Kansas City, MO: Police called reports of missing black women “unfounded”; then one escaped her captor’s basement – National & International News – THU 20Oct2022

Police said reports of missing black women “unfounded”; then one escaped her captor’s basement. GOP vows to cut Medicare, Social Security if they win House. Truss out as UK PM.

NATIONAL NEWS

Police called reports of missing black women “unfounded”; then one escaped her captor’s basement

In Kansas City, MO, tensions and distrust between the city’s black community and its police force have been building for years. The federal government is currently investigating the police force for charges of racial discrimination and harassment of black officers. Black residents say there is also a long history of abuse by police and that they do no trust their police department to keep them safe.

These fears recently found justification in a horrific case. Late last month, the Kansas City Defender, a black-owned and operated non-profit new organization, raised the alarm when black residents came forward with reports that at least three black women had recently gone missing from 85th St. and Prospect Ave, an area known for prostitution. One black community leader, Bishop Tony Caldwell, also claimed that four black women had been murdered in the area. 

At the time, KCPD dismissed the reports saying they were “completely unfounded”. But the worries about the three missing black women at least proved to be true.

A month in captivity

Earlier this month, a 22-year-old black woman escaped from a basement in Excelsior Springs, a quiet residential community northeast of Kansas City. The young woman, identified as T.J. in court documents, said she had been held captive and repeatedly raped and whipped for over a month. T.J. made a break for freedom when her captor, 39-year-old Timothy Haslett Jr., who is white, left the home to take his child to school. She ran to the home of a neighbor, nurse Lisa Johnson. Johnson said T.J. was emaciated and nearly naked, wearing nothing but “S&M-type” latex lingerie. She also had scars around her wrists and ankles from being shackled to the wall of Haslett’s basement. Around her neck was duct tape and a metal dog collar, which Johnson described as a homemade shock collar.

By the time Johnson called police, she returned outside to see T.J. running to the home of Ciara Tharp. Tharp’s grandmother put a blanket around T.J. and gave her some food. T.J. told Tharp’s grandmother that Haslett had killed two other black women that were in the basement with her and that he had killed other women as well. 

Furthermore, T.J. said she was taken from Prospect Ave in Kansas City, exactly the area black community members had indicated.

A “loner” with white supremacist views

Haslett has been charged with rape, kidnapping and assault but not murder. Police in Excelsior Springs say they are investigating the possibility that Haslett similarly victimized two other women, but say they have no information about any killings. 

Ryan Sorrell of the Kansas City Defender found social media posts from Haslett indicating that he had white supremacist views and believed we were in a “race war”.

Neighbors of Haslett said that he was “a loner” but that they had no idea what he was doing. They claim never to have seen women in his house. However, they say that his young son was in the home while the alleged crimes were taking place.

It’s not certain how long Haslett has been capturing women or how many victims he may have. One neighbor said that Haslett, a former railroad construction worker, told her in 2020 that he was retiring due to a heart condition. He then began receiving numerous packages daily through the mail. Police say he had constructed a special room in his basement where the tortures took place.

KCPD response

Following T.J.’s rescue and Haslett’s arrest, Kansas City police told the Defender: “We base our investigations on police incident reports of criminal activity. We do still maintain that there is no indication that what you guys reported was accurate and there was no indication that there was anything that supported that claim”.

KCPD says no one had filed any missing persons reports with them. Sorrell at the Defender says that at no time following his initial reporting did KCPD reach out to him to learn more about the reports of missing women. In a statement, Bishop Tony Caldwell said that he had raised concerns publicly to alert police. He did so because “people in the street don’t trust [KCPD] and now we can see that’s rightfully so“.

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GOP vows to cut Medicare, Social Security if it wins House

Various GOP leaders in Congress have recently spoken openly about their desire to cut funding to Medicare and Social Security if they win the House in November, as polls predict they will. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the four Republican hopefuls to be the next chair of the House Budget Committee have all said they hope to use their positions in the next Congress to decrease so-called “entitlements”. Funding for “entitlements” is deducted from all working Americans’ paychecks to see them through retirement.

McCarthy and the other GOPers say they will use the next debt ceiling negotiations to force concessions from the Democrats. Raising the debt ceiling is necessary to allow the US to meet its debt obligations. It does not increase spending, it only pays down debt the government has already accrued. Failing to raise the debt ceiling would force a default on US debt and send the economy spiraling. Mere delays in approval in the past have resulted in the federal government’s credit rating being downgraded.

Republicans have often used threats not to raise the debt ceiling as a particularly perilous bargaining chip in negotiations. The GOP have consistently fended off past efforts to raise the debt ceiling automatically and thus end these dangerous impasses.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Truss out as UK PM

After just 45 days, Liz Truss has resigned as British Prime Minister. Following the resignation of her predecessor Boris Johnson, Truss won a vote to lead the Conservative Party and become the new Prime Minister. Only the Conservative Party’s 172,000 dues-paying members could participate in this vote, representing 0.5% of the UK’s population. Truss says she will leave office in a week or so to give the party a chance to hold yet another leadership contest.

Almost from day one, Truss’ stock began to depreciate. She initially swore in Kwasi Kwarteng, a relative unknown, as Chancellor of the Exchequer (equivalent to Finance Minister). Together, Kwarteng and Truss embarked on a controversial economic plan that would reduce taxes, primarily for the wealthiest Britons, while taking on a huge amount of sovereign debt. With this tenuous funding, Truss had also promised to heavily subsidize Britons’ energy costs for up to two years.

News of these reforms sent markets into a tailspin and ultimately gutted the value of the British pound. Truss was forced to oust Kwarteng in favor of Jeremy Hunt. Hunt promptly reversed every part of Truss’ economic plan. Having lost all credibility and legitimacy, Truss’ fellow Conservatives quickly began calling for her resignation. Initially she resisted, saying that she was “a fighter, not a quitter”. Today, she bowed to the inevitable.

A week ago, British tabloid The Daily Star set up a webcam on an unrefrigerated head of lettuce to see whether it or Truss’ tenure as PM would last longer. The lettuce won.

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