Found dead on the military base in Balad, Iraq in July, 2005, a short time after she began serving there, the United States Army ruled 19 year old Pfc. Lavena Johnson’s death as a suicide resulting from a self-inflicted M-16 rifle shot wound, and sent her home in a box. This ruling despite the fact she was found with a broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, acid burns on her genitals (which some suggest were to eliminate DNA evidence of rape), a trail of blood leading away from her tent, and a bullet hole in her head . Five years later I m hard pressed to find any mention of Lavena Johnson, save a rare OMG – WTF post from someone who has only recently discovered the case. There was some coverage in Australia last year, as the story suddenly popped up there as if it hadn’t been heard before.

I wrote of it in The New Yorker, Obama, and Real Tragedy, only a couple of years ago — the first of several posts I wrote on her case. Though the incident occurred in the summer of 2005, that summer of 2008 was the first I had come across it. The coverage at it’s peak was found most often in a few progressive newspapers and blogs. Despite a petition with 50,000 signatures instigated by Color of Change, and in the summer of 2008 an oversight hearing on sexual assault (by the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs) — to address sexual abuse in the military, the hope that Lavena’s case could be presented were shattered. Lavena’s case was not addressed, the case remains a suicide we all know never occurred.

Time passes, I understand. Obama gets elected, banks fail, we lose a our money, tea baggers go nuts, oil gets spilled, Lindsey Lohan gets drunk, Michael Jackson dies, someone is dancing with the stars, and insurance companies win. For all our losses we are preoccupied, and a murdered young solider and the subsequent cover-up, no matter how horrific, slip our mind.

That Lavena Johnson is not the first, and will not be the last, bear keeping in mind, on this memorial day.

Lavena Johnson: The Silent Truth

Link Collection:

Lavena Johnson

LaVena L. Johnson
Lavena Johnson
Press release from Color of Change.org(50,000 sign petition)
Female Buyers Beware of Obama’s Call to Service
Who Murdered Army Pvt Lavena Johnson?
The Cover-Up of a Soldiers’ Death
The tragic story of LaVena Johnson
Defense Dept. Uncooperative in Sexual Assault Hearings
LaVena Johnson’s Update:Oversight Hearing on Sexual Assault in the Military This Morning at 10:00 EST
Color of Change Launches Campaign to Get hearings for LaVena JohnsonTracey Barnett: Women GIs in fear of the enemy in their army
Suicide or Murder? Three Years After the Death of Pfc. LaVena Johnson in Iraq, Her Parents Continue Their Call for a Congressional InvestigationU.S. Army Private LaVena Lynn Johnson, RIP
The Next Pat Tillman-Style Cover-Up?
LaVena Johnson: Raped and Murdered on a Military Base in Iraq
LaVena L. JohnsonLaVena Johnson: Murdered By Her Colleagues, Ignored By The Army
Justice for Pfc. LaVena Johnson

Dark Secrets is a piece about Lavena Johnson running on SBS Dateline in Australia the 29th of May, according to Lavena Johnson web site. You can view the show directly now Dark Secrets.

Other posts I’ve done about, or including, Lavena Johnson’s story.

The New Yorker, Obama, and Real Tragedy
LaVena Johnson – redux
Quick Note
Private: LaVena Johnson (In Memorial) Where Is The Justice
Dinner Notes
He’s A Mad Scientist, and I’m His Beautiful Daughter
Female Buyers Beware of Obama’s Call to Service

A Mexican man named Luis Ramirez was beaten to death by three young white men “with bright futures”. The young men where acquitted of any charges which would indicate they killed this man. Though the jury went so far as to charge one guy with providing alcohol to minors, and charged the other two with “simple assault”.

Foreman: Not sure beyond reasonable doubt

An all-white jury of six men and six women heard from several prosecution witnesses, including a juvenile co-defendant and another teen who pleaded guilty in federal court for his role in the fight.

“I do believe that our verdict was a fair verdict given the evidence and the testimony that we had to work with. But I do believe that the four boys, and especially the two that were on trial, are guilty of those crimes, but there was not enough evidence to convict them beyond a reasonable doubt,” said jury foreman Eric Maclin, according to WNEP.com.

Guess it’s just too hard to figure out, when you are intoxicated, that kicking a downed man in the head again and again is the wrong thing to do. Too problematic for a white jury to see the the evidence for what it was — proof of a hate crime in which three men beat to death a man named Luis Raimiriz because he was Mexican. Take away the word Mexican for a minute and guess what the verdict would have been.

I guess it pays to be a white honor students with a jury looking out for your best interests.

Heads up Sauerkraut

Mexican’s Death Bares a Town’s Ethnic Tension
Hispanic group: Verdict is ‘outrage’
No murder conviction in Mexican immigrant’s beating death
Hispanic group asks Justice Dept. to intervene over acquittal in trial

Home of the free and land of the brave?

We don’t have to ask “what’s going on”. We know. The same thing has been going on as long as my grandmother can remember.