By JaKeen Fox
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it received a 911 call shortly after 1 a.m. on Monday, January 7th, 2019 from a person who claimed that a man inside a West Hollywood apartment had stopped breathing and could not be resuscitated. When emergency responders arrived at the residence, a second-floor unit on Laurel Avenue, they declared the man dead.” – New York Times.
That man has been identified as Timothy Dean, a fashion stylist and former sex worker. This isn’t the first time the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department has received a call to this apartment. Two years earlier, Gemmel Moore, a 26 year old Black gay man was carried out of that same apartment, in that same body bag, because of the same drugs.
Gemmel Moore had made journal entries previous to his death (Read: Murder) that Ed Buck had gotten him addicted to multiple drugs, the worst being crystal meth, and enjoyed injecting them into Gemmel himself. I have no doubt that when the autopsy is completed, a meth overdose will be the cause of his death.
Since these events, countless community members have spoken out about knowing that Ed Buck preys on young Black gay men and insists on drugging them during their sexual encounters. Political activist, Jasmyne Cannick, has been very vocal about how other Black men like Gemmel Moore have contacted her, giving examples of the predatory practices Ed Buck uses on his victims.
Twitter exploded with the news of another Black gay man dead at the hands of Ed Buck. Black Twitter spent days asking how this could have happened again. Folks demanded justice for both Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean. Others wanted to understand why Democrats in West Hollywood hadn’t joined in the outrage after learning that a donor to many of their campaigns and organizations could also be a murderer. What followed was white person after white person saying that it doesn’t matter that Ed Buck is a democratic donor—and I want to tell you why the fuck it does.
As with most crimes committed by liberal leaning people, white folks didn’t want to believe that the crime was indicative of that person’s politics. As if the association between murder and Democrat, however true, was unnecessary or not critical to the headline. Progressive is defined as “favoring or implementing social reform or new, liberal ideas.†How does a murderer of Black gay men earn the title of progressive? When we think of the Democratic party, often, Black people are left with a body that touts ideas but quite intentionally refuses to enact those ideas in a way that truly saves the lives of Black people. The journey to “progressivism†for white people like Ed Buck is filled with allowances that carry a heavy cost for marginalized people.
We saw this with Hilary Clinton when a young Black woman protester asked her to address her previous comments labeling young Black men as “super predators.†That young woman was dismissed as if that question didn’t matter. As if that question didn’t provide a legitimate demonstration of how her husband’s institution of the ‘three strike rule’ in America’s criminal justice system created a culture of maximum penalty for minor offenses, leading to the mass incarceration system as we know it. As if ideas we apologize for later can somehow negate the terror we have instilled on people’s lives.
Remember when we all agreed with Kanye that “George Bush hates Black people� Our evidence being his indolent response to the devastation faced by Black people due to Hurricane Katrina. Then George Bush started giving Michelle Obama candy and we started agreeing he “was cute.†Candy is for George Bush what Democratic donations is for Ed Buck.
A symptom of progressivism is the call for revisionism. In the Democratic attempt to implement social reform at any cost, it allows for any and all crimes to be forgiven in its name. Especially the crimes against Black people, if they can be considered crimes at all. The intense desire to separate white people’s personhood from the crimes they commit on behalf of whiteness has left the Democratic party impotent—and that matters.
It matters because I can’t be the only one that is tired of being used up. It matters because as a policy influencer in my state, I need to make a case for either strategic participation or mass divestment from the Democratic party. Yes, we do know that Democrats exploit the Black vote. It could be true that withholding our vote might not be the powerful answer we hoped it would. But I need to know how Ed Buck gets to be a murderer and a progressive? That is an insult to me, and it should be to any person with a moral compass.
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JaKeen Fox is a 29 year old social commentator and cultural critic. He hopes to use his writing to encourage and empower Black people to live their Blackest lives, however they intuit that, without apology.
