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ASSOCIATED PRESS / J. PAT CARTER

Ruby Walker, sits in her nearly empty West Palm Beach apartment Monday and talks about her son, Nathan, who has been arrested in connection with a gang rape.
July 10. 2007 3:31PM


Ghastly gang rape throws a spotlight on Florida housing project


ASSOCIATED PRESS




WEST PALM BEACH -- Mother and son huddled together, battered and beaten, in the bathroom -- sobbing, wondering why no one came to help.

Surely the neighbors had heard their screams. The walls are thin, the screen doors flimsy in this violence-plagued housing project on the edge of downtown.

For three hours, the pair say, they endured sheer terror as the 35-year-old Haitian immigrant was raped and sodomized by up to 10 masked teenagers and her 12-year-old son was beaten in another room.

Then, mother and son were reunited to endure the unspeakable: At gunpoint, the woman was forced to perform oral sex on the boy, she later told a TV station.

Afterward, they were doused with household cleansers, perhaps in a haphazard attempt to scrub the crime scene, or maybe simply to torture the victims even more. The solutions burned the boy's eyes.

The thugs then fled, taking with them a couple of hundred dollars' worth of cash, jewelry and cell phones.

In the interview with WPTV, the mother described how she and her son sobbed in the bathroom, too shocked to move. Then, in the dark of night, they walked a mile to the hospital because they had no phone to call for help.

Two teenagers -- a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old -- have been arrested. Eight others are being sought.

Welcome to Dunbar Village, a place residents call hell.

"So a lady was raped. Big deal," resident Paticiea Matlock said with disgust. "There's too much other crime happening here."

Built in 1940 to house poor blacks in then-segregated West Palm Beach, Dunbar Village's 226 units sit just blocks from million-dollar condos on the Intracoastal Waterway. Billionaires lounge on beachfront property just a few miles away on Palm Beach.

The public housing project's one- and two-story barracks-style buildings are spread across 17 grassy, tree-lined acres surrounded by an 8-foot iron fence. The average rent is about $150 a month.

Almost 60 percent of the households in the area that includes Dunbar Village were below the poverty level in 2000, according to Census figures. Only 19 percent of the area's residents had high school degrees. About 9 percent of the adults were unemployed, nearly triple the state average.

Teenagers with gold-plated teeth wander the streets. Drug dealers hang out on nearby sidewalks. Trash bin lids are open. Flies hover over dirty diapers. Clothes dry on sagging lines.

Since the June 18 attack, police have increased patrols in the area, blocked off one entrance and will soon install surveillance cameras.

"It took this to make that happen?" Matlock, a 32-year-old single mother of three, snarled.

As in other blighted neighborhoods across the country where criminals seem to have free rein, residents here live in fear. Snitches get stitches, they say. Or worse.

"I try to be in my house no later than 7, and I don't come out," said Citoya Greenwood, 33, who lives in Dunbar with her 4-year-old daughter. "I don't even answer my door anymore." On the Fourth of July, "we didn't know if we was hearing gunshots or fireworks."

Avion Lawson, 14, and Nathan Walker, 16, will be charged as adults in the assault and gang rape, prosecutors said. They are jailed without bail.

Lawson's DNA was found in a condom at the crime scene, and he admitted involvement, authorities say. Police say Walker's palm print was discovered inside the home. He denies being there. His attorney says he will plead not guilty. Lawson's public defender did not return telephone messages.

Walker and Lawson did not live at Dunbar but visited often. Lawson stayed with his grandmother there. Walker came to hang out and play basketball. Dunbar has become the place to be for wayward black teens, residents and neighborhood kids say.

Walker and Lawson both grew up mostly fatherless, bouncing between homes. Walker's family sometimes lived in old cars or abandoned houses, said his mother, Ruby Nell Walker.

"We've never really had a real home," said Naporcha Walker, Nathan's 15-year-old sister.

He dropped out of school after spending three years in seventh grade. The family lives on food stamps and recently had to pawn their television and radio, Ruby Walker said.

"I just feel like he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. ... My son is not a rapist," she said.

Ruby Walker said she herself was raped twice, at ages 7 and 12. She said that just days before the Dunbar attack, someone tried to rape her again, and "my son came to me crying and said he wouldn't ever do that to anyone."

She has had her own problems with the law -- at least nine arrests on charges such as disorderly conduct, aggravated assault and battery, according to state records.

Avion Lawson was a headstrong kid, never listening to his mother, said his cousin, Cassandra Ellis.

"I knew he was bad, but I never pictured him to be that type of bad," Ellis said. She said one traumatic experience may have scarred him -- watching his older sister fatally stab a boyfriend.

"It was an accident. She killed her boyfriend. They was fighting, there was a knife," Ellis said. "He was there when it happened."

City officials are quick to note that neither Lawson nor Walker lived at Dunbar, and say they are doing their best to make the place safe.

As quickly as overhead lights can be replaced, they are shot out, so officials are now considering bulletproof lighting.

"Isn't that quite a commentary on what the situation is there?" said City Commissioner Molly Douglas, whose district includes part of Dunbar. "Dunbar Village is a hell hole. They shouldn't have to live in fear."

More officers are hitting the streets, but "I just bow my head sometimes and think we just couldn't possibly have enough officers ever to take care of all of this," Douglas said.

Laurel Robinson, head of the city's housing authority, said that up until about four years ago, the federal government provided the city with $160,000 a year for security in public housing projects, but Congress did away with the money.

"Every family housing project in the country has suffered because of it," she said.

The rape victim and her son have not returned to their apartment since the attack.

The woman fled Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with her son seven years ago in search of a better life. With no money, they landed in Dunbar. The two almost instantly became targets for crime, standing out as Haitians among the mostly American-born blacks in the housing project. Her car and the boy's bicycle were stolen. Their house was ransacked.

On the night of the attack, she was lured outside by a teenager who knocked on the door and said her car had a flat. Nine more teens, their faces shrouded with T-shirts, barged in, she told authorities. They brandished guns and demanded money, then went beyond the imaginable.

"I was so scared," the woman told WPTV. "Some of them had sex with me twice, some of them had sex with me three times. They're beating me up. They make me do those things over and over. The man with the big gun, he put the gun inside of me."

She said that when she was forced to perform oral sex on her own son, she told the boy: "I know you love me, and I love you, too."

Investigators say it is not clear exactly why the thugs picked her house.

The boy's sight has returned. Both mother and son are seeking counseling.

"I have to try and talk to him every day. He's so angry," the woman said. "He said we never should have moved to Dunbar Village."

__________________
A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.
~ Leo Buscaglia

this really makes me want to cry...this is how americans poor are forced to live in the inner city ! this shouldnt be the goverment knows that crime is rampet but money means more then peoples lives !i really dont know if there is hope for these kids who have grown up to fast i think maybe they are to far gone i never think they should be released into sociaty again .God this story makes me so sick!







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__________________
A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.
~ Leo Buscaglia

Its not very shocking to me that no one came to their aid. Usually in those housing projects, a grenade could go off before a cop might show up 4 hours later. Its a joke. Rape would not be taken seriously in that envronment.

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"Thats it then, they will go on double, secret, probation..."

asha you are right the police i think turn a blind eye to what goes on and they let street justice take over .now i know this is kinda off the topic but related in a way .if america would focus on helping the poor starving children in its own country and stop the violence and the war going on in our inner citys and stop cutting the budget for social and educational programs as we ll know that( no child left behind is really starting to have its share of problems ) and stay out of every other countrys buisness this might be a better place to live ! we are supposedly the richest country in the world yet we have the homeless that cant get foodstamps or a check because they have no address we have kids who live in torn down shacks with no dental or health care america needs to clean it self up before trying to tell everyone else how to run their country. And we wonder why there is so much crime and gangs thats how they are protected and survive in there own prison right here in the good old USA (sigh) just venting katrina is such a prime example

__________________
A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.
~ Leo Buscaglia

I saw some episode of dateline once where they called for a police officer outside of a housing project and set a timer and one came about 45 minutes later.

They then called for a police officier in a nice (white and spiffy) part of town and 3 cops were there within 10 minutes.

I agree with you things are a bit askew in where we put our attentions in the US and we are in dire need of social reform.

Also rape STILL tends to get looked at as well, she asked for it somehow. Its very hard to try rape cases. The defense tends to always need to put the victim on trial, especially where DNA is concerned because thats pretty conclusive evidence there was contact at some point.

Im sorry but a woman wearing a skirt or god forbid a little bit of makeup and perfume should not fall under "the prior bad acts" mandate but the defense often does this crap.

__________________
"Thats it then, they will go on double, secret, probation..."

You ask yourself what is the world coming to. These days the goverments are no longer able to protect their own citizens, or even are not interested anymore.
More or more you see that people will go blind for problems, nobody seems to care anymore. It is not only an American problem, you see it in Europe happening as well. Here in Belgium for instance - petty theft crimes are not punished anymore - with the result that the people how do them - are becomming more and more brutal in the things they do - especially underage people are becomming more and more violent because they know that they will never be send to prison.

Officials give the wrong message to people, if police already give the signal that they don't care - what can you expect.

Guess it is time for some changes.


Micky

I agree with you but would take it a step further and say it’s primarily a race/socio-economic reason for the neglect of human life in poorer communities. I also would not put all the blame on the police force as they may very well want to be just as involved with negating criminal activity in these areas but simply don’t have the man power.

Basically what we have in the US is over enforcement of drug laws and under enforcement of actual citizen protection. I have for years been in favor of Amsterdam's stance on prostitution and marijuana legalization. They allow it within reason and keep control over it. I’m sure this helps free up their police force to handle other more pressing violations against their citizenry.

The US also has a HUGE problem with gun control (or lack there of) and we have something like triple the rate of homicides compared the world over.

I’m not saying it’s all as simple as get rid of the guns and legalize the drugs and we will all live happily ever after. No, it won’t clean up over night and there will still be a lot of problems to contend with but I just feel it’s a start in the right direction and we've reached the point now that it’s becoming a viable option.

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"Thats it then, they will go on double, secret, probation..."

Asha



I agree with you, legalising drugs is not really a solution, living next to Holland I know where I speak off, we have a lot of criminal organisations settling in Belgium to control the traficking of drugs, so by the legalisation in Holland, you shift the problem to the neigbouring countries.

The USA has also a big "gun" problem, the lobby of Mr Heston is so powerfull that they are just not able to take control of the weapons being handled all over the USA.
As long as the goverment does not take control in the sales of weapons, high school massacres and other killings will keep on going - saddly enough.

There is of course also a deep founded racial problem within the USA, and this is a problem that is not easy to be solved, you would expect that a goverment would try to subside this, but in the case of the US goverment they work it in hand. For instance the wall at the mexican border, with private militias protecting "their" soil (soil that they had already stolen from the native americans), or the "cleansing" of the flooded New Orleans area's, where they avoid that black people are going systematic back to their area.

It seems that they pay more attention on the war of terrorist and drugs then on protecting their own citizens, i have the feeling that the US goverment did loose touch with his own citizens, and this is a painfull thing to see.

Yes I don’t see the legalization of drugs as being the end all to problems. Drugs themselves cause problems in people's psyches, physical condition and criminalization just by their nature. Not even just illicit drugs but prescription as well. That’s the latest thing in the US now is the abuse of prescription medications. All I’m saying is prohibition in the US way back in the 20s failed miserably. I don’t see any difference with the current situation. It’s like trying to put your fingers in a dam that keeps sprouting new leaks and in the mean time you are ignoring the fire that’s going on next door to you.

Yes the gun lobby here in the US is enormous and powerful but it’s not just them. The United States has a LONG history of gun ownership and use. In some instances warranted. I mean just look at the founding of this country as an example. We were colonists being abused by the Brits so we finally said enough already and booted them out. My feeling is the British could have put that whole thing down if they really wanted to but they were preoccupied with more pressing problems with France at that time and Europe in general so they let it go. That’s not really the point anyway. The point is when a country is founded on fear and panic and in a lot of ways the US was, guns make sense to people and feel necessary. That’s just how it went and it’s hard to break that alarmist mindset in people now. I’m not sure how many more Columbines we will need to have before it stops. There seems to be no end in sight.

Yes and racism is a HUGE problem here as well. Yes we have made some strides to address it. Some very good progress but a lot of what has happened now is racial hatred and fear has just gone underground where it festers and becomes ugly. The result of this is hate crimes, and other horrific acts committed primarily against minorities. That is just the big stuff we see on the news but people face subtle forms of harassment and discrimination in their daily lives and its ongoing. Not just ethnic minorities but women also in the form of rape, abuse, job discrimination, the list goes on.

The government here has no vested interest in dealing with or solving any racial unrest. They prefer to cast a blind eye to it. But the reality as I see it is more and more citizens of the US fall below the poverty line each year. Not just minorities but white people that used to own a two bedroom house and an SVU are now falling behind. That is a major part of the work force in this country as well as minorities like Mexicans as you mentioned. What is being created is an elitist few who basically throw scraps to the struggling middle class in the form of affordable housing, jobs, etc..The rest of us are dogs around a kitchen table trying to steal what we can and black, white, yellow, brown, you will fight for what you and your family needs to survive. That is what is steadily being created in the US in my opinion. It’s just an observation though and you don’t need to agree. It doesn’t matter really.

And remember, we didn’t steal Mexico from the Mexicans, we made them sell it to us at gunpoint for a great price...lol joke.

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"Thats it then, they will go on double, secret, probation..."

Asha,




I totally agree with you, you have it put nicely. I was not speaking about the Mexican soil hihihihi, I was speaking about the native American soil.

The gap between poor and rich gets bigger every year in the USA, and also in Europe.
If you have mal social security or insurances and there happens something to you, if you cannot afford it, you end up selling your house, car or whatever. And when you don't have these things of your own, you end up in the streets. It is hart breaking if you see that the US goverment, spend more on the war in Iraq, then on their social security for their own people in the USA. Where will this lead to.

In Belgium more and more people, leave a petrol station without paying for their gas, that is a bad sign to the economy, it means that more and more people are not able to pay for their petrol for their car anymore.
At the current rates I am not suprised, we pay about 1,78 $ for 1 liter diesel.