Breaking: NYTimes reports on capture of Bronx Group who trapped and tortured gay men
This is one of the most heinous crimes i have ever heard about. Andrew mentioned it in his earlier news round up, but these details are going to be the news, especially i the context of increased awareness of crimes against gay people. Be warned, the NYTimes reporters share a great deal of graphic detail in this piece from tomorrow's paper, online now. From the piece:
“These suspects deployed terrible, wolf-pack odds of nine against one, which revealed them as predators whose crimes were as cowardly as they were despicable,” Police Commissioner said as he described the attacks in grim detail at a news conference at Police Headquarters.,
In the piece it sounds as though police did a good and professional job of investigating but that the perpetrators might still be at large were it not for the single neighbor who slipped a note to one of the officers at the scene and shared enough information for them to track and arrest these guys today and yesterday. The victims were hesitant to come forward immediately beccuase of the serious threats mad about what would happen if they did speak to authorities.
Though stories that hit on Friday nights typically disappear by Monday. It's clear to me that i won't forget this for a long time, nor will many others. You need to read about it, but again, i warn of the graphic description.
More people of color attacking gays. Wake up people!
Posted by: Bob | Oct 9, 2010 12:03:45 PM
WOW! An un-P.C., homophobic street gang! Who would have thunk it?
Some people are [unintentionally] funny. Shit like this happens all the time (I don't just mean gay boys/men being kidnapped and beaten) it just isn't commonly reported. The dudes who did it are a nasty street GANG. That's the kind of shit they do....THEY ARE NOT P.C., so yeah, they're 'homophobic'. They roam around, jump people [often totally innocent btw] beat them up, rob them. They set others up [not so innocent] to rob, assault. Drug dealers always run the risk of being robbed, tortured, etc., Happens all the time.
And I'm not in anyway trying to excuse what occurred here, but these 2 young dude were trying to join a vicious, predatory street gang to begin with. They aren't that 'innocent'. And the 30 year old dude was going out to party at 3AM with a bunch of teenagers. I mean c'mon.
If you think this story is bad, google 'Wichita Massacre'. I bet 99% of people have never heard about it. It was barely reported on.
Posted by: ratbastard | Oct 9, 2010 12:40:15 PM
Young men, including many concerned about their own sexuality, are the shock troops of anti-GLBT violence.
They don't wear SA uniforms and most don't prowl the night in sheets, but they are the fascist storm troopers of christers, islamists and judaists. They do actually pay attention to what Der Papenfuehrer says, which, in effect, that it's ok to violently rape children but not to have same sex relations. They pay attention to Democrat state Senators like Bill Stachowski, rev. Ruben Diaz and the six other who said, in effect, that we don't deserve the right to marry, The pay attention to the leaders of evangelicals, southern baptists mormons and the roman cult who joined with Obama and McCain to sabotage the defense of same sex marriage in California in 2008.
Our political anger has to be aimed at politicians and cult leaders who expose us to violence. We have be clear that the end result of 'gawd's in the mix' is anti-LGBT bullying harassment, discrimination, violence and murder. We have to be clear that the high rate of suicide among GLBT children - our children - at the end of the day lies in the unending bombardment of hatred from pulpits and 'leaders' in government.
How to help stop the violence...
Break with the Democrats and Republicans, the parties of hate. Lesserevilism empowers bigotry and violence. It's self defeating to support our enemies.
On Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 and Tuesday, November 4th, 2011 vote against Democrats and Republicans and for left candidates, of just sit it out (barring important referenda).
Tax the cults.
Demand the extradition of US born clerics like Bernard cardinal Law, still hiding in the vatican to avoid charges of being an accomplice to rape.
Secularize cults schools, hospitals, colleges, universities and 'charitable' organizations to prevent rape and abuse of children and women.
Posted by: Bill Perdue | Oct 9, 2010 1:05:15 PM
Really getting difficult to keep reading the news. I am curious: do we actually know that any or all of the victims are gay? The "goonies" are obviously virulently homophobic and their disgusting brutalization of these men should be charged as an anti-gay hate crime, but from the report it seemed unclear whether anyone victimized in fact identifies as gay.
Posted by: GBM | Oct 9, 2010 1:19:22 PM
GMB: No, we don't know from the report whether anyone was actually gay, but as you implied, that's not really relevant to whether something is a homophobic hate crime. The attackers seemed to either have made an assumption they were gay or were using the gay label as a humiliation technique. They tortured them to force them to say they had sex with each other, and whether the victims ever had or had not isn't really relevant at all.
If they're not gay, it would be the equivalent of picking up someone who is Dominican, torturing him until he "admits" that he's Puerto Rican and then torturing him some more. That would be a racist hate crime regardless of what the actual race of the victim is.
Posted by: gregv | Oct 9, 2010 2:00:40 PM
the Catholic League's Bill Donahue says it's a consequence of homosexuality
they will still adhere to their activism to erase gay people
this "catholic league" is at Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10123
(212) 371-3191
Fax: (212) 371-3394 and Mr. Donahue who is in charge of Homophobia there has a cell contact#: 917 838 0191
Posted by: tom | Oct 9, 2010 2:31:21 PM
jesus christ. what's with all the fucking victim bashing? 30 is an old troll - and can't possibly be invited to a party with 20-somethings? what a bunch of asshole comments going on here.
what this gang did is reprehensible. my only wish is that the victims knew some self defense - enough to get them able to run the fuck away.
as for the rest of you fucktards blaming liberals and the man who happens to be 30: do you have any friends who are not your exact age? ever had a boyfriend who was older or younger? well then you just MUST be a fucking pervert. bitch, please. get a fucking clue. when I was 20 I was sleeping with men twice my age BY MY CHOICE. I was attracted to older men; it's not fucking uncommon. I'm 41 now and I'm still attracted to older men, as well as men my age and younger. you fucking assholes who try to act like you're fucking puritans need to get a goddamn grip. ugh.
Posted by: wtf | Oct 9, 2010 2:34:26 PM
Rowan:You're a bit nutty-ain't cha? I sorta lost track reading your post- you seemed to end up defending the street gang. Is that what you were meaning to do? As to the rest of your many assumptions about me personally- I have to say- way off base- I've had fortune cookies that came closer.
Posted by: Jim in St Louis | Oct 9, 2010 2:40:49 PM
Instead of blaming others or extrapolating, why not place 100% of the blame on the assholes whose life ambition is to go around the streets, in a gang, terrorizing and assaulting people? And you could I suppose place some of the blame on a society and culture that tolerates such behavior, that doesn't really care about terrible things that occur daily in their own city, town, state, country, as long as it doesn't affect their neighborhood or their life. Also, political correctness, which implies some people are eternal victims and maybe they have a legit historical reason for going around assaulting and robbing others, 'payback', etc.,
Posted by: ratbastard | Oct 9, 2010 2:42:45 PM
Dunno, when I hear of a 30 year old sleeping with seventeen year olds, I get the pervert alert. It's half your age plus seven. That's the limit, anyway.
Now, clearly he didn't deserve this horrible incident. Let's rush to make this about some abstraction rather than level the blame where it belongs: the perps. Or, you could jerk yourself off with a heady conversation about the origins of gangs and gang violence, and the social mechanisms in place that encourage it...oy.
Posted by: TANK | Oct 9, 2010 2:52:30 PM
Hey tank, thanks for your abstracting a hate crime because the f'ing victims were gay
get that through your thick heady head
Posted by: tom | Oct 9, 2010 3:00:45 PM
Tank: half your age plus 7? Guess ya better let all those people know who are married and don't fit in your perfect "non-perv" math equation. That would also mean that 50 year old men can only fuck 32 year olds and up...and I would hazard a guess that there are plenty of 50 year old gay men having sex with men younger than that since many of the 50 year olds look better than some of the 32 year olds, frankly. Sex between consenting adults is frankly not your business - it's theirs. 17 is the age of consent - period. He didn't RAPE those guys, and in fact there's no proof he even had sex with them. But if he had, and it was consensual, then he did nothing wrong besides go to a party with some beer that he was asked to bring - from the article - "as instructed".
Just because you think something is icky doesn't make it wrong. If you're going to use that as your guidepost you might as well go join the wingnuts who faint at the mention of buttsex.
Posted by: wtf | Oct 9, 2010 3:30:56 PM
I don't deny that this is a hate crime; in fact, I would say it sure enough is. Where's that comin' from, slick?
Yo, WTF! He may not have had sex with them, but you need to STOP DEFENDING PERVS, OLD. And why's it always the pervs with the encyclopedic knowledge of state by state age of consent laws, and harp on them? What I know is that if I had a kid, and s/he were seventeen and some old perv (fifty, or even thirty, actually) was sexing 'em up, I'd break their fuckin' face my fist.
Posted by: TANK | Oct 9, 2010 3:45:54 PM
WTF:
Let's really get fucking real here:
18 is the age of consent between 2 adults
A 30 year old guy 'hanging' with teens, partying with teens in an abandoned apartment, at 3AM, is dubious. A 30 year old guy can legally have sex with an 18 year old and up, absolutely, but this dudes behavior is questionable by any sane adult. 30 year old dudes or chicks should not be partying and hanging out with teenagers at 3AM or any other time. If there was a mixed group and under different conditions, well that's a separate story.
Posted by: ratbastard | Oct 9, 2010 3:57:43 PM
What this story also nicely illustrates is the complete lack of any capable authority figure in these gang members life and in 'ghetto' life in general. Roaming around the streets at all hours, many dropping out of school, not holding down a job or being able to find a job, no responsible dad who lays down the law, a mom who can't control her teenage and young adult son but enables him and his dysfunctional lifestyle, laws and social services [welfare,etc.,] regulations that enable the mom's dysfunctional lifestyle while discouraging in-tact families with 2 responsible adults caring for their children, the list is endless. There's so much wrong with this story.
Posted by: ratbastard | Oct 9, 2010 4:07:26 PM
RATBASTARD shut the fuck up...You're giving me gas wish your face was near so I can fart in it!
Posted by: Ratbastard is a JERK | Oct 9, 2010 4:12:05 PM
a 30 year old gay man with teens? what a creepy pedo
Posted by: Chris | Oct 9, 2010 5:42:14 PM
What's amazing to me is that a horrible story of sicko, demented, psycho gang violence somehow spawned a partisan political argument. Who gives a shit whether liberals or Democrats or "conservatives" (authoritarians) or Republicans are the cause of this sort of sick shit? This is not a political argument. This is a question of whether we need a government that can police its citizens and protect the rest of us from sickos like the ones described here... and that's "big government"... or maybe we should hire private security folks to do our policing (like Pinkerton, for example)... if we eliminate the core functions of government, are we likely to have more or less of this?
Posted by: Nik | Oct 10, 2010 8:36:20 AM
Crimes like this give Conservative "bible thumpers" and liberals a bad name. I don't care if your preaching while your committing this or any type of crime if you are a Christian you don't do stuff like this plain and simple.
Posted by: Katie | Oct 10, 2010 10:35:26 PM
Jason: YOU GO! BOY. You said it in a nutshell. I'm glad to have one conservative gay man "that gets it". I felt really alone. Thanks Man!
Posted by: JIM | Oct 11, 2010 11:08:08 AM