XPost: la.general, alt.politics.media, alt.business
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Since 2017, activists have demanded justice for Timothy Dean
(55) and Gemmel Moore (26), two Black men who died in the West
Hollywood home of prominent Democratic donor Ed Buck. Multiple
reports allege that Buck had a history of luring Black men to
his home, where he would reportedly inject them with crystal
meth for sexual gratification.

On July 27, 2017, Moore, who worked as an escort, was the first
of two men to die in Buck's home. Paramedics reportedly found
Moore nude on a mattress in Buck's living room with "male
pornography movie playing on the television," according to a Los
Angeles County coroner's report. Ed Winter, a spokesperson for
the coroner's office, said Buck was inside his home at the time
of Moore's death and that drug paraphernalia was recovered from
the scene. According to the Los Angeles Times, police reportedly
uncovered sex toys, 24 syringes, five glass pipes, and a plastic
straw with drug-usage residue, and "clear plastic bags with
suspected methamphetamine in a tool box roll-cabinet in the
living room."

Following a year-long investigation by the LA County Sherriff's
Department, Buck was officially not charged in connection with
Moore's death, which was ruled accidental. When Dean was found
dead in Buck's home this January, a coalition of 50 civil-rights
organizations put pressure on officials to investigate the death
and ultimately charge Buck.

In February, Moore's mother LaTisha Nixon, filed a wrongful
death lawsuit in California Superior Court against Buck, Los
Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, the assistant district
attorney and others. Finally, on September 17, when a 37-year-
old man survived an overdose after being injected by Buck, he
was arrested and charged with three counts of battery causing
serious injury, distributing methamphetamine resulting in death,
and maintaining a drug house.

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In a federal court filing last week, prosecutors claim Buck has
reportedly exploited at least 10 men, offering them drugs, sex,
and money. If convicted of the federal charge, Buck could face a
mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in federal prison to a
maximum sentence of life without parole.

When the news first broke about Moore's death, Los Angeles-based
activist Jasmyne Cannick was one of those leading the charge to
hold Buck accountable. In July 2018, after Moore's death was
determined an accident, she wrote on Twitter: "If another young,
Black gay man overdoses or worse dies at Democratic donor Ed
Buck's apartment it's going to be the fault of the sheriff's
dept and L.A. District Atty for not stopping him when they had
the opportunity to."

Set Heru, a New York artist/activist, is another name voicing
dissent against Ed Buck's crimes. Last year, he began posting
art on his Instagram inspired by his relationship to the men who
died under Buck's watch. While Heru did not know them
personally, his lived experience as a young, queer Black man and
former sex worker in recovery from crystal meth addiction
catalyzed his activism.

He got involved with an established online campaign through the
website Justice4Gemmel.org, ultimately aimed at providing
assistance to the legal experts and relatives pursuing justice
for Moore. Heru also created shirts reading, "Justice For Gemmel
Moore, Fuck Ed Buck, Justice for Timothy Dean," and handed them
out during the Queer Liberation March on NYC's World Pride
weekend. In doing so, Heru established contact with Moore's
mother and Dean's sister, and has constantly given voice to the
intersectional issues at play in the Ed Buck case: that of
systemic injustice against queer Black and Brown bodies, when
the perpetrator is a white man using his connections and power
to prey on their vulnerability.

PAPER caught up with Heru after Buck's arrest to discuss, among
the above issues, how his journey in sobriety motivated him to
seek justice for those who have been in similar situations.

How did you first get drawn to this case?

I started following it back in May 2018. I was down in Florida
and I made some art about the crystal meth epidemic, and I
dedicated the piece to Gemmel Moore. His mom contacted me and
was like, "I really appreciate what you're doing, more people
need to talk about it." At the time it was crazy because I think
I was nine months sober [the first time around, before
relapsing]. I was in this place where I was making noise about
it back then, but I was doing it in a passive way. I was like,
"I'm going to make these pictures and I want people to think
about what they think crystal meth looks like."

When I came back from my relapse in December, I learned about
Timothy Dean a month later. I was outraged that nobody was
talking about it. I was going to these CMA [Crystal Meth
Anonymous] meetings at The Center and I wasn't hearing about it.
I thought that this a place where people should be feeling some
kind of way because this is the community this whole mess
happened within, but that wasn't the case. At first I wanted to
protest in front of the Center to move them to act against Ed
Buck. I was going to get two of my big, hot, Black buff-bodied
guy friends and put them in little speedos with a big ass sign
that says, "Because you sexualize and fetishize our Black
bodies, when we die no one hears us."

What you were noticing at the Center only strengthened your
mission, I'd imagine.

I noticed that everybody white is coming into this building and
getting the help they need, meanwhile, Black communities are
disadvantaged because they don't have the community or the
resources. It's no shade to the Center, but the institution
symbolizes a place where white men are able to go get their
mental health treatment, their addiction treatment, all of this
money going into their programs for, what seems like the queer
community, in my opinion, it's mostly benefiting white queer
community. There's no larger system in place to help get queer
Black and Brown men off the streets when they're on drugs, and I
wish there was, just all around. White gay men who use crystal
meth are able to do it for longer and have less consequences
than Black men. Because of that disproportionality, white men
can then prey upon Black men in these situations. Crystal meth
was not a drug Black men did until it came to the inner cities.
It came to the party scene back in the '80s, and it's still a
thing where if you are a gay Black man in the party scene, you
probably aren't smoking crystal meth unless it is supplied from
the outside. I knew I had to do something.

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Many think that Gemmel Moore wound up in the situation he did in
part because of systemic oppression of disenfranchised people,
and also because he was vulnerable and lacked resources.

That's the reason why so many guys I know end up in this
situation like Gemmel did. In his diary that was published,
Gemmel said he never even did crystal meth. He started doing it
with Ed Buck — that Ed Buck was the first person to shoot him
up. And then he became addicted and then he's like, "I don't
even want to do this [...] I know maybe I just want to kill
myself." He's like, "I'll just allow Ed Buck to do it for me for
the time being." Ed Buck is basically telling Gemmel that he's
going to end up killing him, and then it ultimately happened.

I think there's so many things that could be done, definitely
looking at the housing problem — mainly just starting the
conversation. I reached out to places like The Center to see if
we could create a larger dialogue around this issue. I thought
about putting Gemmel's mother on a panel hosted there to tell
her story about what it's like to lose her son to this epidemic.
I wanted that conversation to be one for other mothers who lost
their Black sons whether, queer or not, to drug addiction. I
can't imagine what it would feel like and my Mom can't imagine
what it would feel like if that had happened to me. I wanted to
help Gemmel's mom find a place to tell her story, because no one
even asked, or looked at how she felt or still feels.

"Even if you don't relate, this should enrage you because it is
another human life completely disregarded."
You said you see yourself in men like Dean and Moore, but
especially with Moore because you're closer in age. Can you talk
more about that?

Absolutely, and that's why I was so enraged. That was literally
my experience, being in powerful, rich, white men's homes doing
drugs that they gave me. It wasn't all the time that I wanted
to, it's because I had no other choice. I had no place to stay,
I didn't have access to resources that could improve my
situation. If I could go on Grindr and get a date and have a
place to stay at night, that was my only goal. If there were
drugs involved, that was even better. But there were a lot of
times when I didn't even want to, and that's what connected me
so much to these guys. It enraged me that people that said they
cared about me, wanted the best for me, and they couldn't see
the relationship and connection between me and those guys. I am
Gemmel Moore. I just didn't have the same fate and the same
outcome, luckily and praise to God, I was able to get out of it.

Then, too, is this idea that these men weren't loved. I came
from a home where my mom loved me, Gemmel's mother loves him.
Black boys and men are loved. Queer Black boys and men are
loved. I just want to let people know that even if that hasn't
been your experience and you didn't walk down that path, maybe
you know someone who is. Even if you don't relate, this should
enrage you because it is another human life completely
disregarded. That was my whole premise for wanting to rally and
bring awareness. I don't know if it's going to have any
difference at all in the world, if people are really going to
care — and some people still don't.

The Los Angeles Times acknowledged that Buck has charges against
him now because of Black activists uniting to put pressure on
the justice system. There were thousands of people at the Queer
Liberation March, and at least a hundred that walked up to me
and asked, "Who is Ed Buck?," that didn't even know who he was.
We passed out the "Fuck Ed Buck" and "Meth Is Murder" shirts for
free. I was putting my own money into making these shirts. I
didn't make any money off of it, and the money that I did make
on the shirts that we made, I gave that money directly to
Moore's mother and she was able to get to LA for a hearing. So I
felt good that I was able to actually do something.

Do you think there is a discrepancy in how Buck is being charged?

It's sad because the fact it took this long to bring any charges
against him only highlights the disparity of how powerful men
like Buck get away with stuff like this. If a Black or Brown man
were distributing and administering meth to people, they'd be
thrown in jail ASAP. When Mac Miller died, the DA and the LAPD
instantly investigated his death, instantly charged the drug
dealer who gave them the drugs. Why is it that Mac Miller's
white body — and maybe it was his fame — but why is his death
more significant than somebody like Gemmel Moore who was
homeless and a sex worker? Why is the white body more important?

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Have you been in touch with the families of the men since
hearing of Buck's charges?

It does feel like a win, though sadly a third victim had to
survive an overdose before anyone wanted to do anything. His
mother wrote me a message yesterday saying, "He's been exposed,
I'm crying tears of joy, he's due in court, Jackie [the district
attorney] better do her damn job. Thanks for all you've done,
here's a victory for all of us." I don't know this woman
personally and I've never met her physically, and yet we have
this bond that is all love.

I've been connecting with other activists, from Ashlee Marie
Preston to Jasmyne Cannick; she's the person who actually got
Gemmel Moore's diary published. In LA, she connected with
neighbors of Ed Buck to get them to monitor him when the DA
wasn't doing anything. His neighbors are the reason why that
third photo surfaced. Somebody took a picture and was like,
"This is not right, he hasn't stopped his behaviors." The night
that Gemmel was pulled out of his house, he had another Black
guy roll up to his house the same night. It was insanity to see
that. If the white gay community is saying they are pro-all
lives, then why don't all Black gay lives matter? Why don't
Black trans lives matter? Why are you not doing more to address
the homelessness and issues stemming from that facing our
community?

https://www.papermag.com/ed-buck-set-hero- 2640561179.html?rebelltitem=19#rebelltitem19

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