SMHNews: Voodoo Mother Facing 17 Years For Setting Her Daughter On Fire… June 7, 2011

by: PatriceJohnson, Your Black World

Marie Lauradin, 31…

On Monday, Marie Lauradin was sentenced to 17 years in prison for setting her six year old daughter, Frantzcia Saintil on fire during a voodoo ritual to cast away demons…

Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter charged Lauradin after finding out that she lied to police about Saintil’s scars. Lauradin claimed that she accidentally spilled boiling water on the young girl, then claimed that she rubbed Saintil with alcohol because of a fever that she was suffering from. Lauradin finally decided to tell the truth after speaking with her lawyer…

Lauradin admitted to setting her daughter on fire and lacking to get her medical attention for another 24 hours.

Saintil has 25% of her body covered in scars, and the poor girl has scars on her face that she constantly gets teased about by her peers at school. Being teased has caused her to act angrily toward the other children that she comes in contact with.

That poor girl will always suffer from shame because of her crazy a** mother… SMH

AddressTheIssue: High School Basketball Player Killed Outside A Birthday Party…

by: PatriceJohnson, Your Black World

Ryan Royall, 17…

As an amazing student and standout basketball player at Hillcrest High School, Ryan Royall hoped that his love for basketball would one day help him to be able to get a scholarship to go off to college… But all of his dreams of going to college and making a better life for himself and his family were shattered on June 5th at approximately 12:30 a.m.

Royall was leaving a birthday party at Ho-Chunk Sports and Expo Center in south suburban Lynwood with his friend, Olajuwan Harris on that Sunday night. As they headed to their car they heard a disturbance in another parking lot and right after that gun shots rang out. Both of the boys hit the ground.

“I can’t believe Ryan is gone,” said Harris, 17. “He was a big part of my life. We were together all the time.”

The Hillcrest basketball team will dearly miss Royall, as they were supposed to play in the championship on Monday… After Royall had gotten them there.

This is another life cut short… No, he wasn’t in a gang, he wasn’t dealing drugs, he wasn’t a bully, he was just an all around good kid. He loved basketball, his family and his friends yet his is still another life that has been lost to violence…

AddressTheIssue: Gabrielle Union Talks About Trying To Shoot Her Rapist… June 6, 2011

by: PatriceJohnson, Your Black World

Gabrielle Union give Rihanna credit for her video…

After all of the heat that Rihanna has been getting this week someone finally applauds her for her music video, “Man Down”… Even though I feel that America should be applauding Rihanna all at the same time for being so brave and talking about something that affects all people, Gabrielle Union speaking on the video shows that all people go through the same things…

While in Washington DC. this past weekend, Union attended the National Advisory Committee of Violence Against Women… She spoke about her rape, as she has many times before but one fact that many of us didn’t know is that she tried to shoot her rapist, as Rihanna had acted out in her music video. She stated that she was glad that the bullets didn’t hit her rapist because it would have “added insult to injury…”

I am glad that Union and Rihanna both decided to come out and talk about this issue, being that it is a real issue that happens to real people… My hat goes off to both of these ladies for being so brave…