Her name was Romona

WAOD posted yet another example of how little value is placed on the lives of Black women and girls.

A New York court has re-opened a case involving the kidnapping, rape and murder of a young woman on grounds that the investigation was tainted with racial bias. The family of the victim is pursuing a federal case against the NYPD because officers and detectives failed to respond to repeated requests for assistance from the victim's family. (Maybe they were too busy pumping bullets into another Black man elsewhere to investigate the disappearance of a young Black girl.)

The details of the case are long and tedious. It is almost a travesty for me to use those words since every little detail was actually a second, minute, hour, day that Romona was held captive in a basement being raped, beat, burned and cut. Her day was probably like any other day until she was kidnapped by two men and held in the basement of a dilapidated house. The men (if they even deserve to be labeled as human) held her there and even brought people in to see her. One idiot saw her and even spoke to her. Did he alert the police? Why, no. He left an went to a baby shower then returned home. He was the last person besides the killers to see her alive. After several days, Romona was beat to death and her naked body was left underneath a parked ice cream truck. Did the NYPD find her? Why, no again. It was her family who found her. They developed their own search teams, they put up flyers, they contacted the media (who ignored them) and it was the mother (God bless this woman) who received an anonymous call that her daughter's body could be found near an alley.

The police were actually in the house where Romona was being held, because someone called to report hearing screams. They weren't hers, they were the voice of another young Black girl who these same assholes had kidnapped and raped. She was lucky enough to escape. She testified in court about being told about Romona by her torturers - how they made her smell Romona's dead body and told her she could end up like her if she didn't cooperate. Thankfully the two assholes were convicted to life in prison.

This happened in 2003. Did you hear about this story? Of course not. But you've heard of Lacey Peterson and Chandra Levy and Natalee Holloway. You didn't hear about Romona Carmichael, a junior psychology student at Hunter College because she was Black. And that is why her mother and family are going to court. They are trying to prove that racial bias interfered with a thorough and appropriate investigation of Romona. It will be very difficult to prove racial bias on behalf of those involved, but you'd be hard pressed not to believe it when you read something like this:

Less than two months before Romona Moore vanished in Canarsie, Svetlana Aronov, the white wife of a doctor, went missing on the Upper East Side. The day after Aronov vanished, police launched a massive search for her and the cocker spaniel, Bim, she had taken for a walk. The NYPD called a press conference, assigned two dozen detectives to the case full-time, and went door to door, passing out flyers with pictures of Aronov and Bim on them. The cops traced the Aronovs' phone and bank records and analyzed surveillance tape gathered from stores and apartment buildings near her home. A police van emblazoned with the department's 800 tip-line number drove around her neighborhood, blaring details of her disappearance over a loudspeaker. A letter was sent to rare-books dealers, a business the Aronovs dabbled in. Detectives reportedly even consulted a psychic. A bloodhound was assigned to track Bim's scent. Eventually, Aronov's body surfaced in the East River. It was never determined whether she fell, jumped, or was pushed into the water.

They looked harder for the dog than they did Romona. They questioned her mother asking if she had a boyfriend, if she was pregnant, anything to excuse her disappearance and dismiss it as just another Black girl running the streets. Maybe, just maybe if they searched for Romona they way searched for Bim, they may have saved her life and spared another Black girl from being kidnapped and raped and almost murdered.

How can the NYPD detectives sleep at night knowing that she is dead? They sleep just fine, since the detective that ignored Mrs. Carmichael's calls and pleads for help got promoted after the case. Not reprimanded. Promoted. HE DIDN'T EVEN FIND THE BODY. HER MOTHER DID. ROMONA'S FAMILY WAS WAITING BY THE BODY WHEN THE POLICE SHOWED UP.

I can't believe I'm not writing this entire post in all caps. It makes me that angry. How many more Romonas are out there? The media doesn't report on these women. The police obviously don't care. The men who torture these women don't care. You can't tell me there isn't a problem with this police system and you can't tell me there isn't an utter lack of regard for Black women in this country. And she was "lucky". Lucky because her mother cared and had resources. She had family. To know that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Romonas out there who will never be found because somebody doesn't care makes my heart hurt.

I honestly doubt that the case will make it far in the federal courts, but this is progress in addressing the imbalances in not only the NYPD, but also the way America deals with crimes against Black women.