Tag: violence

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Cleveland man beaten by mob of 20 in anti-gay attack

Cleveland’s WKYC reports on an attack by a mob of 20 on a single gay man Sunday night:

A man walking to a bar on Cleveland’s west side overnight Sunday was attacked in what police are calling a hate crime.

Jared Fox says he was walking from his car toward Cocktails bar, a well-known gay bar, on West 93rd Street and Detroit Avenue just before midnight Saturday. Fox says a group of 20 young men surrounded him on the sidewalk, using gay slurs.

“They didn’t know if I had money. They didn’t know anything about me,” said Fox. “They saw that there was a gay bar at the corner and they saw me walking to it.”

Then the group attacked Fox, punching him in the face repeatedly and knocking him to the ground. “They said what’s in your pockets and I said, I got no money I’m broke, and they said, ‘oh so you’re one of those broke faggots?’ And then they just started swinging,” said Fox.

He suffered a black eye, a ruptured right ear drum and some hearing loss, as well as dozens of bruises across his body.

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NYC: Vicious Bronx gay bashing gets 7 year sentence

Bronx gang member Nelson Falu, 20, was yesterday sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a 2010 gay bashing and torture incident that horrified New York City.

From the NY Daily News:

Falu was among eight members of the “Latin King Goonies” who tortured and beat two teenage boys and a 30-year-old man over the course of several hours in a Bronx home, while using anti-gay slurs. Prosecutors say the gang members sodomized two of the men with a plunger, chained one to a chair, and used a cigarette lighter to inflict burns.

Falu, 20, and two other participants, took guilty pleas in June. The cases against the other gang members are still pending.

(via JMG)

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New York Times Op-Doc: An Attack on Equality

New York is regarded as a gay-friendly city in a state that has legalized gay marriage, but this Op-Doc video shows that it can still be dangerous for a same-sex couple to walk down the street holding hands.

On May 5, 2013, a young couple was attacked outside Madison Square Garden in broad daylight. Nick Porto and Kevin Atkins were walking hand in hand when a group of several men, clad in Knicks jerseys, called them “faggots” and pushed them to the ground, beating them to the point of a torn ligament and a broken nose. In this video, Mr. Porto and Mr. Atkins tell their story.

Read more at NYTimes.com

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First gay pride parade in Montenegro marred by hundreds of violent anti-gay protesters

Montenegro is a country in Southeastern Europe. On the coast of the Adriatic Sea, it is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest. It is classified as a middle income country by the World Bank.

The Associated Press reports on the first ever gay pride parade held in the country yesterday:

Several hundred extremists shouting “Kill the gays” attacked gay activists and clashed with police on Wednesday in a bid to disrupt the first ever pride event in staunchly conservative Montenegro, which is seeking to improve its human rights record as it bids to join the European Union.

Angry assailants threw rocks, bottles, glasses and various other objects — including chairs from local cafes — at several dozen flag-waving gay activists who shouted back “Kiss the gays.” A shower of stones and bottles also landed on special police securing the gathering in the coastal town of Budva.

Police then intervened to push the attackers away and allow the event to continue. The participants briefly marched by the sea before they stopped to hold speeches as extremists shouted insults from a distance. Later, police again clashed with smaller groups of extremists scattered throughout the town.

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Four men arrested in anti-gay Long Island attack

Four young men, all under 21 years of age, have been arrested in connection to a violent anti-gay attack in Babylon, N.Y., over the weekend, which resulted in the victims being treated in the hospital.

From the Advocate:

Shane Buckley, 18, Justin Buckley, 17, Gregory Gilbert, 20, and Nicholas Battaglia, 18, all of Oceanside, N.Y., were walking by the two victims on Deer Park Ave., and asked them directions to the Babylon train station.

“The four assailants started yelling anti-gay slurs and crossed the street and attacked them,” Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Opisso said according to Newsday. Opisso did not say what triggered the fight.

The suspects were charged with two counts of third-degree assault as a hate crime. The three older suspects were also charged with second-degree gang assault, NBC New York reports.

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Scottie Pippen allegedly arrested for felony assault

TMZ reports that former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen has been arrested in connection to a fight outside a Miami restaurant:

Pippen allegedly brutalized an autograph seeker outside Nobu restaurant Sunday night. The man was knocked out after Pippen allegedly punched him in the face and kicked him repeatedly.

Pippen left the scene. As for the victim … he was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, including broken teeth, a swollen mouth. He also suffered injuries to his head and back.

Pippen helped lead the Bulls to six NBA championships in the 1990s.

(via TMZ)

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NYC: Mark Carson’s alleged killer bragged to cops minutes after shooting

Mark Carson's alleged killer bragged about the shooting minutes after being apprehended

Elliot Morales, the suspect in the murder of Mark Carson in New York City, bragged about the shooting to cops afterwards.

In court documents released today, Morales told cops who caught him minutes after the May 17 shooting in Greenwich Village, “Gay thought he was tough in front of his bitch, so I shot him. Diagnosis is dead, doctor.”

Morales was arraigned on charges of second degree murder as a hate crime, menacing a police officer and criminal possession of a weapon.

The murder of Carson was the end of a violent night in Greenwich Village that began with Morales threatened a restaurant worker with a gun while shouting anti-gay epithets. He then came across Carson and a friend, and shouted gay slurs at them, asking, “what are you, a gay wrestler?” Morales then allegedly followed Carson and shot him in the cheek, killing him.

Morales seemed anything but remorseful for killing Carson, according to the court documents. “He thought he was tough, and I shot him. It’s the last thing he’ll remember,” he told police.

(source)

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Russia: State Duma passes ban on “gay propaganda” on vote of 434-0

Youths kick a gay rights activist during a protest against a proposed new law
termed by the State Duma (Reuters)

The lower house of Russia’s parliament passed a bill that stigmatises the gay community and bans the distribution of information about homosexuality to children.

The State Duma voted 434-0 with one abstention to approve the Kremlin-backed legislation, which imposes hefty fines for holding gay pride rallies or providing information about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to minors.

Before the vote, gay activists were arrested and attacked in Moscow on Tuesday outside the Russian State Duma as it prepared to take a final vote on a federal bill banning “gay propaganda”, the AP reports:

Police moved in after supporters of the bill started showering the protesters with eggs and water. Some of the protesters who were not detained were viciously attacked by masked men on a central street a mile away.

Reuters adds:

The gay protesters were far outnumbered by around 200 anti-gay activists who surrounded them, chanting “Russia is not Sodom”, singing Orthodox Christian prayers and crossing themselves. They threw rotten eggs at the gay protesters.

After scuffles in which one man was knocked to the ground and kicked by the anti-gay activists, police began detaining the gay protesters and bundling them into waiting buses.

Journalist and Putin critic Masha Gessen said she was among 24 people being taken to police stations. Moscow police said about 20 people were detained…

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Press conference called by Anti-Violence Project regarding alleged anti-gay violence by NYPD

Via press release:

The New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) will hold a Press Conference on Tuesday, June 11th at 2 pm in response to a bias-motivated assault of Josh Williams, Ben Collins, and Antonio Maenza, three openly gay men in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn on Sunday, June 3rd by New York Police Department (NYPD) officers.

The survivors reported that they were walking past the 79th Precinct when an NYPD officer accused one of the men of public urination and attacked him, throwing him against a police car. The officer was joined by other officers who also attacked the man, throwing him to the ground and pepper spraying him while he was in handcuffs. The survivor was handcuffed tightly, causing lacerations.

The survivor’s injuries were treated at a hospital, where he was again restrained with wrist and ankle cuffs. The group of officers also arrested the other two survivors.

[snip]

Police Violence is a pervasive problem facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in New York City.

AVP found that in 2012, nearly 40% of survivors interacting with the police in New York City reported police misconduct.

Reports of police misconduct increased significantly from 8 in 2011 to 78 in 2012. The report also found that survivor reports of hostile attitudes from police doubled in 2012, with 43 reports, up from 21 in 2011.

Tomorrow’s Press Conference will highlight these findings and the issue of police violence affecting our LGBTQ communities.

The Village Voice has a lengthy recounting of the incident:

Williams’ ordeal began as the three men walked past the 79th Precinct stationhouse at 263 Tompkins Ave. Williams told his roommates he needed to take a piss, but they told him to wait as they were almost home. An officer standing in the precinct parking lot shouted at them, asking if he had just urinated on the building. Williams said, “no.”

“The officer shouted, ‘Did you really just piss on the precinct?'” Collins says. “Josh says no. The officer didn’t go over and check whether the building had actually been peed on.”

The officer called them over. Williams and Collins complied, and the officer asked for their ID cards. Collins asked whether they were being detained. “He rolled his eyes and sort of snapped, twisting an arm behind my back and slamming me against a car,” Williams says. “I was able to ask him what was going on, and he slammed me against the car and pepper sprayed me. I was blinded and disoriented.”

Collins: “He put his hand on Josh’s neck and pushed his face into the hood of the car twice and pepper sprayed him. Josh never tried to resist or run away.”

Williams says he remembers then being tossed against a fence and then a number of officers putting their hands on him. “I get slammed to the ground and cuffed and then pepper sprayed again. I remember yelling, ‘why are you so angry?’ From there I don’t remember much.”

(source)

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France: Government moves to disband anti-gay marriage group after murder

On Saturday French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault ordered the Revolutionary National Front (JNR in French) to disband following the allegations that the group was somehow involved in the death of pro-gay protester Clement Meric.

The JNR is the militant wing of a far-right group called the Third Way.

Its leader Serge Ayoub, who has been questioned by police but is not a suspect, on Saturday again denied the group had anything to do with the death of 18-year-old Clement Meric.

Meric, a student at the prestigious Sciences-Po university, died after a clash in a busy Paris shopping area on Wednesday between skinheads and left-wing activists.

Five people detained over the death went before a judge on Saturday and Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the main suspect, named Esteban, was being investigated on suspicion of murder. The five suspects are aged between 19 and 32 and include one woman. Interior Minister Manuel Valls on Friday vowed to crack down on far-right groups.

Several members of the group, which marched in the most recent Manif Pour Tous protest against gay marriage, are alleged to have murdered 18 year-old pro-gay activist Clement Meric.

(from JMG)