Plano Sports Authority
The mother of a Plano teen is upset about how police have handled the assault of her son on Sunday.
Her son, 18, was exiting the Plano Sports Authority, at 601 Seabrook Drive, when two men approached him and his two female friends, who were holding hands. The men made derogatory comments to the lesbian couple, prompting her son to step in.
The men then kicked and beat the teen, taking out a gun and hitting him with it before running off. The mother said her son went to the hospital and needed several stitches for cuts on his face.
The son did not want to be identified and declined to comment.
His mother, however, was adamant about talking about the incident because it happened in the middle of the afternoon. She said Plano police initially told her not to file a report and she could not reach a detective until Tuesday.
“This is a violent hate crime because it happened because two girls were holding hands,” she said. “The fact that it’s not out there and nobody’s saying anything is driving me completely insane. And that Plano just wants it to go away.”
As for son standing up for his friends, she said her sister is a lesbian and she raised her son to respect others.
“My son’s always stood up for all of his friends because he knows, like we do, that people have a right to be who they are,” she said.
David Tilley, a spokesman for the Plano Police Department, said the basic report mentions that a male and two female teens were in the 600 block of Seabrook Drive when two black males approached them. The men then attacked the male teen, kicking him and beating him with a gun before fleeing on foot.
He said the incident happened around 2 p.m. and police responded to the hospital, later returning to the scene to investigate.
But the report does not mention what sparked the attack or any words that were exchanged between the teens and the men, Tilley said. He said it is up to investigators to determine whether it was a hate crime based on the investigation.
Detective Jerry Minton said investigators had learned that comments were made to the teen’s female friends and that he was beaten up after he stood up for them. But Minton said he didn’t know what the comments were.
The mother, whose name is being withheld to avoid identifying her son, said the comments started because the lesbian couple was showing affection. The mother said police told her they didn’t want her to go public because it could compromise their investigatio. But Tilley said police don’t have a specific description of the men involved.
“They don’t want people to know that a kid was assaulted in the middle of the afternoon in Plano in broad daylight, beaten with a gun, no one did anything about it and he was protecting his lesbian friends. They don’t want that out there,” she said. “I want it out there. Somebody has to know who these kids or guys are.”
Sadly, I’m not surprised. About the incident or the police reaction. Plano is the only place in 37 years that I’ve had some one yell faggot at me out of a vehicle as they drove by. In broad daylight in their quaint little downtown. A month or so ago. I grew up there, but wouldn’t live there now, for a variety of reasons.
And we learned from the US Justice Dept in Arlington at the Safe Communities Conference that hate crimes need to be reported and are not reported by local entities efficiently. This sounds like such a case and the US Justice Dept should be alerted to it.
Last year, for the first time in my life or travels, I had the words faggot and queer yelled at me. In Plano. Sad, but not surprising, story.
I get all kinds of homosexual slurs all over N Texas, just because I ride a bicycle. So yeah, there’s a lot of hate out there.
The article is vague about how the son “stepped in.” Depending on how he did that, he may be considered an instigator to a fight. The mother may want this treated as a hate crime, but I don’t know that any law would allow for that if the son used abusive language in his defense of his friends.
There you go, Richard. Blame the victim. I suppose you think he deserved what he got. That’s pretty typical of the way law enforcement looks at these situations. As for the Stepford…OOPS, I mean Plano police, I doubt they’re too concerned about it. After all, violence against minorities is what they teach in the city’s churches and schools.
I have a female friend thats gay and I would stand up for just like the boy did for his friends. He was only doing whats right. And yes his mother should be going public about it. The Plano police telling her not to is only saying that they dont want to do anything about. I’ll stand up for my friend any time because its the right thing to do. The 2 black had to right doing what they did and yes it was a hate crime. The world has way to many small minded people just like the 2 sissy black guys. 2 men beating a young boy for do the right thing. The 2 black guys are nothing but trash and as far as that goes anyone that does that is nothing but trash.
Call the local DOJ liasion Synthia at 214 8693768
Collin County is the bedrock of the Tea Party and Conservatism, so it is not surprising that the Plano PD is trying to brush this incident aside. I lived in Plano as a child and have seen it grow from a sleepy farming community to a massive suburb, too bad their attitudes did not evolve along with their city’s growth…..