Michelle Noce

Hi Ladies,

I have many ideas about all three videos that I would love to share here, but for brevity (and so I do not take over the discussion) I will just relate the story I began telling you about at the end of class. It directly relates to (and exemplifies) the last video on women and the media. Yesterday it came to my attention on facebook that a woman I had gone to high school, Michelle Carrey Noce, with had died under "suspicious circumstances". Admittedly I had not thought of this woman since high school, she was not someone I knew well, but I went to a fairly small high school in central NY so there was no one at my school that I didn't know in some capacity. Her obituary spoke of her "unexpected death" and described her  as an animal lover who had studied equestrian science and worked in childcare. She was survived by a son , her parents, and various other family. This seemed about right in my memory: caring, quiet, happy. However, the mention of the "suspicious circumstances" from the facebook post left me still curious, so I searched the news. I came to find out that she had been homeless for some time. This in and of itself is shocking, to find out that someone from my childhood had been so unfortunate as to be utterly homeless and desperately trying to survive on the streets. It clarifies how simply a single turn or change of events could imagine any one of us in her circumstances, in a future she never imagined for herself as she studied animal science or was working with children. However, the two news reports I read told her story in a very different way. And after having just watched Kamerick's video it was amazing to encounter this disparity in reporting so quickly and obviously. Both articles reported on the basic facts: she was found unconscious under a bridge in downtown Syracuse with head injury that ultimately led to her death. She was well known in the area by other homeless persons and social workers. She had been previously abused. However, here is the first article I read:
 http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/09/syracuse_police_still_unsure_h.html

The Title" Syracuse Police still unsure how homeless woman suffered injury" implies that it could've been an accident or careless/drunkeness? despite the fact that a witness (homeless) is cited in the article saying she was 'jumped". Two men are quoted in the article (and they are specifically defined as "homeless" /friends). One is quoted as a witness as saying she was "sitting at the corner with a cardboard sign 'when she was jumped.' And the other was generally quoted as stating that she had been known to be in abusive relationships. This framing of her death reminds me of the "she was wearing makeup" details that Kamerick cites in her example articles. The rest of the article goes on to assure that this does not mean that they are 'cracking down" on the homeless. Then the final say in the article is from the police chief:

Since Cecile got involved with the problem in 2008, everyone in the homeless population who was offered services has refused them, he said.
"There are beds, places for them to stay,” he said. “They just choose not to take them.”

To end the article in this way seems to imply "hey, she got what was coming"

Here is the link to the second article:
 http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/09/homeless_woman_found_under_syr.html

The second article, reported by a woman:  Days before she died, homeless Syracuse woman told pal she was being harrassed"
...a very different picture, just comparing the titles...

The second article provides a much fuller picture of Michelle, it includes recent pictures  of her conversing with a local food pantry owner. It tells a story of a woman reaching out for help and enmeshed in a complex community and a victim of personal violence. Yet not a woman who was willing to remain victimized, but had spoken out, looking for help. Her emotions were present, she was the center of the story.