Jussie Smollett (screen capture via ABC News)
Abel and Ola Osundairo (image via the Osundairo’s since-deleted Instagram account)
Jussie Smollett (mugshot)
Jussie Smollett Indicted On New Charges Over Alleged Hoax Attack
Syracuse: Hate Crime Assault Results In 6 Month Jail Sentence
A man in upstate New York pleaded guilty to violently attacking a gay couple as they were leaving the New York state fair last August. Nicholas Ferlenda, 28, pleaded guilty to two hate crimes on Tuesday – fourth-degree criminal mischief and third-degree assault. According to the police reports, Ferlenda apparently became enraged at seeing one of the men put his arm around his boyfriend as they were leaving a concert event on August 24. Ferlenda began screaming obscenities and anti-LGBTQ slurs at the couple as they walked to their vehicle. He then punched one of the men in the face. The report states the men attempted to ignore him but the harassment continued for nearly half an hour. As they tried to leave the fairgrounds, they stopped to report the incident to a fair worker. But Ferlenda caught up to the car and punched the driver’s side window causing it to shatter. He was eventually taken into custody at 10:55 p.m. Police believe he may have been intoxicated. 
If Ferlenda hadn’t used specific anti-LGBTQ slurs he would have only faced two misdemeanors. But the hate speech bumped the charges up to felonies. Prosecutor Anthony Mangovski told the court on Tuesday Ferlenda’s actions demonstrated an “unbelievable” hatred, especially towards strangers. Mangovski urged the court to sentence Ferlenda to 1 to 3 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to one of the crimes. But state Supreme Court Justice Gordon Cuffy instead offered 6 months in jail and five years probation if Ferlenda copped to both hate crime felonies. He will also be required to pay for any damages he caused to the couple’s car as well as take part in diversity training. Additionally, he will face up to 8 years in prison if he is re-arrested before formal sentencing in April. (source: Syracuse.com)
Iowa Man Gets 16 Years In Prison For Burning Pride Flag
Adolfo Martinez (mugshot via Story County) Adolfo Martinez (screen capture)
News Round-Up: December 19, 2019
Tyler James (via Instagram)
@juliemason Obama golfing in Hawaii – living the best life. It looks like he’s been working out. Profiles in presidential golfing. pic.twitter.com/gM0e3fnCTx
— Santa Sees Everything (@DeniseTut) December 19, 2019
Gay Bashing Victim Left With Severe Head Injuries
A gay man was brutally attacked on the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland, after kissing another man in a bar. Christopher Haughey’s injuries to his head were so severe from the beating five staples were required to close the wound to his head. The 31-year-old told Belfast Live he walked to the bus stop on Saturday afternoon after spending time in a nearby bar. When he arrived at the bus stop, he realized he had a long wait ahead of him, so he walked to the other side of a building to eat food he’d purchased. “I came back round the corner and I was attacked at the lights,” Haughey. “It was two people: They pushed me and then hit me with something over the head.” He told the police he believes his assailants attacked him because they saw him kissing another man in the bar. “There’s no other reason why it would have happened.” The police were called to the scene, and they transported him to the Royal Victoria Hospital where he was treated. But the assault left him shaken. “It’s embarrassing that it’s happened, it’s humiliating,” said Haughey. “It really knocks your confidence. It’s embarrassing to lift your hand to anybody.” The Police Service of Northern Ireland are investigating the incident, and are asking for help in identifying and locating the men. The authorities ask anyone with information to call CrimeStoppers at 0800 555 111. (source: Belfast Live)
Pride Flag Burner Found Guilty Of Hate Crime, Faces 15 Years In Prison
Adolfo Martinez (screen capture) (mugshot via Story County)
Hate Crime Victim Left With Broken Jaw & No Teeth After Assault
Cedrick Green (mugshot)
Indiana Teen Beaten In High School Locker Room
Video footage of a high school student in Alexandria, Indiana, being attacked and beaten in the boy’s locker room was widely circulated among students and even sent to the boy’s mother. The reason for the attack? Being gay. Speaking to local NBC affiliate WTHR the young man said, “I’m not ok, but I will be.” The assault took place following gym class after he’d gotten dressed “The guy who attacked me was standing next to my locker and wouldn’t stop staring at me, so I had a weird feeling that something was about to happen,” the student told WTHR. What ‘happened’ was the student began shoving the teen. “He kept pushing me, but then he stopped pushing me and everything got quiet, so I thought he walked out,” said the young man. But the attacker didn’t leave, he’d merely paused before he began punching his victim. “I felt him punch me a couple more times and I got hit my face on the mirror and then he punched me in the head twice,” said the student. “It happened so fast. I can remember them holding me against the wall,” he added, explaining that two other students helped restrain him so he couldn’t fight back. The boy says he knows who his alleged attackers are and that they’d teased him before about being openly gay. “I’ve gotten so used to it over the years that it doesn’t phase me much,” he said. Eventually, another student stepped in and stopped the assault. When the teen’s mother took him to the hospital he was told his nose was broken. “I just tell myself to forget what happened and try to act like it never happened,” he said. School officials and Alexandria police both say they are investigating the incident. The alleged victim calls what happened a hate crime and has a message for others students targeted because of their sexuality. His parents say they’re not going to let what happened to their son get swept under a rug. They’ve been told by school officials that two of the students involved have been expelled, but WTHR was unable to confirm that. (source: WTHR)
London: Four Teens Arrested & Charged In Late Night Hate Crime
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| Melania Geymonat (R) with her girlfriend, Chris after being attacked on a London bus |
Police have arrested four teenagers in connection to a brutal homophobic attack on a London bus that left two women bloodied and severely injured.
London’s Metropolitan Police report the four teens, ranging in age from 15 to 17, have been charged for committing an aggravated hate crime.
One suspect was also charged with possession of cannabis, and another with theft and handling stolen goods.
I previously reported on the attack which occurred in the late-night hours of May 29.
Melania Geymonat and her girlfriend Chris say they were approached by the four suspects who began taunting them and demanding they kiss. When they refused, the teens reportedly assaulted them.
“We must have kissed or something because these guys came after us,” Geymonat said in a Facebook post. “They started behaving like hooligans, demanding that we kissed so they could enjoy watching, calling us ‘lesbians’ and describing sexual positions.”
The incident soon escalated as Geymonat shared, “The next thing I know is that Chris is in the middle of the bus fighting with them.”
“On an impulse, I went over there only to find her face bleeding and three of them beating her up,” she continued. “The next thing I know is, I’m being punched. I got dizzy at the sight of my blood and fell back. I don’t remember whether or not I lost consciousness.”
Geymonat’s nose was broken and had to be reset, and Chris was taken to a hospital where she received treatment for a fractured jaw.
After the attackers fled, the couple asked a witness to photograph them. Posted on Geymonat’s Facebook page a few days later, the bloody photo went viral.
Geymonat later told BBC Radio 4’s World At One that, while she had experienced verbal attacks in regard to her sexuality prior to the incident, this was the first time she had been physically harmed.
Police Detective Superintendent Andy Cox publicly denounced the “disgusting attack.” And London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted that “hate crimes against LGBT+ people will not be tolerated in London.”
This was a disgusting, misogynistic attack. Hate crimes against the LGBT+ community will not be tolerated in London.The @metpoliceuk are investigating and appealing for witnesses. If you have any information – call 101. https://t.co/4zSqxyE6IP
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) June 7, 2019
The four suspects are scheduled to appear in Youth Court on August 21.
In the aftermath of the attack and ensuing press coverage, Chris penned an op-ed for The Guardian in which she noted the disproportionate media coverage versus that of violence on people of color, transgender people and more.
The essay read, in part:
A refrain I’ve heard ad nauseum is “I can’t believe this happened – it’s 2019”. I disagree. This attack and the ensuing media circus are par for the course in 2019. In both my native United States and here in the United Kingdom, it always has been and still is open season on the bodies of (in no specific order) people of colour, indigenous people, transgender people, disabled people, queer people, poor people, women and migrants.
I have evaded much of the violence and oppression imposed on so many others by our capitalist, white supremacist, patriarchal system because of the privileges I enjoy by dint of my race, health, education, and conventional gender presentation. That has nothing to do with the merit of my character.
The press coverage, and timely law enforcement response, was not coincidental to our complexions. Neither was the disproportionate online reaction over the victimisation of a pretty brunette and blonde. The commodification and exploitation of my face came at the expense of other victims whose constant persecution apparently does not warrant similar moral outrage.
Make the extraordinary reaction to our attack the norm. I beg you to amplify and channel this energy to hold accountable the intersecting web of elected politicians, government agencies and corporations who have reinforced a status quo of clearly delineated inequality long before this single attack in 2019.
Woman Beaten Unconscious In Long Island Hate Crime
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| Kimberly Page was brutally attacked by a group of four men on Long Island |
A lesbian couple on Long Island were attacked during the early morning hours of July 7 in an assault that police say they are investigating as a hate crime.
Kimberly Page told Suffolk police she and her girlfriend had been socializing with co-workers and friends in a local bar prior to the assault.
After leaving the bar, the couple were approached on the street by a group of four men, one of whom made homophobic comments to Page’s girlfriend asking why she would want to be with another female.
The women say they ignored the men, but the group persisted. Page says she told them, “I’m trying to make it known I’m not trying to fight or have an altercation.”
Page told NewsDay: “My girlfriend [was] in high heels, a little bit more feminine than I am, and [the suspect said] ‘I’m not going to fight you because you’re a woman, I’m going to fight her,’ meaning me, ‘ because she’s a man.’”
At that point, the man slapped Page’s girlfriend, knocking her to the ground, and then he punched Page causing her to lose consciousness.
“I know now that he was bashing my head on the concrete ground multiple times,” Page told reporters at a press conference. “While that is going on, another one of the men was holding and pushing my girlfriend to the ground, in order for her not to help me.”
A #Patchogue woman is now sharing her story of being assaulted 10 days ago in #PatchogueVillage – she says the men yelled #antigay slurs before the #attack @SCPDHq investigating as possible #HateCrime #bias #news12li @News12LI pic.twitter.com/ynRLR5Dns3— Eileen Lehpamer (@ELehpamer12) July 17, 2019
Both women were taken to nearby Long Island Community Hospital. Page was held overnight and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, and her girlfriend was treated as well.
At the press conference, Page’s mother, said, “We love Kimberly, we love everything about Kimberly. We wouldn’t change anything about her. But every time she leave the house, I’m afraid.”
Suffolk County Police are offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in the attack.
Anyone with pertinent information can contact Suffolk County Crime Stoppers via anonymous tip by calling 1-800-220-TIPS, texting “SCPD” and your message to “CRIMES” (274637) or by email at www.tipsubmit.com. All calls, text messages and emails will be kept confidential.
Suffolk County police say they are looking for the man circled in the surveillance photo below in conjunction with the attack.
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| (photo: SCPD) |