Megan Williams: A Case of Torture and Captivity in West Virginia

By Lorraine Hayden Published Sep 12, 2007

This week while our country mourns those lost during the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, a young woman lays in the hospital severely traumatized after being tortured and held captive for 6 days in a West Virginia home. This young woman went missing from her home for days, but there was no national coverage of her disappearance. Why it is some cases get more coverage than others?The victim is a 20 year old black woman named Megan Williams. Her captors are no strangers to the Logan County criminal justice system. Frankie Brewster, her son Bobbie R. Brewster, Danny J. Combs, Karen Burton, her daughter Alisha Burton and George A. Messer have all been arrested in connection to the brutality towards Megan Williams. The FBI has been consulted as to whether or not to handle this as a hate crime being that the accused are all white. According to CNN.com an anonymous tip about a young woman being held against her will lead police to 49 year old Frankie Brewster's trailer. There police found Megan Williams with black eyes, stab wounds and part of her hair pulled out. Ms. Williams' tells police her captors forced her to eat dog and rat feces. She was made to drink from a toilet.Here we are fighting enemies across the ocean in a war against terrorism, and right here on our own soil we have Americans torturing other Americans simply because of the color of their skin. This is a sad and sick case to say the least. Well let me say any case of American on American crime is horrible, regardless of race. How can we win a war on radical Islamic terrorism if we can not keep our own home grown "terrorist" in check? Where's the outrage?The Michael Vick dog fighting news gained mass television news coverage, but yet here we have a clear case of brutality against a human and not a peep about it on television news outlets. His brutality towards dogs is indeed horrible, but where is the same outrage for the mistreatment and brutality against a fellow human being? As with the Jena 6 case, Megan Williams' story seems to be ignored by most of those in the mainstream media. What's next?Clearly, if Megan Williams' captors are not charged with a hate crime, expect to hear voices of outrage from the African American community. Ms. Williams tells the police she was called racial slurs while one of her captors cut her on the ankle with a knife. This is a tragedy for all Americans. Here it is 2007 and race relations in this country are still being played out like its 1887. We are no where united together as a country. On September 11, 2001 people of many different races were killed in the attacks against our country. We also have heroes from different races and backgrounds who saved lives that day. Blacks, Whites and Latinos are over in Iraq right now fighting side by side for this country. But yet, there are people who continue to think they are more superior than others. Megan Williams and The Jena 6 prove that today there still remains a great racial divide in this country