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Concern about gay bashing after 10th/John attack

Friends of a man who was assaulted and called “faggot” in an attack the victim says happened near E John and 10th Ave Sunday night around 8 PM say the victim lost several teeth and suffered scrapes and bruises in the unprovoked bashing.

According to the SPD report on the incident, the male victim told police he did not believe he was targeted because of his sexual orientation but also said he had not had any contact with the two male suspects and was not robbed during the incident:

Screen Shot 2014-12-16 at 10.15.47 AMThe suspects were described only as two white males and police were not notified of the crime until around 2 hours after it occurred.

Details of the attack have been spreading via social media but police are not currently investigating the incident as a hate crime.

“The attacker didn’t know the victim, so there’s not a guarantee they would’ve known he was a gay man,” said SPD spokesperson Detective Drew Fowler. “‘Faggot,’ at times, is used as a general pejorative.”

UPDATE (12/18): A commenter who says he was the victim in the incident said he does not believe he was targeted due to his sexual orientation, and thus does not consider the attack to be a hate crime.

The incident comes at the end of a year marked with renewed concerns in Seattle about gay bashing and bias crimes against LGBTQ people after a series of high profile and deadly crimes as well as more mundane but equally disturbing assaults.

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SteveK
SteveK
9 years ago

WTF is happening to our neighborhood? Notice how most attacks like these are 2 or more attackers versus 1 victim. Complete fucking cowards! And from behind no less. Ed Murray now is your time to shine–this shit needs to stop! Goddamnit do something about it–more than what you say you have? Apparently it is not enough.

Reality Broker
Reality Broker
9 years ago

Wow, this is a half-block from where I live.

Thank you for the reminder to replace my defensive pepper spray, which I used to keep at the ready when walking around after dark in Cap Hill given that nearly all of my neighbors have been assaulted or harassed in recent years.

CaphillTom
CaphillTom
9 years ago

It’s absolutely disgusting people are like this. I know the victim and he’s one of the sweetest fellows around.

It’s gotten bad enough that I don’t like to go anywhere on foot anymore and am considering just moving out of the hood. How pathetic is that?

I guess it’s just a reminder to always carry spray, but how can you be prepared to defend yourself from a chicken-shit attack from behind?

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
9 years ago
Reply to  CaphillTom

Guess it goes to show you that you can never be too sure of anything. I stay on-guard all the time, broad daylight or not. You have to be vigilant ALL THE TIME, but it still might not be enough. Above all, put the damn phone away and pay attention. (before anyone starts—I’m not saying he wasn’t).

calhoun
9 years ago
Reply to  CaphillTom

You bring up an interesting point. I wonder how many people are using their cars more now as a crime-prevention strategy? If many are doing this, then that kind of works against the push for more use of transit and less use of cars.

CapJohn
CapJohn
9 years ago

“‘Faggot,’ at times, is used as a general pejorative.” That’s a fucking bullshit “COP OUT” If I’ve ever heard it. Get your shit together SPD. Protect and serve! This is a hate crime. He was not robbed, just shoved to the ground and called faggot multiple times. They ran away ONLY after a bystander attempted to get involved. HATE CRIME!! INVESTIGATE!!

CapHillPugGuy
CapHillPugGuy
9 years ago

It is so offensive that Det. Fowler stated “faggot, at times, is used as general pejorative term”. What bullshit. They didn’t think he was a stack of sticks they obviously targeted him because they thought he was gay. This is obviously a hate crime and faggot is NOT general pejorative term! This is allot of shaming and fear based around crimes likes this so of course many victims don’t say they thought they were targeted for whatever reason, how is that relevant??? I know this victim well and he was severely injured and emotionally traumatized by this. I live very close to here and this shit needs to stop now. IF this is not investigated for what it is then it will be just swept under the carpet and another random crime. Come on SPD get your shit together do some sensitivity training for your officers!

CapJohn
CapJohn
9 years ago
Reply to  CapHillPugGuy

Yup!

CaphillTom
CaphillTom
9 years ago
Reply to  CapHillPugGuy

In my opinion the “detective” just doesn’t want to admit he’s not going to do a damn thing to investigate this one.

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
9 years ago
Reply to  CaphillTom

I think this Detective is confused. Although “that’s so gay” is often used in a dismissive or disdainful way to mean ‘useless’, nobody says “faggot” without it meaning exactly what everyone knows it means. He’s just wrong.

caphilllover@hotmail.com
9 years ago
Reply to  Jim98122x

No he’s not. I hear clowns on pike/pine use it every single drunken night. Rarely directed at anyone except their friends or people they drunkenly bump into. As far as solving a random assault, with a two hour delay in reporting…….good luck.

Darrell
Darrell
9 years ago

It’s shitty but I have to cautiously agree with Caphilllover (but get ready for my 180). A couple months ago I was leaving the northern Broadway QFC through the northwest exit at Harvard and Republican with my girlfriend. An angry “street kid” (which I do not, in any way, mean pejoratively), was walking west down Republican while shouting obscenities at everyone as he passed. I’m not going to take my eyes off someone like this, especially when someone else’s safety is concerned, so I looked right at him as we passed so I could see what he was doing. Moments like this are rife with subtext but I assure you I did not say, or smile, or engage him in any way other than to silently watch him as he passed. But clearly he was ready to take offense at anything and started spouting “you faggot piece of shit, I’ll beat your ass faggot.” He slowed and turned to face us as he walked backwards, shouting more threatening obscenities peppered with the term “faggot,” but did not move towards us; so as we walked away he passed into oblivion while shouting at the next unlucky person that walked by. It was so random and out of nowhere! And honestly, I was probably more unnerved by this incident than my girlfriend was. And I remember thinking this guy must not be from here or familiar with the neighborhood to so carelessly yell “faggot.” And it’s probably from an increased sensitivity due to this incident, but I ride the bus and I hear people use this term at least once a week (especially on the E line). I guess you’ll have to trust my judgment of the context but I don’t think my experience here or any other recent incident in which I heard this term was meant to imply someone was actually gay, but rather was meant to convey an insult on someone from a bigot who thinks homosexuality is an offensive state of being. I’m not saying the attack at 10th and John wasn’t a hate crime. But “faggot” is used a lot without addressing a gay person.

However, this brings up a clear deficiency in the SPD’s investigation practices. I don’t know whether this was a hate crime and neither do they. The attackers used the word “faggot” while assaulting someone. Hate crimes are classified differently for a number of reasons. One is that they have a disproportionate affect on a community over a “non-hate crime.” And this is certainly the case here because everyone is clearly appalled by this incident, because the violence itself is shocking, but also because of what they said during the attack. Because it has the same affect on the community, the SPD should assume this is a hate crime until they have reason to believe otherwise. What kind of repugnant laziness is it to just dismiss this as “random” when they cannot possibly know?

Michee
Michee
9 years ago
Reply to  Jim98122x

I’ll bet you a trillion dollars I know exactly who you’re talking about- that kid has tourettes he’s been doing this for over a year now around here. I’ve seen him get beat up twice over this- he obviously has a neurological disorder. He sleeps on the sidewalk. Give him a break. Ignore him. You don’t need to make every crazy person a scapegoat for your PC soap opera.

CapJohn
CapJohn
9 years ago

I know a lot of people in this town and we never use the word faggot loosely. It’s rarely ever spoken in our establishments that I frequent. It’s insulting!!

Paul on Bellevue
Paul on Bellevue
9 years ago
Reply to  CapJohn

Anytime I hear people use that word, I have to ask what redneck paradise they live in. It’s as bad as the n-word, in my opinion.

John Moses Browing
John Moses Browing
9 years ago

Armed Gays Don’t Get Bashed.

http://www.pinkpistols.org/

caphilllover@hotmail.com
9 years ago

You are correct. Armed gays don’t often get attacked…could be better stated as ‘armed people rarely get attacked’

whatever
whatever
9 years ago

Ironically gays fell over themselves to restrict gun rights this last election period based on voting patterns on capitol hill.

David
David
9 years ago
Reply to  whatever

This Gay isn’t a fan of firearms or payday loans (thanks for the rando link). I’m also not convinced that voting in favor of background checks equates to “gays falling over themselves”. Actually, I have no idea what that means…

CaphillTom
CaphillTom
9 years ago

NOT correct

CaphillTom
CaphillTom
9 years ago

what an irresponsible thing to say!

If you’re open carry, then you can’t set foot in ANY bar in the state. If you’re concealed, you can’t possibly get to your gun fast enough to prevent the very violence we’re talking about here.

Save your NRA rhetoric for a useful conversation!

jc
jc
9 years ago

He’s accepting the victim’s judgement on treating it as a hate crime. The only people that would know better than him are the assailants.

Yet another J in Seattle
Yet another J in Seattle
9 years ago
Reply to  jc

Some guys jump somebody they don’t know. They don’t steal anything from the victim, but call him ‘faggot’. This all happens in the middle of a neighborhood known as their historical gayborhood of this region.

With all due respect to the victim, what other explanation than a
hate crime could there be here?

It doesn’t matter if they knew he was gay. If I’m not mistaken, hate crime laws apply just as much to _perceived_ sexual orientation.

calhoun
9 years ago
Reply to  jc

I think the bar for charging someone with a hate crime is set way too high. The prosecutors seem to try very hard NOT to charge it this way. If my memory is correct, the guy who set the fire in Neighbors was not charged with a hate crime, even though it clearly was.

It Was Me
It Was Me
9 years ago

To those of you who have responded to this, I thank you for your concern, though I have not read all of the comments. I am the man who was shoved to the ground on Sunday evening.

I don’t typically read this blog, because I feel many blogs contain nothing but hearsay. But I noticed it on CapHillPugGuy’s Facebook page a little while ago, and I felt the need to respond. The full details of the attack were not included in Justin’s post above or in the police report.

There is a reason why I feel it was not a hate crime. After coming at me from behind and shoving me to the ground, it was then that one of the perpetrators said, “Oh, he’s a fucking faggot.” WHEN he said it, HOW he said it, and the TONE in which he said it, is very important here, which cannot be conveyed in writing. (But take note, I did not use an exclamation point at the end of the quoted language.) To me, it means the perpetrators did not know or assume my sexual orientation at the time they came after me. Yes, I realize calling someone a faggot IS hateful, and clearly the men who attacked me do not like gays. But I feel they did not target me because I’m gay. It was AFTER they saw me laying on the ground that one of them used the derogatory term. In my opinion, and it is, after all, my opinion that counts the most here, I WAS NOT SINGLED OUT by the perpetrators due to my sexual orientation. I truly feel they had planned to rob me, but when I hit the ground, I curled up in a fetal position with my hands over my head. Within seconds, they fled, and I highly suspect they were scared off by oncoming vehicular and/or foot traffic.

To be CRYSTAL clear, I would feel NO shame or fear about reporting this as a hate crime, if I truly felt that is what it was. If they had come after me screaming “fucking faggot!” or if they had beat or kicked me while shouting it (much like the high profile case in 2013), I would most certainly view the attack differently. Damn right, I would report it as a hate crime then!

I will be talking to the Seattle Police Department’s LGBTQ liaison today or tomorrow regarding the attack, and I will tell him exactly what I’ve stated above. It will be interesting to get his input on this.

I am trying to be level-headed and rational here, folks, and I have been asking my friends not to share my name in connection with this attack. Not because I am fearful or ashamed, but because (1) I am a fiercely private person and want to be in control of who gets told and when; and (2) I do not want people coming to me with pity or sorrow. I have already experienced the latter, and I just don’t want it. I am striving to return to as normal a life as possible before the attack. Despite my injuries, I feel blessed and thankful it wasn’t any worse.

Michee
Michee
9 years ago
Reply to  It Was Me

Hmmm. I can’t make up my mind until you analyze this mundane event into more detail- while further speculating on the motives of these people you evidently don’t know. It’s not important that someone was assaulted- whats important is what niche the victim identifies with, and what variety of cuss words tge attackers use during the assault…. Got it.

Concerned
Concerned
9 years ago
Reply to  It Was Me

Regardless of the circumstances or motivations, I am sorry you had to experience that, and for your injuries. Certain parts of Capitol Hill are becoming quite frightening at night, which is quite sad to me. I wish you a speedy recovery.