WFAA reports that two men were attacked late Friday night by four suspects armed with baseball bats as the victims were walking on Throckmorton Street toward the gay bars on Cedar Springs.
According to a report posted online by the Dallas Police Department, the men were near 2727 Throckmorton St. at about midnight when the attack occurred. The location is roughly 2 1/2 blocks south and west of Cedar Springs.
WFAA reports that the suspects pushed the two victims to the ground and began kicking and hitting them with the bats. One of the victims was knocked unconscious. Despite the fact that the suspects yelled anti-gay slurs as they beat the victims, WFAA is reporting that police aren’t treating the attack as a hate crime:
“They pushed us to the ground and they had baseball bats and I heard them say, ‘Faggots, give us your fucking wallets,'” Alex recalled. “I thought I was going to die; I thought they were going to try and kill us.”
The four suspects — described only as Latin males wearing white tank tops — fled with the wallets and cell phones of Kyle and Alex.
Dallas police say they consider this attack only a robbery and not a hate crime. Alex disagrees.
“I still feel like that was why we were targeted in the first place, because we are gay,” he said. “It was like it was funny to them.”
I’m sure police will argue that the motive was robbery, but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t a hate crime. It will ultimately be up to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office to decide whether to prosecute it as a hate crime, if the suspects are caught. However, it’s unlikely the DA’s Office would do so, because aggravated robbery is already a first-degree felony, meaning there’s no penalty enhancement available. Still, there’s no reason why police shouldn’t classify the incident as a hate crime for FBI reporting purposes.
When Jimmy Lee Dean was attacked in the same area in 2008, police classified the incident as an anti-gay hate crime even though it was technically a robbery. Dean’s attackers were not charged with a hate crime in court — again, due to the lack of any penalty enhancements for aggravated robbery. This is one of the reasons why Equality Texas has been pushing for a review of the state’s hate crimes statute, which has been very rarely used since being enacted almost 10 years ago.
Regardless of Texas law, the recent passage of federal hate crimes legislation could mean the suspects will face an additional 10 years in prison. They could be charged with a hate crime under the federal statute separately from, and in addition to, any state charges.
Incidentally, Dean’s 2008 attack occurred about two blocks from the most recent one, in the same general area southwest of Cedar Springs.
Both crimes occurred in an area referred to by Dallas police as the Cedar Springs Wycliff Target Area Action Grid. As we reported in January, the Cedar Springs Wycliff TAAG recorded the fourth-most violent crimes of any area of the city in 2009.
I’m working to get in touch with the police and the victims, and I’ll have more on this story as soon as I’m successful. Stay tuned to Instant Tea.
Why do we even have hate crime laws if they are never enforced?
It just saddens my heart that still today, in this day and age, that there is still this much hate in this world that it is not safe for someone to walk down the street just because of who they are. My heart goes out to Kyle and Alex and I sincerely hope for justice to indeed be served.
If yelling at someone, calling them a faggot and beating them with a bat doesn’t count as a hate crime, then… we don’t have any laws protecting people from hate crimes, much less, violence in general.
Of course it should be classified as a hate crime. Yelling slurs during an attack is one of the key components of classifying a crime as being one motivated by hate. What you’re dealing with is likely police officers unfamiliar with hate crimes as they relate to LGBT people. I’d like to hear a high-ranking police officer’s reasoning for not classifying it a hate crime for reporting purposes if that in fact is the final outcome.
Those sad excuses for human beings knowingly went to the gayborhood to target their victims.
They were armed and looking to harm someone.
It can’t get any simplier than that.
Hopefully Karma will see that they “receive” what they deserve in prison.
Who is this person or persons who made the decision not to call it a hate crime?
Can we get a phne number posted?
Maybe it’s time to bring back the Pink Berets. LGBT vigalante protection group back in the 80’s. Their presence made criminals think twice before trying anything. If the police won’t protect us, we will have to do it ourselves!
There is no doubt. This must be pursued and prosecuted as a hate crime.
Hardy Haberman makes a good point about positive action to prevent future attacks. Whether the attack is classified as a hate crime or not I want to know about the victims’ immediate health and recovery, the specific attackers being served justice and the prevention of future attacks.
I want to know what the business owners are doing about providing adequate, safe parking and sidewalks for their customers so future attacks are less likely. Expecting customers to park and walk through residential streets severely harmed the quality of areas like lower Greenville Avenue, Bachman Lake and Bishop Arts.
What more does it take than the actions that happened to call this a hate crime ? I’m so glad the young men are still alive… It could have been much worse, not to belittle what happened to them ..I’m just so glad that they are okay . I hope that this is an isolated incident and that it does not happen again…
Hate crimes are not enforced because the officers involved would actually have to do more work and they would rather make this as simple as possible…
Why must hate continue to dominate? This is close to where I live as well.. I move from OK to Dallas to be safe, and now I hear of hate crimes on others, and also that they are happening on the street I moved to. This makes one wonder? People stop and think it is not just me it is everyone! Stand up and fight!!! I am fighting, you can too. I pray the Dallas police does not neglect this case, as the state of Oklahoma has to me. (I am still in the process and about to go to court for the first trial against Oklahoma) But I wish Texas will have a better protection system, we will see?
I second that, Hardy. Ridiciulous that they’re trying to pretend it’s not a hate crime. Just like the Rainbow Lounge raid was random. Maybe the men weren’t “targeted” b/c they are gay, but the attackers still felt compelled to add homophobic slurs in the process of attacking & robbing them. Glad the guys are okay.
Hardy & Jase…
Agreed. We need to take care of our own community. I’m all about helping organize groups to patrol our neighborhoods on weekends with video cameras and any other things we can legally carry around for purposes of protection of our LGBT brothers and sisters.
Some of us in the community don’t have an aggressive nature, however some of us do. I’m not saying to encourage violence on the streets, I’m saying that it’s time our neighborhoods fight back and show these people who assume we’re an easy target a harsh surprise – and an education on “you-just-effed-with-the-wrong-faggots.” who’s with me?
Israel Luna
Writer/Director “Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives”
(I mention my film because I wrote it for this exact reason & frustration.)
It was a mugging pure and simple. Just because someone calls you an ugly name before beating you up and taking your wallet doesn’t mean your crime deserves more attention than someone who just gets beaten and wallet taken. We have become such an infantile society when we expect special attention to crimes committed against us because of our personal peculiarities sexual or otherwise.
Just because a gay person is the victim of a crime does not make it a hate crime. Also, I don’t think the community or area the crime takes place defines it as a hate crime either. People get robbed all the time during midnight hours, coming home from bars/restaurants. Happens in uptown and downtown all the time and those people don’t seem to cry about it, as if they were walking targets. It happens. I’m gay too, but I’m not on this “let’s call it a hate crime and make it a cause” boat.
@Hardy Haberman – I couldn’t agree with you more!! My own personal opinion is that they target this area because as society has so graciously stereotyped us, they picture us as weak individuals who cannot defend ourselves, therefore feel we are easy targets – Now I know most of know better, we are no weaker than any other average person, regardless of orientation. And what do the police do? nothing! Sure, they tell us to be aware of our surroundings – which people should do regardless of where they’re at. They tell us to never walk alone – which in this case they weren’t – but still, it was 4 against 2 – those aren’t good odds – even if they wouldn’t have been armed. It just pisses me off – they can set a patrol car in the damn Walgreens parking lot for 12 hours a day for a speed trap – but they expend and couple…yes, only just a couple at least to patrol the area on the weekends? sure, there are uniformed officers along the strip all night – – but as others have stated – parking sucks, so people are forced to walk – I live 2 blocks off the strip – on the north side, and I walk, but before I lived there, I refused to park anywhere south of the strip, and even now – I always carry a small pocket knife with me – it stays in pocket while I am out – but when I am walking, it’s always in my hand…not that it would do much good against 4 guys with bats, but at least it’s something.
I keep hearing plans that Illume is going to build another building on the old 4242 property – if I could personally afford it, I would buy it myself and put up a SECURE PARKING GARAGE!! Most places charge you to park anyways – and even if you only charged 5 bucks a car, and even if it’s only 3 or 4 levels – it would pay for itself in no time – and yes – it’s still a bit of a walk – but at least its along the same street where there more people around.
I heard about this story on the radio. I was angered to hear them say that the dallas police dept. said this was the first attack of this sort in this area in years. When in fact just the previous weekend I was out in the area with some friends. One of my friends was walking to his car and hit in the back of the head by 2 latino males. Luckily he was able to hit the panic button on his car and get away. He reported the incident to the police. No police showed up to check on him, no follow up, NOTHING! It sounds like the Dallas police are trying to pass this off. We need to make sure that we are protected and the dallas police dept. step up.
@JOHN WRIGHT-
We MUST have a phone number for the responsible Police and City Attorney who are refusing to classify this a HATE CRIME!
How do we get it? Who was the Watch Commander on duty that night- let’s start with him/her!
@Steve: I’m working on this with the help of our LGBT community liaison officer, Laura Martin. I’ll hopefully have an update for you by noon. Thanks.
Roberys in oaklawn are increasing and I fear they will continue to get more violient. I think it’s time we start policing our community again. We did it in the 80’s and I think it’s time to do it again.
Thankfully, this is Texas, we can own a gun. I have one, anyone else want to join me, I don’t mind patrolling the streets on the weekends, and I don’t mind busting a cap in a robbers “bottom side”.
It doesnt surprise me that our finest police department has classified this as just an aggravated robbery instead of a ‘hate crime’ as it should be. We have one of the most F*’d UP police departments in the state/country. They are always in the news – of course being shined on by a negative light for many reasons. We do need to fight back on this and stand strong against any ‘blindeyes’ that dont see the violence in our community. Keep your ears & eyes open! I think we should have police patrols in Oaklawn – doing their duty as officers. They have cops patrol other areas of town (areas like Uptown, Greenville that are primarily straight), why not the Cedar Springs area? It would be cool to see the “Pink Berets” come out to serve and protect our community because if they, the finest Dallas’ PD, can’t & wont do it, who will stand up to this position? I wonder if I could pass off pink! 🙂 I hate it when I hear about stories of ‘hate crimes’ out there… I hope those guys fully recover – mentally & physically!
@John Wright-
John, is there an “incident number” or identifier to use when contacting the Police and District Attorney’s Office? (I said City Attorney earlier and should have said District Attorney.)
TO MAEL & ER: YOU TWO OBVIOUSLY DONT KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!
Do you even know the definition of a hate crime? Here you go!
Hate Crime: A crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim because of the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, gender expression or identity, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.
You two should do your research as to why we have the “Hate Crime Bill” before being ignornant in your postings! The internet is a wonderful source to go to. Open your eyes to this issue – educate yourself!
Okay everybody, calm down a bit. I’ve lived within two blocks of the bars for about 25 years, and currently live on Throckmorton a block from where this occured. In that 25 years, I’ve been mugged twice, once on Reagan and once on Throckmorton. Both times being stupid by walking alone around midnight. So I know about these things. How many thousands of times do we have to tell you all? Once you get past the Caven lot or the RoundUp lot, it is not safe! The same thing is true in any nightclub district that adjoins a residential area. My balcony faces Throckmorton, I see police patrols multiple times an hour on weekend nights. During the last year there have been 4 person police bike patrols roaming the area as well. I’d call that level of enforcement quite good. The simple truth is that these kinds of crimes are impossible to totally prevent. You’d have to have armed groups on every single block from Lemmon to Maple and Oak Lawn to Wycliff all night long. It is not feasible. It is a terrible thing that happened to these boys. We must all be vigilant, use common sense, and continue to press for better street lighting and good enforcement. This police bashing is unecessary and serves no constructive purpose.
@BC’79-
The fact that the criminals used the epithets they used indicates that they knew the high probability of gay pedestrians in the area they “selected” for their attack.
To an educated person this does meet the standard of a Hate Crime as the Federal law you cite was amended in July 23, 2009 to read as you posted it.
The relevant Texas Penal Code section reads,
Sec. 12.47. PENALTY IF OFFENSE COMMITTED BECAUSE OF BIAS OR PREJUDICE…
(b) The attorney general, if requested to do so by a prosecuting attorney, may assist the prosecuting attorney in the investigation or prosecution of an offense committed because of bias or prejudice. The attorney general shall designate one individual in the division of the attorney general’s office that assists in the prosecution of criminal cases to coordinate responses to requests made under this subsection.
Join us in “AD” 2010, BC.
This is terrible and obviously was a hate crime. While the priorities now are finding out who did this and helping the victims, I wish there was more that could be done to make the neighborhood safer. When people are afraid to go out in their own neighborhood, the attackers win and everyone else loses, including local businesses.
It would be great if the city could work with Caven and/or other local businesses to find a way to offer some sort of free shuttle to and from the strip for those of us who live within walking distance (say between Maple and Lemmon). A lot of us moved to this neighborhood because we love the strip, but we don’t feel safe walking home so we don’t go out as much anymore (or at all).
My friend was mugged at gunpoint across from the Seville a few months ago, and since then, I no longer walk to or from the strip late at night. But I also hate the idea of having to take a cab to go three blocks in my own neighborhood. I do it, but I can’t help but think that these circumstances might prevent others in the neighborhood from going out more often and enjoying all that the strip has to offer.
as much as this pisses me off – I still stand by my above statement. But, I do understand what Terry W is saying – any area where there are clubs/bars backing up to a residential area, the crime rate is higher….but I think the main point we’re making here isn’t about the crime rate itself persay, but it’s the fact that it’s obviously a hate crime, and DPD isn’t saying so – thats the real issue with the crime itself. I do hope these 2 gentleman have a speedy psychical recovery, and if needed, take the proper steps to help them with the mental anguish they must be going through as well.
This doesn’t surprise me in the least. Just a few weeks ago I was attacked in the parking lot of the Round Up, when I got in my car, the guy started beating it with a 2×4. There seems to be no one stepping up to the plate with any amount of security to curb these crimes, lessons should have been learned a few years back when the guy was shot at the ATM. Police seem to be more concerned with drunk drivers than the safety of people that frequent that area.
@Hardy, Can I have a Leather Beret please, would love to be a part of this, you know how pissy I have been the past couple of months, maybe this would be a good outlet.
Everyone remember the best “legal” weapon is a small bottle of perfume/colgne that has a far spray/squirt. It is almost if not better then pepper spray and the cops can’t harrass you for having perfume like they pepper spray or mace. 🙂
This is so sad, and it seems to just be getting worse in the Oak Lawn neighborhoods. It used to be that folks who visited the Cedar Springs Entertainment District pretty much knew not to park their cars several blocks away from the strip, especially on Friday or Saturday nights. Now you can’t even park behind the bars and the clubs because people are still being attacked, so it seems that basically no place in the area is really safe. When my girlfriend and I go out to meet our friends on the weekends, we always try to park as close to the strip as possble, but I know that parking is always an issue. There have been nights when we drove around for an hour and there was not available parking near the strip or in the paid parking areas, and we would just end up going home or to a movie, because it was just not worth it. Our safety is much more important than giving these street thugs the opportunity to attack us and rob us. Yes, we may be lesbians, but ALL OF US in the LGBT community are at risk when it comes to hate crimes.
@BrianStout…I am trying to get a group of people together to train with DPD to do neighborhood patrol. If you are interested, email me @ brufanegra@hotmail.com. This message goes out to anyone making comments and want to do something about it. I live a block from Cedar Springs (N. Hall) and I’m afraid to leave my apt at night. I also had a friend who was hit over the head with a gun and mugged in BROAD DAYLIGHT. It’s getting ridiculous.
BC’79- thanks for the educational insight. While you were busy googling “hate crime”, I was at the gym. Anyway, I still don’t buy into this being a hate crime. No one knows if these people were targeted based on their sexual preference or because they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was in the midnight hours on a dark street, and like I said before, happens all the time. Seems calling someone a derogatory name (faggot is pretty much slang nowadays) immediately classifies a crime as hate. Who knew we had so many gays with law degrees (does Google grant degrees?) in this town. My University of Texas education must be lacking. Can’t wait til this becomes yesterdays news (does anyone really remember anything changing after the last real hate crime happened – whatever happened to that guy anyway?) Good luck with the cause! I’ll be at the gym then probably watch the Hills.
@ER…you’re an effin douche…I truly hope that the day never comes that you become a victim of crime in the gayborhood and you get your head bashed in. You are truly heartless and soulless and if I actually prayed, I would pray for your soul. Continue enjoying the Hills, the gym and your shallow existence. The rest of us will organize and come up with ways to make the streets safer for people like you since I won’t expect you to do anything. Based on last statement, you don’t give a damn about anyone but yourself. Oh by the way, you’re a DOUCHE!
@ER … It’s nice to see that you’ve proven to the world what a WASTE OF SPERM you really are!
@leatherboy ed … Hee hee.. and if you go out to http://www.MysticWays.com and order some capsicum oleoresin essential oil you can mix it with a small amount of vodka or even some pretty smelling perfume in a spray bottle and spritz the same way. Yup, that’s legal too! Amazing what you can do with essential oils… And it burns like a mutha..
FYI…”that guy” has a name. His name is Jimmy Lee Dean and he’s still suffering and will probably be in pain for the rest of his life…. you stupid faggot. I’m sure John will be deleting this comment but this guy and his kind (selfish, superficial queens) really piss me off.
@JOHN WRIGHT- Hey, John.
Is there anything you’ve been able to get form the city re; an incident number, the Police command on duty that night, the investigation, the Assistant District Attorney who’d be assigned the prosecution if suspects are arrested, who said they wouldn’t be prosecuting as a Hate Crime, etc…I’ve waited to contact the City until I had a little more information.
I’m a believer we need to hold some feet to the fire.
Also, on the vein of commentors here decrying crime in the neighborhood- I lived in Oak Lawn ten years total and managed an apartment complex within the area. I was, and continue to be, amazed at how few people, particularly LGBT people, want to call/report/deal with the Police Department. It’s incumbent on citizens to call the Police on suspicious persons, activity in and around their street and building, and get involved. And spare me the “we’ve been treated badly by the cops”, etc… report unfair and unprofessional conduct directly to the LGBT liason and/or the DPD. That’s the beginning of crime control.
WOW Tisha….nothing like trying to fight for our rights, and equal protection when apparently we can’t go 5 minutes without calling each other derogatory names – though I understand why you did it, because what he is saying is stupid and wrong – be the bigger person, and don’t stoop to his level – we’ll never get anywhere that way.
@Steve:
This appears to have been an oversight on the part of the officers who responded to the call and filed the initial report. It has since been reclassified as a hate crime.
John,
This is good news. I’m grateful to you for the update.
I hope as things move along we’ll see an upsurge of activity on the part of residents of the neighborhood. I hope we’ll see increased vigilance, and a commitment to community policing.
I also hope the Neighborhood and Community Associations, as well as, the Business community will let us know what we can do to see that they are given the Police support they need.
@BruceW
I totally agree…I jumped the shark on this one…I let my personal feelings get in the way of my usual calm manner…but he’s still a DOUCHE!!!
well, I don’t agree with you on that – I just refuse to stoop to his level and call him names – that’s the kind of thing he feeds off of, and I won’t give him that pleasure….someday, when it happens to him, and he’s screaming about it – no one will be there for him – I am a strong believer in Karma….and Karma will bitch slap him sooner or later!
@BruceW I truly don’t wish violence to be the life-lesson needed to wake up people like him. “Knocking some sense into his head” will probably do him no good anyways.