Does anyone remember the Shaima Alwadi murder?
People here cared when it happened:
El Cajon, California (CNN) -- The possibility that the killing of an Iraqi woman who was left brutally beaten in her Southern California home last week was a hate crime is "just one aspect" being investigated, a police official said Monday.
Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old mother of five, died of a severe head injury after she was taken off life support Saturday, El Cajon, California, Police Chief Jim Redman said at a news conference.
A note that was "threatening in nature" was found near where her 17-year-old daughter discovered her lying unconscious in the dining area of her home in El Cajon in San Diego County last Wednesday, Redman said.
"Threatening in nature"? Threatening?.
The note said : "This is our country, Not Yours Terrorist".
They didn't leave that note once, they left it twice. Before the attack and next to the body after she'd been beaten to death.
"Why did you take my mother away from me? You took my best friend away from me," she said, choking with tears, in an interview with CNN affiliate KUSI. "Why? Why did you do it? I want to know. Answer me that."
Why? I don't know, but I have another question. Why don't we care about Shaima?
Maybe it's because she was 32 and not just 17, never mind the fact she had five children including a 17-year-old daughter.
Maybe it's because most of us probably can't even correctly pronounce her name.
Maybe it's because she's not a size 2.
Maybe it was her Choice of Head Wear that set them off. Yeah, you wouldn't want to be caught dead in a Hoodie or a Head Scarf - those are Scary!.
Maybe it was the fact she was in her own home, meaning these people either already knew her, or else had to force or break their way in while she was there.. Zimmerman has the excuse that he was performing his duties as part of the "neighborhood watch", and that he thought Trayvon was a "threat". But what's the excuse here? They didn't like her cooking so they broke in and stopped her?
Maybe it's because most of us, can't put ourselves in her shoes. We can't imagine that someone might do anything like this to us. We're not Muslim. We can't imagine someone targeting us because of our National origin, or religion, or race, or gender orientation or choice of clothing, or style of facial piercing, or the music we listen too breaking into our house and beating us in the head until we bleed to death on the floor.
And then probably laughing about it when they're done. That's doesn't happen in AMERICA - anymore - does it?
Now Alwadi's alleged killer is
going to face justice.
A judge on Friday ordered an Iraqi immigrant to stand trial in California in the killing of his wife, whose fatal beating prompted international condemnation because it had appeared to be a hate crime.
San Diego County Superior Court Judge Lantz Lewis announced his decision after Kassim Alhimidi‘s lawyer urged the court to let his client go, saying there is no forensic evidence linking him to the death of his wife, 32-year-old Shaima Alawadi.
The judge said the most persuasive evidence for him was street-camera footage that indicates Alhimidi might have driven a short distance from home that fateful March 21, 2012, morning and parked his car – contradicting his story to investigators that he had gone for a drive to relax at that time.
“It appears to be a lie,” Lewis said in explaining his ruling.
The footage shows a person getting out of a parked red car resembling Alhimidi’s vehicle around the corner from the home and then walking back to it an hour later.
In short, be careful when a story seems to fit your prejudices too well. There's probably a reason for that.