By Erica Laster: Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
NEW YORK, United States – “It is tragic to see what hate can do,” says President of the Human Rights Campaign for gay rights, Joe Solmonese. Solmonese is among the many activists who believe that the perpetrators of crimes against gay victims should be prosecuted. His statement comes on the heels of the arrest of 8 members of a New York gang for the battery and sodomy or four victims. The attacks began after the Latin King Goonies, as the gang is known, learned of the sexual orientation of an aspiring member.
New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced that one suspect is still believed to be at large. Kelly indicated that the gang forced the 17-year-old pledge into an unoccupied apartment around 3:30 a.m. Sunday. After being questioned about his relationship with a 30-year-old man, the gang stripped him of his clothes, hit him with a beer can and used a box cutter on him before sodomizing him with the handle of a wooden plunger.
At 8:30pm that night, another 17- year-old was lured to the same apartment and questioned before being robbed and beaten.
At 9:30 pm, the gang found the 30-year-old man and lured him to the same location. The man was stripped naked and tied opposite the 17- year-old before the teenager hit and burned the man with cigarettes under duress by the gang. The 30-year-old was assaulted and sodomized with a baseball bat before being dumped outside of his home, according to Police Commissioner Kelly.
The suspects then raided an apartment the 17-year-old shared with his brother, holding the teenager for ransom to force his brother to give the gang money. After hearing his younger brother’s voice on a cell phone telling him to give the gang the money, the brother complied before being tied up and left in the apartment.
A search of the apartment Wednesday revealed little information, which Commissioner Kelly believe resulted from the suspects bleach cleaning and repainting the walls. All of the suspects are residents of the Bronx and despite 5 of the 8 being 16 and 17-year-olds, all of them will be tried as adults.
Gay rights groups continue to address the upsurge in violence in their community. Since July, at least 4 teenagers have committed suicide as a result of anti-gay targeted bullying, including one Rutgers University student, Tyler Clementi, whose suicide shook the nation after his roommate live streamed his sexual encounter with another male student online.
The law has been slow to catch up with punishment for the deaths of the victims. The Human Rights Campaign however continues to fight and will this week descend upon Salt Lake City, Utah to force a senior Church leader to rescind anti-gay comments.
For More Information, Please Visit:
Washington Post – U.S. Gay Rights Leaders Headed to Utah – 8 October 2010
Washington Post – Suicide Surge – U.S. Schools Confront Anti-Gay Bullying – 9 October 2010
CNN – 8 arrested in String of Anti-Gay Hate Crime in New York – 10 October 2010
