CeCe McDonald (1989- ) is an American black transgender woman who defended herself during a racist, transphobic hate crime and was charged with second-degree murder. She pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 41 months. She is in a men’s prison.
Her case went to trial in 2012 when Trayvon Martin was big. Compare:
- George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, a black boy, in “self-defence”. He did not have to go to the hospital. He was not arrested till after a month of nationwide protests.
- CeCe McDonald killed a white man nearly twice her age in a fight in front of a bar after having a beer mug smashed in her face, leaving a wound that required 11 stitches. She was the only one in the fight immediately arrested.
On the night of June 5th 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, McDonald and four of her friends, all of them black, walked a half mile to buy some food. At first the police stopped and questioned them but then let them go. Then they walked past some white people in front of a bar calling them “faggots”, “niggers” and “chick with dicks”.
Either she or one of her friends went over and told them not to talk like that. A white woman, Molly Flaherty, smashes her beer mug in McDonald’s face. Flaherty then says, “I can take on all of you bitches” and throws the first punch. A fight breaks out.
At one point McDonald and Dean Schmitz are out in the middle of the street. McDonald is 22, Schmitz is a man in his 40s. McDonald pulls out a pair of fabric scissors from her bag. Schmitz charges. She stabs him right through the heart. She may not have seen it at the time but over his heart was a tattoo of a swastika, a white supremacist symbol.
McDonald and her friends flee, Schmitz dies on the way to the hospital. The police arrest her for second-degree murder, facing up to 80 years in prison. In male prison at that, probably much of it in solitary for her own “protection”.
Among trans women in prison, 20% have been physically assaulted, 21% have been sexually assaulted. And if you are of colour, like McDonald, the rates for sexual assault are two to three times higher than that.
Among LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans) people killed in hate crimes, 44% are trans women, especially trans women of colour.
If you are a trans woman of colour the odds of being murdered are 1 in 8. CeCe is the girl who lived.
In early 2012 when the case went to trial it received support across the country among LGBT groups with cries of “Free CeCe”. She pleaded guilty to a lesser charge – manslaughter – and got 41 months in prison.
Nearly a year after the fight, the woman who started it all, Molly Flaherty, was charged with third-degree assault. She got a six-month sentence.
CeCe McDonald is now in a men’s prison. There is a petition to get her moved to a women’s prison.
Postscript: CeCe McDonald was freed from prison today, January 13th 2014, after serving 19 months of her 41-month sentence.
See also:
Shocking. Apparently the judge decided that the swastika tattoo was not relevant to Dean Schmitz’s behaviour.
If she’d used a gun, she’d probably have a better chance of being found innocent. Because guns (expressly designed to kill people) are an “approved” self-defence weapon in the gun-crazy US.
The irony about the comparison to the Trayvon case is that by carrying a gun it is clear that Zimmerman had considered the possibility of using deadly force even before he was confronted by Martin. In CeCe McDonald’s case, the scissors seem to be something pulled out at the last moment out of instinctive fear. She carried them for a clear purpose other than violence.
In other words, a clearer case of self-defence than Zimmerman.
LikeLike
I’m pretty sure she would have gotten a longer sentence if she’d used a gun.
LikeLike
Well, if he-she had a gun, most likely it would have been, illegal and not registered, for that reason alone, he-she would have gotten a longer sentence.
This is an obvious case of racial discrimination by the police and court. It was a clear case of self defense by the he-she and a blatant hate crime, via the swastika on the white racists, chest.
Just another day in the life of a black person in America, being treated unequal in the eyes of the law.
Nothing new……
LikeLike
Wow, “her case went to trial in 2012″…. I never ever heard or read about it, not even on FB where I have some “friends” who post all kinds of stuff of this type… Crazy.
LikeLike
As one commenter said.in a previous thread and I will concur. Just because you don’t understand or agree with someone else’s lifestyle or choices for whatever reason doesn’t give anyone the right to inflict violence on them. This was a racist hate crime. Cece McDonald was defending herself. like I said in an earlier thread I hope she gets her due day in the justice system and gets a fair trial. I feel she is being treated unfairly. The way she’s being treated seem wrong to me.
LikeLike
Ok I think some of you are showing some bias in this one.
I’m no lawyer , but I’m pretty sure you can’t pull out scissors and stab someone in the heart during a fist fight. The alleged broken mug changes things a little If she was blinded or dazed. But if she “on purpose” stabbed the man through the heart it’s not self defence. The swastika is irrelevant.. you can’t kill someone for that. Could a white person say “Well he had a Black Power fist on his heart”?
@Eurasion… If she shot him during a fight that wouldn’t matter, she might have faced even more charges. George Zimmerman claimed self defence because he alleges that Trayvon threatened his life and went for the gun. George is now in jail I think because he had some conflicting stories. If it happened as he said it would be grounds for self defence.
LikeLike
[…] CeCe McDonald (1989- ) is an American black transgender woman who defended herself during a racist, transphobic hate crime and was charged with second-degree murder. She pleaded guilty to second-de… […]
LikeLike
@Legion.. The point is not that it would be ok. The point is either way is no justification to kill someone. At least it shouldn’t be. Maybe you are the one not thinking for yourself and becoming one of the sheeple.
LikeLike
This isn’t a sport or wrestling match. There’s no referee. If you’re going about your lawful business and become the target of verbal and physical assault by a group and another person is approaching you aggressively you’ll defend yourself with whatever is at hand. You don’t know these people, their intentions, whether they have concealed weapons or the extent of their capacity for violence. If a cisgendered white female had used deadly force to defend herself after being assaulted in the street would she have gone to prison? I can’t imagine that scenario playing out. In this case one of the people who initiated the violence died and the intended victim went to prison. She saved herself from becoming another statistic and got punished for it.
LikeLike
@Origin .. well the easy way to test bias is completely reverse the situation. The man that got stabbed was pulling Cece off of the girl who hit her with the glass. Somehow during that they squared off one on one in the street. All by themselves according to the report. So it was no longer a group vs. a group.
If you reverse the races of everyone involved would you even call the larger stronger tranny a she? Ask yourself that honestly.
LikeLike
I mean you don’t know what the man’s intentions were, because he isn’t here to defend himself.. all the reports I read is he pulled cece off the instigator. If he really wanted to attack her wouldn’t he have done it when her back was turned?he’s dead and she’s only going to do 21 months on good behavior.
All you are going on is he had a swastika tattoo so he must have deserved to die. I would like to get his side.
LikeLike
You mean I should imagine some white transexuals are minding their own business when they’re attacked by a black woman and a black man enters the fray and receives a single fatal stab wound? It still sounds like self-defense from where I sit.
LikeLike
This isn’t “homosexual panic”. This is violence against women and violence against trans people (much the way Brandon Teena, a trans man, was killed in 1993). The more possessive a cis man is with a woman, the more violent he may become when he isn’t “promised” what he is expected. This possession is about control over a woman’s agency. Innumerable trans women have been killed by cis men who have attacked them when she is often at her most vulnerable and defenceless. This kind of vulnerability — and the impulsive violence — is an invidious misogyny, coupled with a tacitly permissive transphobia.
LikeLike
Sigh. I haven’t kept up with the story and to find out she still got jail time is a shame. Even more jail time then the initiator..wow. I
LikeLike
@ dave
Are you kidding me??? Those who were killed were done so in self defense. people need to leave others alone and mind their own business. Dang, can’t get some food without someone starting something?
Personally, I dont think this guy deserves to be in prison at all; at the same time if he knows he is in a man’s prison he better dress the part. He may think he is a woman, but he is not. If he wants to defend himself in prison, he betta act like he knows the deal
LikeLike
[…] trans women of color are no longer marginalized or erased in the GLBTQ rights movement. While a few blogs and niche news outlets have written about the case, it unfortunately remains mostly unknown […]
LikeLike
Wow, imprisioned for defending oneself. As Don King would say, only in America. I don’t feel this person should be in any prision period. This person was not bothering anyone when some fools decided to taunt the person and the person’s friends. I wish Cece and the others had just ignored them. Cece and her friends should have remembered that even when clearly in the wrong white people get away with their crime. Especially if their crime happens to be against a POC.
LikeLike
CeCe McDonald was released from prison this morning:
http://newsone.com/2835514/cece-mcdonald-released-from-prison/
LikeLike
She is a woman, and she’s the kind of woman who has a 1 in 8 chance of being murdered in her lifetime. How many women, if a big man charges at you, wouldn’t consider any action you take to be in self-defense?
LikeLike