Another gay bashing incident? What the heck? (Dallas, Austin: crime, house)

[nomore07]

Anti-gay attack reported on 4th Street in Austin - Dallas Voice

Anatomy of a Gay Bashing, Part 1 -The Gay Place: Austin LGBTQ Blog - AustinChronicle.com

What's even more pathetic is that nobody at the scene stepped in. This is not the city (or people) that it once was.

[CptnRn]

Bobby Beltran said he and his friend had just left Rain, a gay bar, at about 1:30 a.m. When they hugged each other goodbye on the sidewalk, some men in a passing vehicle yelled, “****ing ******s, stop that ***** ****!”

After Beltran yelled at the men to “get out of here,” all five of them jumped out of the vehicle and attacked him and his friend. Beltran said he fought back but suffered cuts and bruises and a black eye. His friend may have suffered a broken jaw. The attackers quickly jumped back in the vehicle, which was parked in the middle of the street, and drove off.

BB: At that exact moment, a car pulled up, also heading westbound on Fourth. First the driver, then the back seat passenger started yelling out, "****ing ******s! Quit your ***** ****!" And immediately at that exact point, I thought about what happened with the Shady Ladies – that those men weren’t caught, and I was not going to tolerate that. I was not going to let these guys get away with just calling us that. It was uncalled for, not necessary, hurtful, and on Christmas. I mean, really? So, I turned, and I said. "You know, that **** is not welcomed here! Our city does not accept that! Get out! You do not belong here!" Then the driver came out and said, "What the **** did you tell me, ******?" And I said, "You know what I ****ing said. Get out; it’s not welcomed here." He came up to me, kind of started putting his chest out, and my friend Christopher got in between us and said, "Hey man, leave him alone. Get out of here." And the guy started swinging. I pushed the guy off, and then after that is pretty much when all hell broke loose. The rest of the guys in the car, there were five total, came out, including the driver, who was already out, surrounded us in a circle and took turns hitting us and kicking and saying, "You ****ing deserve that, ******." I just knew that I had to stay on my feet and fight back and not just curl up into a ball because I wanted to show them that no, we are men, and we do fight back. We are people, we do not deserve this. I protected my face, and they just kept on throwing punches and there was a guy in front, a guy in the back, a guy on the left, a guy on the right, they were just surrounding us.

There were 162 aggravated assaults in downtown Austin in 2009. If you engage in yelling matches in the street with strangers at 1:30 AM chances are good that you are going to be involved in one of those 162 assaults.

[DenverBrian]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

There were 162 aggravated assaults in downtown Austin in 2009. If you engage in yelling matches in the street with strangers at 1:30 AM chances are good that you are going to be involved in one of those 162 assaults.

Hey, and if you're a woman and wear sexy attire at 1:30 AM, I guess you should expect what's coming to you, too.

This is one of the most heinous post comments I've ever seen on City-Data.

[JayBrown80]

Dude, let's not even discuss this. The thread will get closed. The last one just turned out terrible.

There are 3 or 4 posters here in the Austin Forum that insist Gay Biased crime never occur and that Anyone that gets their ass beat deserved it. You could get someone to confess "I leave the house every night and specifically look for gay people to beat up" and posters on City-Data would say "well, the gays were STILL probably asking for it".

I am not even reading the article, I don't want to know the details. My sanity can't take it. It is impossible for some posters to believe that attacks on gay people can be pre-meditated. I don't know what world they live in. When I was growing up, bullies always taunted you first. They would yell at you, shout things at you, hoping that you would talk back so that they would have an excuse to do what they were planning to do anyways.

You see, in their mind, taunting you makes the beating deserved. Apparently in the minds of people on City-Data too.

[Moekazi]

I think that guy would have gotten beat up in any city. Instead of trying to diffuse the situation, he helped escalate it. What's absurd is that he (and some forum members) is surprised by the result

By his statements, he seems to have a hero complex. Bar heroes end up in the hospital... in any town.

[ImOnFiya]

Originally Posted by nomore07

What's even more pathetic is that nobody at the scene stepped in. This is not the city (or people) that it once was.

At 1:30AM at night, most people probably assumed the group of guys either #1. knew each other, or #2. it was some bar dispute, either way - I believe the public correctly chose #3. none of their business! After all, most people normally don't go out looking to get into a fight. [However, I will call the police from my phone.]

As for "this is not the city that it once was"...what garbage. Never was..we do live in Texas after all.

For some of us, "Put up your dukes" is a way of life, not just a slogun.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Originally Posted by DenverBrian

Hey, and if you're a woman and wear sexy attire at 1:30 AM, I guess you should expect what's coming to you, too.

This is one of the most heinous post comments I've ever seen on City-Data.

I am very sorry for the incident where people are getting beat up. It's a sad reality of our world.

The reality is "if you're a woman and wear sexy attire at 1:30 AM" and you're walking the sidewalk or out on the sidewalk, (as those guys were) you'll be taken for any number of things no matter what city you live in.

I wouldn't go so far as to call that comment "heinous". That's a bit over the top because, again, the reality is people that are bullies wait for the opportunity. The wise thing to do is to get the license plate number. Once you engage them, (as the guys did) all bets were off.

There is bound to be someone on city data that will hate, just as there are groups of people in society formed with that specific intent. The thing is, I haven't seen anyone in this thread spewing hate or saying anyone "deserved" to get beat up. If I missed it please point it out.

[DenverBrian]

Originally Posted by oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots

I wouldn't go so far as to call that comment "heinous". That's a bit over the top because, again, the reality is people that are bullies wait for the opportunity. The wise thing to do is to get the license plate number. Once you engage them, (as the guys did) all bets were off.

The guys "engaged" the bullies by yelling back. That's quite legal. Evidently a punch was thrown. That's illegal. But some on this forum seem quite content to blame the victim for the violence.

There is bound to be someone on city data that will hate, just as there are groups of people in society formed with that specific intent. The thing is, I haven't seen anyone in this thread spewing hate or saying anyone "deserved" to get beat up. If I missed it please point it out.

I already did. When someone gets snarky about the number of assaults in Austin in a year and then essentially says "if you yell back at someone who yells at you, you're gonna get hit," I take that as classic "blame the victim."

In the gay bashing incident here, there is exactly one group that did anything wrong. To insinuate that the other group somehow shared the blame is to tacitly accept the concept of gay bashing. And that's heinous.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Originally Posted by DenverBrian

The guys "engaged" the bullies by yelling back. That's quite legal. Evidently a punch was thrown. That's illegal. But some on this forum seem quite content to blame the victim for the violence.

I already did. When someone gets snarky about the number of assaults in Austin in a year and then essentially says "if you yell back at someone who yells at you, you're gonna get hit," I take that as classic "blame the victim."

In the gay bashing incident here, there is exactly one group that did anything wrong. To insinuate that the other group somehow shared the blame is to tacitly accept the concept of gay bashing. And that's heinous.

Ok. I guess I don't see it the same way. I do understand the concept of "blaming the victim". However, I also understand reality and I suppose I've learned to avoid some trouble. Some of it is common sense. I suppose it's personal responsibility. If I want to stay clear of trouble I make a conscious choice to not engage certain individuals or situations. They should NOT have engaged the bullies and they were wrong in doing so in my opinion.

It would be great if there wasn't any hate at all in our world but there is. Knowing what I do I realize it would be foolish to get into a yelling match with someone out on the street because I wanted to right a wrong. I've tried it before with disastrous results. I'm lucky to still be alive.

Maybe I'm just trying to stick up for CptnRn because I don't see him as a hater or being "snarky".

If I yell back at someone that is yelling at me I am making a conscious choice to engage and I better be ready for anything. To me, that is reality. More than likely it will escalate and it won't be good.

[Paulmmm]

I just realized a very weird trend on Austin City Data (and it may be all over the net, not just here, unfortunately): If someone has the nerve to suggest that it would be great to have a Trader Joe's in Austin, or wants to know if Texas is a Southern state, or says something about driving fast/slow in the left lane, posters will take passionate (and often insulting) stances that go on for page after page after page. But point out what is a gay-bashing incident, and it basically elicits some responses of "Oh well, it happens. The victim is also to blame. It's not that big a deal." That's just amazing to me.