#kiwi herring

[ithelpstodream]

rest in power 😔✊

[gaywrites]

In memory of Kiwi Herring, the 18th known transgender person killed this year

"Her neighbor was homophobic and made fun of her," her sister-in-law said.

Earlier this week, Kiwi Herring, a 30-year-old transgender woman from Mississippi, was shot and killed by police in St. Louis, Missouri. This makes her the 18th trans person we know to have been murdered in the U.S. in 2017. 

Police had been called to her home after reports of an incident of violence, where she reportedly cut a neighbor with a knife and also cut one officer on the arm. Kiwi’s family said the neighbor had a history of harassing and threatening her for being who she was. 

On Wednesday, dozens of people held a candlelight vigil for Kiwi and then took to the streets to protest her murder when a car drove into a group of the protesters. Thankfully, nobody was killed or seriously injured (three people sustained minor injuries), but it’s still a horrible addendum to an already tragic time for Kiwi’s family and community. The driver has been arrested. 

“Kiwi was harassed and executed and it’s a horrible feeling,” said Herring’s sister-in-law, Crevonda Nance. [...] 

Nance claims Herring had been a victim of ongoing harassment, which came to a head Tuesday morning.

“The neighbor was homophobic and made fun of her,” Nance said. “We couldn’t understand why he was so angry and why he cared about Kiwi’s sexual orientation.” [...]

“Kiwi was a slim-bottomed woman,” Nance said. “She did not look like she could hurt a fly. She probably was hysterical, but we feel excessive force was used.”

O’Toole said that as a matter of policy, the officers are on administrative leave, pending the investigation.

Terrible, terrible story. Rest in peace and power, Kiwi. 

[navigatethestream]

Like so many Black, trans people before them, and so many Black, trans people in their everyday lives, Kiwi and her partner were targeted first by interpersonal transphobia, and next by the state for daring to fight for their own lives. It was violence on all sides, and a refusal to see Black, trans lives as ones worth protecting, that led to her murder, and the arrest of her partner. At a vigil that same week, community gathered to mourn and celebrate Kiwi. A car drove into the crowd, injuring three attendees. Witnesses insist the driver jeered and harassed mourners before hitting them. The St. Louis police dispute this story—just as they dispute stories at the original murder scene—claiming community attacked the car first. We recount these events not just to tell Kiwi’s story, but to note how much of the violence faced by Black, trans people, their partners and their advocates mirrors that of other communities, yet receives very different reactions. The same hyper-militarized police force that aided in the killing of Mike Brown and the suppression of Ferguson almost exactly three years prior has struck again. The same tactics for violence heralded by white nationalists, pushed forward by bigoted lawmakers nationwide, which led to the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, VA, are being used against Black, queer and trans protesters. We want to see the same response, the same calls for defense and justice for our communities that we have lately seen for others. In this moment we are tired. We know other oppressed communities are tired, too. We know each of us must wake up day after day to the same old violence, and the constantly growing threats of new violence. We know the attacks on are communities feel unceasing, even escalating. We speak Kiwi’s name to remind us not only that there is nothing new about these threats, but that they are being leveled against us because we are winning. It is hard to believe we are winning when we are losing our loved ones, our rights, our most basic needs on a daily basis. But we must remember the persecution of undocumented, immigrant, women, Muslim, Black, hood, working, queer, and trans communities are facing on a systemic level is a direct response to the power of our movements, the force of our voices, the vision we have laid out for a more just world. The vehemence of the backlash is proportional to the effectiveness of our organizing. We cannot give up now. We speak Kiwi’s name as we call for demilitarization, including the demilitarizing and opening of all borders. We speak Kiwi’s name in honor of Black, trans undocumented youth and their families impacted by the repealing of DACA, and the other renewed attacks on immigrant people. We speak Kiwi’s name in honor of worker power, of a living wage. We speak Kiwi’s name in honor of police and prison abolition, in fierce demand for the funding of needed social services, and the redistribution of this empire’s wealth. We speak Kiwi’s name in honor of all women and girls impacted by partner violence, community violence, Islamophobia, and state terror. We speak Kiwi’s name as we envision struggles for justice which are global in scope, uniting not just our disparate identities, but our histories, and our demands.

We Must Keep Fighting for Kiwi Herring by The BTGNC Collective

[rev-krissy]

Kiwi Herring was shot and killed yesterday (822/17) by police in Saint Louis making her the 18th transgender human lost to violence this year. The Post-Dispatch and other local media have repeatedly and persistently mis-gendered and dead-named Kiwi.

MTUG (Metro Trans Umbrella Group) is raising money for Kiwi’s family and final expenses. Here’s their Facebook.

[jollysunflora]

Well, another black trans woman has been forcibly taken from us.

Kiwi Herring was shot in front of her two year old. I fucking hate my country. Of course they're misgendering her...

[thisissparta789789]

Why are people celebrating a woman (Kiwi Herring) who stabbed a cop and got shot? Does her being transgender automatically excuse her of wrongdoing?

Stab a cop, expect to get shot. It’s that simple.

[ithelpstodream]

no matter what they say, she didn’t deserve to die.

[drag-tween]

St. Louis man gets one year of probation for driving into protest in city's Grove district

Mark Colao's case will disappear from public view if he successfully completes his one-year probation

MORE BREAKING NEWS:

A St. Louis man who drove his car into a protest last year in the city’s Grove district was put on probation for one year in exchange for his guilty pleas Thursday to three misdemeanors. St. Louis Associate Circuit Judge Calea Stovall-Reid gave Mark Colao, 60, a suspended one-year sentence and placed him on probation. The case will disappear from public view if he successfully completes probation. Colao, of the 2900 block of St. Vincent Avenue, drove his car through protesters who were blocking Manchester Avenue and Sarah Street in the Grove neighborhood Aug. 23 after a nearby vigil to honor [redacted] “Kiwi” Herring, a transgender woman fatally shot by St. Louis police officers a day earlier. Police had said Herring stabbed a man and attacked an officer with a knife. After Colao drove his car through the protesters, he raised his middle finger to a police officer who pulled alongside his car, and “accelerated aggressively” as he left the scene, authorities said. The circuit attorney’s office charged Colao with a felony and two misdemeanors last summer but a St. Louis grand jury in November instead handed down misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest, careless and imprudent driving, and leaving the scene of an accident. Colao’s lawyer Joel Schwartz said Colao was “scared and made some poor choices at the time” and “should have made a U-turn. That’s where he made a mistake.” He also said he believes some of the protesters could have been charged with property damage because “they were jumping on his car, smacking his car,” leaving dents. Schwartz also said that Colao “fully supports what they were protesting about.” –30–

So the driver says he fully supported the protestors, but his lawyer said he was "scared" enough to give the cops the middle finger before driving into the crowd? Which side was he on? Also, I don't think the cops that went on the call received any jail time or even probation for killing Herring (the local Fox station only used the deadname in its reporting). And it was only to resolve a dispute with an upstairs neighbour. Incidentally Herring and her spouse (reportedly also a ttrans woman) were African-American while the motorist is white.