Too many acts of violence, rape and murder are committed against women. Furth, this is not the first time that we have heard about the crimes of a miscreant and the fact that law enforcement was knew something was amiss with an individual, but failed to act. In such instances, law enforcement is as guilty as the miscreant who committed these vile acts.
Anthony Sowell is one of those miscreants and from where I sit, those police officers in Cleveland, Ohio who failed to act on the behalf of women throughout Cleveland are his enablers and equally guilty.
As for Sowell, the term miscreant is too good for this son of a slug. Sowell has gotten away with the abuse, murder and countless rapes women for decades. We may never know the full extent of this man’s crimes, but one thing is for certain because these crimes were committed in a high crime neighborhood, a poor community, a community of color, therefore, the attacks, murders and rapes were not taken seriously.
“The police in Cleveland were notified repeatedly about violence in the house of a convicted rapist where the decomposed bodies of six women were found last week, a neighbor said Monday.
The neighbor of the man, who was arrested Saturday night after the bodies were found, said the police had done little, despite the calls.
Fawcett Bess, 57, the owner of Bess Chicken and Pizza, across the street from the house, said that about two weeks ago, he found the man, Anthony Sowell, in the bushes alongside Mr. Sowell’s house naked and standing over a woman who was bloodied, beaten and also naked. Mr. Bess called 911, he said, and an ambulance soon took the woman away. But the police showed up two hours later and never interviewed him, he said.
‘Nobody did anything because she is a girl walking around the streets,’ Mr. Bess said. He said he did not know what had happened to the woman, or if the police had followed up on the matter.
Mr. Bess said that a month earlier, he had been approached by another woman who showed him bruises and blood on her neck that she claimed were from an attack by Mr. Sowell. The woman told Mr. Bess that the police had taken a report but appeared to do little investigating, he said.
‘If people had come to tell us about this guy’s history, then maybe we would have paid more attention,’ he said.
The claims were supported by police records that indicate Mr. Sowell was accused by one woman of choking and raping her in his house on Sept. 22. It was after this accusation that the police decided to conduct the search in which they found the decaying bodies. Police records indicate it took several weeks to assign an officer to the case and to obtain a search warrant.
Police records also show that on Dec. 8, 2008, another woman filed a report accusing Mr. Sowell of stopping her in front of his house and forcing her to the back door, where he punched, choked and tried to rape her.
‘There were several incidents at the house that we were aware of, and we have investigated everything we had heard about,’ Lt. Thomas Stacho, a spokesman for the Cleveland Police Department, said. ‘We are doing everything we can.’
Detectives were struggling Monday to identify the six bodies. They brought in cadaver dogs to search for more bodies, and met with the families of missing local women to gather information.
The discovery of the bodies led some crime experts to question whether the methods of tracking convicted sex offenders were sufficient. ‘It’s not clear what the answer is,’ said Kristen Anderson, who oversees the sex offender tracking team at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Ms. Anderson said the Sowell case raised questions that were also raised in the case of Jaycee Dugard, the young California girl who was kidnapped and held for 18 years. The man charged with kidnapping her, Phillip Garrido, was also a convicted sex offender. The police visited him regularly to confirm his whereabouts.
‘As a society, we’re still debating where the acceptable line is between an offender’s rights and privacy versus public safety,’ Ms. Anderson said.
Like Mr. Garrido, Mr. Sowell seemed to have followed all the reporting requirements.
After serving 15 years in state prison for choking and raping a woman, Mr. Sowell, 50, registered with the state as a sex offender when he moved into the neighborhood in 2005, and he began checking in regularly with law enforcement authorities, as required by state law.
The area in the east side of Cleveland where Mr. Sowell lives is predominantly black and very poor. Judy Martin, who lives in a Cleveland suburb and is the director of Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, said there was a question about whether missing-person reports, especially those involving members of minority groups or people who live in poor neighborhoods, were taken seriously enough by the police.
‘We have a lot of women of color who disappeared and who police just never even bothered to look for,’ Ms. Martin said.
Meanwhile, the police, who have yet to file charges against Mr. Sowell relating to the six bodies, are trying to gather evidence.
‘We can believe that this guy killed them,’ Lieutenant Stacho said. ‘But we have to prove it.’
The police plan to tear down walls to be sure there are no more bodies in the house. Some of the bodies already found were so decomposed that an expert from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History was called in to help narrow down when the victims were killed.
Over the weekend, the police set up a command post near Mr. Sowell’s house and urged people to come forward with information on missing relatives or friends. Only four people have provided information, the police said.”
Sowell is a man unhinged, law enforcement gave this bastard free reign, and for that they should damn well be held accountable and Sowell should be stripped bare, his member and testicles poked and prodded with a branding iron until hell freezes over.
Moreover, another thing, where were the men who live in that community? Why didn’t they take a stand?
I grew up in a dirt-poor community and I know what goes on there.
I recall as a child, our community was under siege by a neighborhood rapist who assaulted women 3 times a week in the lot next to the building where I lived. The police did nothing, but everyone knew who this slug was and where he lived. He got away with the assaults for two years running until one day; this sob ran out of time.
It happened about the time the Vietnam War was ending, men were returning home to their families. I remember this one night well. Several of the men waited in the dark for this pig to pounce and when he did, they were there to greet him, shotguns and all.
So I ask again. With all the black on black crime and guns on the street of Cleveland, where the hell were the men and why didn’t someone take a stand?
I know what I’m promoting, but I also know what I’m feeling.
Oh come on now, you know that writing tickets and eating doughnuts/donuts (your preference) are are important than say finding bodies, interviewing rape suspects or in fact rapists.
Someone, or many someones, should sue the City of Cleveland Police Department, the city OF Cleveland, the county of which Cleveland is part of AND the whole damn State of Ohio.
What has been allowed to occur, is absolutely beyond the bounds of human civility.
It smacks of the Neanderthal element of Islam. They treat their woman exactly the same way.
I’ll go further, what Cleveland did, or in this case did NOT do, surpasses the maggotry of Islam.
Jesus H. Christ!
Ummm, gosh I didn’t know I stuttered…”are are”. Real gooder JP…lol.
Not to worry JP, you said a mouthful, and in so doing hit the proverbial nail on the head. Well done.
This case reminds me so much of the Dahmer murders. In that case, the police actually returned his last victim to Dahmer’s apartment where he was subsequently murdered. The police failed, but there is another side. These psychopaths know how to pick out the vulnerable, the unwanted, or the addicted. He counted on no-one caring. It’s 11 bodies now – if they were all from this one neighborhood it is a catastrophe beyond comprehension. Eleven missing and no outcry? Are the people in this neighborhood that disconnected from one another? Something I’ve heard too often from the impoverished of Cleveland’s black community when a murder happens is, whether it is the missing women here or Cookie Thomas is this: “She’s in a better place now.” No, here and now and alive is a better place. This fatalism sounds like hopelessness to me, that the community has given up, perhaps because law enforcement has given up on them.
Sowell was in prison for not just raping, but attempting to strangle a woman. Rape with additional violence – especially strangulation – is un-rehabilitatable, IMO.
There’s also echoes of the infamous “Torso Murders’ of the 1930s.
Sorry for rambling, but I am so appalled by this. God keep the souls of these poor victims and comfort their families.
Do not apologize. I am equally appalled and horrified by the atrocity committed in Cleveland, Ohio.
I live in NYC and know only too well how often a community falls into line in acceptance of violence in their community. The fact that people do not care because these women are out there, lost and/or that no one cares about them is just distressing. What is wrong with any of us that we would view anyone in that light? They are someone’s child, and their dire circumstances do not make it acceptable or even understandable that their lives should end this way.
I do believe, however, that if a community does not give a damn then law enforcement will not either. They will put their efforts elsewhere; therefore, it is up to the community to do better. It is not always easy, but the people must buck up and get it together. It is not okay to only come together to march through the streets and hold a candlelight vigil when someone is murdered; and then afterwards the community returns to their homes to continue with their lives, business as usual, pleased as punch for making a stand.
Communities and law enforcement go hand in hand, or they should. If they do not then the community must work to come together, stand up together, and demand it together. Make it happen for one by attending those monthly town hall meetings held by local precincts and/or arranging meetings with the precinct captain or community affairs officer.
Until our communities, regardless of how poor and downtrodden comes together to stand up and say “no more” and “mean it,” we will re-live these horrific instances although I honestly pray not.
My prayers and sympathies to the families and may the souls of the women who perished at the hands of this animal rest in peace.