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If you Google Trey Songz’s name, you’re likely to stumble across several stories. And none of them have to do with music. Instead, there are three separate stories involving the singer’s violent altercations—mostly with women.

I’ll outline what’s going on and then we’ll discuss.

Last week, USA Today reported that the singer was embroiled in a violent altercation with the Detroit police department.

At least one of the officers and a photographer say they were assaulted by Songz in 2016 at the Joe Louis Arena in December 2016.

Robert Avery and the photographer Andrew Potter say they witnessed a scene complete with racial epithets, intoxication and “irate, uncooperative” behavior from Songz after his stage audio was cut off.

The suit claims that as a result of his anger, Songz caused serious head injuries to both men.

The photographer was struck in the head when Songz threw a microphone stand. It caused him to fall face first into the concrete floor.

Officers made their way to Songz’s dressing room to arrest him. There, the singer became combative punching Avery, allegedly injuring the sergeant’s hip.

Songz was charged with felony assault of the officer and aggravated assault against the photographer. The singer pled guilty to reduced counts of disturbing the peace and was sentenced to an 18-month probation, substance screening and anger management classes.

During the August hearing, Songz said, “I’d just like to give my apologies to the city of Detroit.”

The new suit claims that Avery, a 22-year-old officer, has suffered mental anguish, permanent scarring and loss of wages because of the incident.

In the mugshot for this particular arrest, Songz points his middle finger up at the camera.

Avery and Potter are seeking damages in the excess of $75,000.

In the second incident, another woman is suing Songz for twisting her arm, literally.

According to TMZ, the woman alleges Songz flew into a violent rage when they were trying to take a picture of him outside of a nightclub. She is also filing a lawsuit against him.

The suit claims that the singer went after the woman in the parking lot of Vanity Grand Cabaret in Philadelphia last year. She said her cousin was the one who tried to take the photo but the singer wasn’t here for it. She claims that Songz grabbed and twisted her arm and wrist. She said the episode sent her into a depression and she’s had to get psychiatric treatment. She believes her physical injuries could end up causing “cosmetic disfigurement.”

She’s suing for medical expenses and other damages.

Lastly, and by far the messiest of the three, involves a situation with a woman who claimed to be dating the singer alleged that instead of putting his hands on her, he solicited the help of two other women to do so.

According to theJasmineBrand, the story came to light when Songz posted a message on his Instagram story last week.

[middle finger emoji] 12 and you [rat emoji]

12 represents the police and the rat emoji is self-explanatory, a snitch. Instead of leaving fans to guess what this message might have meant, the woman he was subliminally referencing, spoke up to tell her own story. She explained that she and Songz had been dating and she felt humiliated when the singer ordered two women to “mob her” as he stood by and laughed. All of this took place because the woman said Trey was on drugs.

In response to his Instagram story, she created one of her own.

“@TreySongz, we can do this. You want to bring this to social media.”

“Drugs don’t only impact you. They impact everyone around and the people that care about you.”

“Did’ you yell ‘mob her’ because I walked past you and said, ‘Trey, you lied to me about doing drugs?’ Then I got jumped. I only pressed charges because you were laughing when they jumped me.”

“Mfs want to bring sh*t to social media. F*ck the cops and f*ck me. Whole time you had two b*tches, you’ve already f*cked on, jump me because I was upset about you doing drugs lmfao.”

There just seem to be too many instances of violence for us to ignore what’s going on with this one. So much so that I contemplated not writing this story because it seems to be one we’ve heard over and over again. It’s hard to distinguish which one is which. But I think it’s important to keep track of these stories because they remind me the importance of listening to Black women—the first time.

When Keke Palmer came out and said that she had been harassed by Songz during his video shoot, people raised all types of questions and doubts about her accusations. People accused her of seeking fame and attention, lying and the classic, trying to tear a Black man down. The doubt came from men and women, most notably Wendy Williams. Thankfully, Keke had the chance to check her when she appeared on her show later.

The question is why? I’m sure there are those who will look at this handful of incidents I’ve mentioned today and the others and still find an excuse for Songz. But I would think at this point, the evidence is pointing to an undeniable problem. Had we taken this problem seriously, the first time Keke brought it to our attention, it could have resulted in fewer of these incidents or at least caused some people to regard Songz with side eye…given his history.

Instead, in the year since Keke shared her story, there are have been at least five additional instances of violence that have been reported to the police. Interestingly enough, Keke’s own words on the subject, speak volumes about the ways in which we disregard Black women’s experiences.

 

Veronica Wells is the culture editor at MadameNoire.com. She is also the author of “Bettah Days” and the creator of the website NoSugarNoCreamMag. You can follow her on Facebook and on Instagram and Twitter @VDubShrug.
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