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The mentally disturbed woman whose videotaped manic meltdown on a MARTA train became an instant viral sensation was still in a DeKalb County lock up as of yesterday, according to DeKalb’s justice system website.

Nafiza Iman Ziyad, the self proclaimed “Soulja Girl” – dubbed “MARTA Girl” by bloggers – was arrested after being positively identified by the senior citizen who was the target of the brunt of Nafiza’s verbal tirade on the train.

The above mugshots culled from Nafiza’s booking info online shows the progression of her mental illness since being diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in 2003. The graphic video and its aftermath has been virtually ignored by the AJC and other national media outlets.

Do I have to say that if the elderly woman was white instead of black, the incident on MARTA would have been headline news for a week straight?

Need I say that if the old woman was white instead of black, the AJC’s biased editors would demand to know what MARTA planned to do to ensure the safety of “the public”?

IS THIS STORY in the AJC more important than the story of a young black woman who fell between the cracks of Georgia’s inadequate mental health system?

Is it not important for the local rag paper to throw a spotlight on the lack of funding for mental health services in Georgia prisons?

Does the AJC’s lack of coverage of this story imply that working class blacks and Hispanics who make up the majority of MARTA’s ridership don’t count because research studies show they don’t read the AJC?

As a matter of fact, the only local media outlet to mention this story consistently is WSB’s Channel 2 Action News. Today, Channel 2 plans to reveal more information about Nafiza’s troubled past – apparently she’s been in the news before.

By the way, Channel 2 Action News is the ratings leader beating out all other local news programs in the April sweeps. Why am I not surprised?