credit. Herald Tribune

Tuesday December 17th marked the one year anniversary of the murder of Melissa Stoddard. While the press continues to follow the attempted murder of Isabelle Stapleton by focusing on her mother Kelli, Melissa, who died horribly after sustained torture by her father and stepmother, is forgotten. She is part of The Autism Wars memorial timeline for intersected autistic and disabled victims of murder.

Randle Barrow, who was found murdered on December 14th of this year, was only 3 years younger than Melissa. They both shared the same label of autism. They both smiled from photographs taken in happier days. Randle's mother apparently drowned him, disposed of his body in a river, and then took her own life. In Randle's  case, family members called the Alabama Department of  Human Resources (DHR) to report concern for Randle's safety. DHR failed to act to protect him. Randle's school, which has the disturbing name of The Riley Behavioral and Educational Center for Autism, called DHR to report that Randle's mom "was struggling physically

Randle Carlton Barrow, autistic, age 8, murdered
by his mother Delicia who then took her own life.

and had slurred speech"  on the Tuesday preceding the murder. DHR failed to act to protect Randle. None of this seems to matter to anyone. No one seems to care that Randle Barrow is the latest victim of murder - suicide. Murder apologists continue to respond in posted comments about the difficulties in parenting autistic children rather than reacting to the horrific nature of this pattern of filicide - suicide that seems to be accepted as an okay thing to do?!? Children and disabled adult victims are treated as collateral damage for exhausted parents, and parent commentators see this gruesome ending as some inevitable choice. What the hell!?!

Filicide - suicide is extremely rare in general global society. It is becoming increasingly common in our community. Worse, each small article about an autistic person of color*, being murdered appears to be not worth a footnote or comment by autism advocacy organizations, autism bloggers even activists. Kelli Stapleton, white, high profile, mother of Isabelle, whose community actively gave financial and emotional support for her efforts to get whatever therapy she thought Izzy needed, attempted filicide -suicide. The media considers every new development in Kelli's trial news worthy. Social media considers what is happening to Kelli Stapleton worth continuous articles, a status, a share or a mention in a plethora of blogs.

Alex Spourdalakis with his mother Dorothy, who murdered
him with the help of his godmother

Alex Spourdalakis' very public abuse and murder were discussed to such a degree that Alex's case was brought to the DOJ with a demand it be tried as a hate crime. Exactly what should have been done for Melissa Stoddard's case.  When someone beat Ashley Hamilton such that her face was unrecognizable, she only made news until she left the hospital. After that a handful of dedicated activists, like Emily Titon and Amy Sequenzia, tried to follow her case and see where she was placed and what her needs and level of safety were. Ashley Hamilton lives in poverty. She is now a ward of the state of Georgia. But no one cares about Ashley. Because Ashley is poor and nonspeaking, and her 15 seconds of victim photographs have a longer shelf life than concern for her eventual autonomy and safety.

Beyond the horrific nature of the murders, attempted murders, and assaults themselves is the greater question of what societal culture is producing parents and care givers who are increasingly coming to the conclusion that murdering their autistic loved ones will be at best forgiven and understood by other parents. It is an increasingly frightening situation, one that has me avoiding the news at times just to evade the nauseous feeling I get when hearing parents making comments that erase the filicide victim and eulogize the murdering parent having never met either party. Meanwhile I am surrounded by parents in their 80s who have lovingly cared for autistic children, now in their 50s, with no help or support all their lives. Saying not having help or respite or supports is an excuse for murder is just not acceptable and speaks to the way we socialize our society to ingest ableism and vomit it all over tragic events like these. I should never have to reach out to a parent and say "read the news again and imagine this child was not disabled.". If you can't see the injustice of filicide because of the disability of the victim, then it is time to do a serious ethics audit on yourself.

A board member of Autism Speaks recently declared that I only attack. He said I take offense at everything real or imagined. My son is visibly nonwhite, clearly nonspeaking , and those differences intersect with his disability to put him at extremely high risk for being the victim of a crime.  Tell me, if you were me would it offend you that every child who shares the same intersected heritage as your disabled son and is the victim of violent crime is erased and ignored not only in general but by the greater community of autism activists and advocates while they cry for justice and a voice for all? I am offended. Injustice is offensive. And everyone who can do something tangible to bring attention to these murders should be inclusive of all the victims regardless of race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation and gender identity.  It disappoints me to have to continually repeat this. It distances me from collaborative activism.

 Fight for all of us. Our intersected loved ones matter too.

In Memory of Melissa Stoddard, 

and all those victims who quietly wait for the respect, remembrance, and justice 

in death they did not have in life. 

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* People of Color is used to mean everyone identifying as nonwhite. Some use the term to imply African American, or Black But on this blog it is always used as a term inclusive of all nonwhite people.