Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Execution-Style Murders Plague Atlanta Black Gay Pride

Atlanta, Georgia – Two gay black men attending last weekend’s Atlanta Black Gay Pride were found shot to death “execution-style” on Sunday night in southeast Atlanta.  The Advocate reports that  the victims, Calvin Streater, 26, of Atlanta and Samuel Blizzard, Jr., 21, of Spring Cove, Virginia, were discovered by a friend at the Richmond Hill Apartments at approximately 10 p.m..  Blizzard was a student at Georgia State University.  Atlanta police said that one man was found in a front room and the other in a bedroom in the apartment.  Both of the victims had been shot in the back of the head.  At this point in the investigation, the Atlanta Police Department is not yet ready to classify the murders as hate crime killings.  As an investigator for the APD told The Examiner, “The men were at a Black Gay Pride event at some point during the day…We do not know if their sexual orientation played a role in the shooting deaths.”  Police surmise that the men knew their killer, since there was no evidence of a break-in, and Richmond Hill is a gated facility.  Others suggest that the killer or killers could have gained entrance to the complex on foot when a car was buzzed in by other residents.  The Atlanta Black Gay community is up in arms, and is demanding answers.  In the days prior to Atlanta Black Pride, one of the major organizers of the event, Durand Robinson, also a gay black man, was gunned down on a street in southwest Atlanta. His body was found in the middle of the street with a gunshot wound to his chest.  EDGE reports that Robinson’s murder has not yet been classified as a hate crime killing, since police are operating on the theory that Robinson was murdered in a car-jacking incident.  The slayings of three gay men associated with Atlanta Black Gay Pride have marred the Labor Day weekend event, which is billed as the largest gathering of LGBTQ black people in the world.  The state of Georgia does not have an anti-LGBT hate crimes law on the books.  These recent murders have made the debate over such legislation more urgent.  No arrests have been made in any of these cases.  Commenting on the lack of hate crimes legislation in the state, Carlos Campos, spokesperson for the Atlanta Police Department, told the Examiner, “In March 2006, the Georgia Senate reinstated a hate crime bill in the state, but after much debate, the House deleted provisions that specified hate crimes as those committed because of the victims’ sexual orientation, race, gender, religion or ancestry to naming the only offenses committed “because of bias or prejudice.”   Vigils have been held in memory of the victims, and more activism on their behalf is sure to follow.

September 8, 2010 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, gay men, Georgia, gun violence, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Law and Order, multiple homicide, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Social Justice Advocacy, Unsolved LGBT Crimes, Vigils | , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Execution-Style Murders Plague Atlanta Black Gay Pride

Alleged Lincoln Gay Basher Lied About ID, Galvanizes Gay Community

Lucas Clifford, 19, falsely identified as "Luke Stevens" in previous news stories

Lincoln, Nebraska – The Lincoln Police Department announced today that the 22-year-old man who allegedly bashed a gay man outside a gay club last Friday lied about his identity and used a fake ID card.  The Journal Star reported on Labor Day that the man claiming to be Luke Stevens is actually Lucas M. Clifford, 19 years of age.  There is no confusion about his role in the gay bashing, however, since a police officer saw Clifford throw a punch at a 32-year-old gay man after using anti-gay slurs and epithets.  As the Journal Star reports, “Lincoln Police Capt. Jim Davidsaver said Monday that Lucas M. Clifford, 19, 1014 Claremont St., was cited Friday evening on suspicion of possessing an Indiana ID that gave his name as Luke Stevens, 22.”  It is not known as of this writing about whether Clifford, then thought to be Stevens, was indeed a UNL student as reports suggested on Friday.  The citation for using a fake ID deepens the trouble Clifford is already in for the attack outside Club Q.  He was charged for third-degree assault and commission of a hate crime in Lancaster County Court on Friday.  While the name of the man charged with these offenses remains “Luke Stevens” on the record this Monday, his true identity will replace the false one on all court documents and police records, according to Captain Davidsaver.  A bit more detail about the assault has been released to the press.  Clifford went to Club Q Thursday night, September 2, and stayed at or about the bar all night.  The first Thursday of each month, Club Q sponsors an amateur “Strip Night” contest offering cash prizes, an event that has proved popular in the community, drawing men and women to the bar for excitement and inexpensive drinks. Clifford would not have had to use a fake ID to gain entrance to the club, since persons 19 and older were admitted.  At some point in the evening, Clifford’s advances toward a girl attending the event were spurned, and he became outraged at her rejection.  At about 1:40 a.m., Clifford and a 19-year-old friend, Travis Garrett, went out of the bar, where the verbal abuse and attack against a gay man took place in the sight of a Lincoln Police officer, who arrested the alleged assailant on the spot after a short struggle.  The victim was treated for minor injuries on the scene and released.  Garrett, Clifford’s friend, was also arrested and charged with disturbing the peace.  A statement on the Facebook site for Club Q credits the hate crime attack with galvanizing the LGBTQ community to face the threat: “It was great to see so many people respond to the whole hate crime situation.  It was an unfortunate event but the positive side to it is that the GLBTF community rallied and that can only make us stronger and more cohesive.”

September 6, 2010 Posted by | Anglo Americans, Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, gay men, harassment, hate speech, Heterosexism and homophobia, Law and Order, Nebraska, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Slurs and epithets | , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Lincoln Man Charged with Anti-Gay Hate Crime

Alleged gay basher, Luke Stevens

Lincoln, Nebraska – A 22-year-old University of Nebraska – Lincoln student has been arrested and charged for assaulting a gay man outside a popular gay club on Friday, September 3.  Luke Stevens allegedly harassed a 32-year-old gay man after leaving Lincoln’s Club Q, calling him “derogatory names” concerning his sexual orientation intended to start a fight, according to 1011now.  As the target of the abuse tried to leave his antagonist, Stevens allegedly punched him in the face, and moved in to continue the fight.  A police officer on the scene was drawn to the noise of the altercation, saw the punch thrown, and wrestled Stevens to the ground.  The victim of the assault remains unidentified to the press.  He was treated on the scene and released to return home. “The victim and several witnesses reported that Luke Stevens did not know them,” Officer Katie Flood, spokesperson for the LPD, told reporters. “He started calling them derogatory names based on their sexual orientation.”  Stevens was charged with assault, disturbing the peace, and failure to comply.  Because Nebraska has hate crimes legislation on the books, Stevens may be charged with bias crime, which would make his situation much more grave.  If proven guilty of a hate crime, the enhancement would hike the misdemeanor assault charge to a felony. The Journal Star reports that the Nebraska hate crimes statute covers offenses carried out due to the victim’s “race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability.” Travis Garrett, 19, a friend of Stevens, was also charged with disturbing the peace.  Stevens and Garrett were in Club Q together earlier in the evening, as well as Stevens’s victim.  Witnesses and friends of the accused UNL student say that he is straight.  That evening he was extremely upset at having been turned down by a girl.  The contrast between the response of authorities in Lincoln and a similar anti-gay assault in Greenville, South Carolina three years earlier could not be starker.  Both involved punches thrown at a gay man after verbal anti-gay harassment outside a bar.  But in the case of Sean William Kennedy, 21, who was hit in the face outside Croc’s Bar in Greenville, an upstate South Carolina college town, both the outcome and the legal repercussions were outrageous.  As Unfinished Lives has reported, Kennedy was hit by Steven Moller, an 18-year-old straight man spoiling for a fight with a gay person, in May 2007.  Kennedy fell to the curb, hit his head on the concrete, and died.  Moller was arrested and charged with manslaughter, since the Palmetto State did not have an anti-gay hate crimes law (and still resists passage of such legislation).  While Nebraska police and prosecutors stand ready to investigate the assault in Lincoln as a hate crime, South Carolina officials refused to do so in the Kennedy case, giving Moller (who admitted attacking his victim) every benefit of the doubt.  In the end, with time served, Moller received less of a sentence for killing Sean Kennedy than if he had been found guilty of killing a dog.  For more up-to-date information on Sean Kennedy, see Sean’s Last Wish.  We at Unfinished Lives only wish some of the same conscientious law enforcement had been available to the family and friends of young Sean.  Moller is now a free man for lack of the will to bring anti-gay attackers to justice.  What a difference a hate crimes law makes!

September 6, 2010 Posted by | Anglo Americans, Anti-LGBT hate crime, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Beatings and battery, gay men, harassment, Hate Crimes, hate speech, Heterosexism and homophobia, Law and Order, Legislation, Nebraska, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Slurs and epithets, South Carolina, Uncategorized | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Lincoln Man Charged with Anti-Gay Hate Crime

Jurors in Teen Gay Murder Trial Imported for “Fairness”

Oxnard, CA – The Los Angeles Times reports that jurors must be imported to Ventura County from Santa Barbara County to insure a fair trial for a teenager accused of shooting his gay classmate to death.  Brandon McInerney, now 16, was 14 in February 2008 when he allegedly shot his gay middle school classmate to death during a morning computer class at E.O. Green School in Oxnard.  According to reports from eyewitnesses, McInerney walked up behind Larry King, 15, an openly gay person of color, aimed a pistol at the back of his head, and shot him twice.  King lingered in hospital with no evidence of brain function, and died some time later.  McInerney was charged with felony murder, and a judge in Ventura County determined he would stand trial as an adult.  Though the youth of the defendant made the ruling controversial, there was enough evidence of planning and premeditation on McInerney’s part that justice demanded he stand trial as an adult.  The pistol he allegedly used belonged to his grandfather.  King was a gender non-conforming boy who wore women’s accessories, used make up, and affected a gay demeanor.  He was living in a youth home because of trouble at home with his parents.  McInerney, who also came from a difficult home life, was said by classmates to be macho and troubled by the openness of King’s sexual identity.  Some claim that King had an obvious crush on McInerney, who took the attention badly.  The case has drawn national attention for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the youth of both boys.  Conservative pundits have argued that the shooting was prompted by King’s aggressive sexualized behavior.  LGBTQ activists have countered that no such evidence exists, and in any case nothing warrants the murder of a femininely presenting youth because of the discomfort of a classmate.  Defense attorneys contended that their client could not receive a fair trial in Ventura County because of the extensive media coverage given the case.  The Santa Barbara Independent reports that Ventura County prosecutors agreed that media saturation made it unlikely they could find an unbiased jury in their jurisdiction, but disagreed that the trial should be moved to another venue as the defense wished.  Instead, jurors from Santa Barbara County will be imported to the trial which will still be held in Ventura County Superior Court.  If McInerney is found guilty of first-degree murder with a hate crime sentence enhancement, he could conceivably be in prison for 53 years to life.

September 3, 2010 Posted by | Anglo Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Blame the victim, California, gay panic defense, gay teens, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, Law and Order, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, School and church shootings, trans-panic defense, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Jurors in Teen Gay Murder Trial Imported for “Fairness”

Gay Bashing in Savannah “Not A Hate Crime”

Stanzel (l), Cronauer (r)

Savannah, GA – The Chatham County District Attorney will not charge two U.S. Marines who gay bashed a man in June with a hate crime.  EDGE reports that the Marines, Keil Cronauer, 22, and Christopher Stanzel, 23, will face misdemeanor battery charges in court on September 9.  On June 12, a gay man, Kieran Daly, was assaulted, cursed for being gay, and left in a state bad enough that his friends administered emergency CPR to jumpstart his pulse.  Cronauer accused Daly of “winking” at him, which the victim strongly denies.  Stanzel allegedly delivered the blow to the back of Daly’s head, giving him a bruise on his brain.  The blow is what the DA,  Alicia Johnson, is calling “a punch,” and she cannot bring herself to move the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony since the victim had no “sustained injuries.”  DA Johnson told the GA Voice that FBI agents had reviewed Daly’s medical records, and found “no merit” in categorizing the attack as a hate crime.  “I can’t speak on the specifics because this is pending litigation, but for a crime to be considered a felony [which a hate crime is considered to be] there has to be proof of a sustained injury,” Johnson said. If convicted of misdemeanor battery, the Marines would face no more than a year in jail and a fine of no more than $1200.  The state of Georgia has no statute protecting its LGBT residents from hate crimes.  The key to prosecuting the Marines was always the implementation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that President Obama signed into law last October.  The ruling of the FBI, coupled with the familiar reluctance of local law enforcement to prosecute anti-gay violence in Savannah, seems to have put the Marines out of the reach of justice for now.  Both Marines were rushed from the Chatham County jail to the custody of military police shortly after being arrested in June.  Georgia Equality and other allies of the LGBTQ community have rallied to protest this avoidance on the part of officers of the law charged to protect the community.  As the Voice reports, numbers of LGBT activists and allies met in Johnson Square in the historic district of Savannah, Ga., back on June 20 to express their outrage over the alleged beating and to call for Georgia to pass a state hate crimes law. Now, the Executive Director of Georgia Equality Jeff Graham is calling for the Justice Department to revisit the crime, in hopes that the attack will finally be ruled a hate crime.  “I’m very concerned this happened in the first place. But these misdemeanor charges are outrageous,” Graham said. “And then to turn [the Marines] over to the military police is a miscarriage of justice.”  The LGBTQ community in Savannah is questioning at what point can an attack on a person because of perceived sexual orientation be considered a hate crime.  Does it take two blows?  A maiming?  God forbid, a murder?

September 2, 2010 Posted by | Anglo Americans, Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, Blame the victim, FBI, gay men, gay panic defense, Georgia, harassment, Hate Crimes, hate speech, Heterosexism and homophobia, Law and Order, Legislation, Matthew Shepard Act, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Protests and Demonstrations, Slurs and epithets, Social Justice Advocacy, U.S. Marines | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Phelps Funeral Protesters Assaulted with Pepper Spray: A Special Comment

Omaha, NE – Protesters picketing a military funeral in Omaha were assaulted by a man squirting pepper spray out his pickup truck window as he drove by them on August 28.  The assailant, George Vogel, 62, was arrested and charged with 16 counts of misdemeanor assault, and one felony count because the pepper spray hit a police officer.  A reporter was also affected by the spray. The motorist was also charged with child neglect since his own child was in the truck at the time of the assault, according to CNN.  Police confirmed that Vogel allegedly extended his arm from the cab of the Ford 150 pickup truck, and discharged a “large can” of pepper spray at the Westboro Baptist Church protesters.  The funeral was being held at First United Methodist Church for the late Marine Staff Sergeant Michael Bock, 26, who died in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province on August 13.  The WBC protest at Bock’s funeral is part of Phelps’s strategy to publicize his campaign against gays and lesbians by targeting fallen U.S. servicemembers, since the United States has become a “fag-enabling” nation that is under God’s wrathful judgment.  Members of the church at the Omaha protest carried signs reading “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” “God Blew Up the Troops” and “AIDS Cures Fags.”  The pepper spray assault occurred while nearly 600 members of the Patriot Guard Riders ringed the church to prevent the protest and counter-protest from disturbing the funeral services.  No members of the Riders were affected by the spray.  A major case involving a challenge to free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment has grown from a 2006 protest carried out against the funeral of a soldier from Maryland, in which the father of the deceased soldier sued Phelps and the church for 5 million dollars for harassing the family during the funeral.  Albert Snyder, father of the fallen soldier from Maryland, accuses Phelps and his church of emotional distress and anguish.  A lower court imposed a fine of up to 8 million dollars against Westboro Baptist, which was later reduced to a 5 million dollar award to Mr. Snyder.  A court of appeals overturned the verdict, citing the protections afforded by the First Amendment.  The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case in October of this year.  Supporters of the Snyders have lined up against defenders of freedom of speech as the case goes to the high court.  Phelps continues his schedule of protests with impunity.  While the content of Phelps’s protests is so disturbing that high emotions can be readily understood, the larger issue of freedom of speech and expression takes center stage for the Unfinished Lives Project.  We are under no illusions about the nature of Phelps’s work.  He is the most notorious homophobe of this age, and if a link could be successfully established between his hate speech and violence against LGBTQ people, as we believe does exist, he and his church members deserve the punishment of the law.  But freedom of speech is a defining right guaranteed all Americans under the provisions of the Constitution.  LGBTQ people are vouchsafed the right of protest and speech under the same provisions of the law, and to surrender to emotion, no matter how justified it seems in the short term would be to gag and throttle the struggle for human rights in this nation.  So, regretfully, the Unfinished Lives Project must support freedom of speech, even for one of the most noxious of our enemies.  We must believe that the rightness of full equality will win out in the end, no matter how spiteful the opposition becomes.  And, in the spirit of appreciation for the Snyders and all other families and friends of fallen U.S. servicemembers, we offer out sympathy and condolences.

August 30, 2010 Posted by | Condolences, Fred Phelps, funerals, harassment, hate speech, Heterosexism and homophobia, Law and Order, Legislation, Maryland, military, Nebraska, Protests and Demonstrations, religious hate speech, religious intolerance, Special Comments, U.S. Marines, U.S. Supreme Court | , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Phelps Funeral Protesters Assaulted with Pepper Spray: A Special Comment

Mother Dies Before Justice Is Done for Her Slain Gay Son

(l to r) Hernandez, Winder - photo courtesy of Dallas Voice

Dallas, Texas – The Dallas Voice reports that the mother of murdered gay man, Richard Hernandez, will never see justice done for her son.  Richard’s mother, Mary Garcia Hernandez, died this week, before the alleged hate murderer of her son was brought to trial. John Wright of the Voice posted the full letter of  Rudy Araiza, close friend to the Hernandez family, informing the public of Mrs, Hernandez’s death on August 23.   Hernandez, a 38-year-old gay man who worked as an Associate at Walmart, was gruesomely dismembered and eviscerated by his attacker in what has been described as a “Silence-of-the-Lambs” style slaying in September 2008, as reported by Unfinished Lives.  Hernandez’s body has never been found, but his internal organs were discovered in his own bathtub when the apartment superintendent admitted police in an attempt to find him.  Seth Lawton Winder, 29, was arrested and charged with theft and capital murder by the Dallas Police Department shortly after the horrific murder.  In a widely publicized debate in the press and the blogosphere, Winder was said by family and friends to be unfit mentally to stand trial because of a host of mental problems. Others sought to blame Hernandez for his own murder, suggesting that Winder was tricking for money or drugs, and killed his john.  No supporting evidence has been brought forward to substantiate what amounts to a permutation of the rather shabby “gay panic” defense.  Friends and supporters of Hernandez deny an allegation that he was sexually involved with Winder, whom Hernandez had tried to help, according to neighbors and co-workers.  Winder was adjudged fit to stand trial for the murder, but then a book, “Slipping Into Madness: The Seth Winder Story,” was published by Winder’s father’s girlfriend that would potentially prejudice the public prior to Winder’s day in court.  The delays and stalling have seemed never ending for nearly two years.  Rudy Araiza wrote the Voice, in part: “Well I’m witting this letter to just reach out to you and inform you that it’s a terrible thing when your son’s passing is still at a point where no justice has been made for going on two years. And in your own life (Richard’s mom) you are struggling with pain, sadness, emptiness and health problems that don’t make it any easier to live with, until one day you die. Only to never really understand or find the justice you wanted for your son, yourself, friends or family, and having so much on your plate. Mary Garcia Hernandez passed away Monday, Aug. 23, 2010 from health issues she was dealing with.”  The Unfinished Lives Project Team thanks the Voice and Reporter John Wright for continuing coverage of this important story, and sends our sympathy to the Hernandez family in their mother’s death.  In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Justice too long deferred is justice denied.”

August 25, 2010 Posted by | Anglo Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Character assassination, Decapitation and dismemberment, Evisceration, gay men, gay panic defense, Hate Crimes, Latino and Latina Americans, Law and Order, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Texas | , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Mother Dies Before Justice Is Done for Her Slain Gay Son

Juvenile Arrested in San Francisco Muni Gay Bashing Case

San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Police Department has arrested a 15-year-old boy in an alleged gay bashing on the Muni, August 14.  Zachary Davenport, a 26-year-old gay man, was accosted at the J Church Street Station by a mob of 18 to 20 young men, shouting anti-gay epithets at him.  Davenport was jostled, hit in the back of the head, and punched repeatedly in the face.  He dropped his cell phone, which was taken by his main assailant.  The suspect was arrested by the San Francisco Police Department Hate Crimes Unit on Friday, August 20, for suspicion of  battery, possession of stolen property, and hate crime, according to Bay City News.  Muni trains are equipped with surveillance cameras, and the attack on Davenport was captured on video.  Police say that the suspect was clearly seen in the recording of the assault.  He was recognized in still shots captured from the surveillance video by officers from the Juvenile Justice Center because of “prior contacts” with the youth, according to SFPD spokesperson, Officer Albie Esparza. Davenport also saw the video of the attack, and identified his assailant. Since the suspect is a juvenile, his identity is not being released to the public.  The San Francisco Examiner reports that the other youths involved in the incident were supporting the main attacker and cheering him on. They are not being sought at this time.

August 25, 2010 Posted by | African Americans, Anglo Americans, Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, California, gay men, harassment, Hate Crimes, hate speech, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, Law and Order, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Slurs and epithets | , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Juvenile Arrested in San Francisco Muni Gay Bashing Case

Second Sentence in NY Hate Crime Murder: Phoenix Gets 37 Years to Life

Keith Phoenix (l) in court

Brooklyn, NY – Keith Phoenix won’t be on the street again for a long time: 37 years to life, for the brutal hate murder of José Suchuzhañay in December 2008.  Phoenix wielded an aluminum baseball bat at the Ecuadorian immigrant’s head.  In a later remark to police, Phoenix exhibited the callous attitude behind the murder: “So I killed a guy,” he said. “Does that make me a bad person?”  The jury convicted him in early August of a hate crime as well as of murder, taking into account the defendant’s homophobic and anti-Hispanic remarks at the time of the slaying.  His accomplice, Hakim Scott, received a 37 year sentence earlier in the year for his role in the attack and murder.  The murder of Suchuzhañay enflamed the LGBTQ community and ignited an international outcry.  Suchuzhañay had lived in the United States for over a decade, and was a legal resident.  Though the victim was not gay, his assailants believed he was–another in a long line of incidents demonstrating the lethal potential still at work against the LGBTQ population in America.  The Ecuadorian community in the United States has expressed some satisfaction with the verdicts against their countryman’s slayers, and has called for continued vigilance as immigrants are targeted for discrimination and harm.  Diego Suchuzhañay, José’s brother, said to CNN, “Our brother wanted to make history when he died, and he did already. We should be proud of him. The way he died, we should be proud of him.”

August 14, 2010 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Beatings and battery, Blame the victim, Bludgeoning, Ecuador, harassment, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, Latinos, Law and Order, Mistaken as LGBT, New York, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Racism, Slurs and epithets, Social Justice Advocacy | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Second Sentence in NY Hate Crime Murder: Phoenix Gets 37 Years to Life

New Yorker Murders Boy Toddler “For Acting Like a Girl”

Pedro Jones, alleged infant killer, heads to court

Shinnecock Indian Reservation, outside Riverside, Long Island – A 20-year-old Southampton man is accused of killing his girlfriend’s toddler on August 1, 2010.  Pedro Jones, who was babysitting the 17-month-old tot, allegedly grabbed him by the neck and punched him repeatedly with his closed fist “to toughen him up,” the batterer said, in order to make the child “act like a boy and not a girl.” Roy Antonio Jones III, the victim (no relation to his assailant though they share the same surname), went into cardiac arrest and died as a result of his injuries late on Sunday evening. His mother, Vanessa Jones, had left her child in the care of her boyfriend to visit her cousin for about an hour, according to family sources.  Ms. Jones said that she had no knowledge that her lover had ever hit the baby before. Jones has been charged with first-degree manslaughter in the slaying, a charge that carries a maximum of 25 years in prison. He has pled not guilty to the charge, and is being held in Suffolk County Jail without bail.  NewsOneOriginal reports that Pedro Jones told police he had never hit the toddler “that hard before.”  “A one-time mistake and I am going to do 20 years,” he said.  Jones is not a member of the Shinnecock Nation as is the infant’s mother, whom the alleged killer said he intended to marry.  Her family hopes that Jones will receive a much harsher sentence than incarceration for 20 years.  The grandmother of the dead child confronted Jones who was in custody at Southampton Town Court, and shouted at him, “You killed my grandson! I hope you rot in hell!”  On Monday night, August 2, approximately 100 members of the Shinnecock Nation gathered to mourn the killing of the infant.  “People expressed the need to come together to love one another, to tighten the gap in our community so this doesn’t happen again,” Ms. Donna Collins-Smith, the great aunt of the victim, said to The Southampton Press. “Basically, we’re trying to come together as a family and do the best we can.”  The horror of this killing has shocked many around the nation.  Jones was apparently so irrationally irritated by behavior patterns in the tot he believed were effeminate that he took matters into his own hands to beat the girlishness out of him.  Because the victim was perceived to be gender-variant, the attack was a sexual hate crime according to many commentators. Michael Rowe wrote for the Huffington Post: “The beating death of 17-month-old Roy Jones was no less a hate crime because the victim was a baby. Whether he would have grown up to be gay, or transgender, or just a gentle, sweet-natured straight boy, was still many years away. More, it was irrelevant.”  As the Unfinished Lives Project has reported repeatedly, violent crimes against gender non-conforming people of color, especially young boys of color who present femininely, have reached alarming levels in our country. They are  among the most vulnerable members of our society, and are paying a terrible price for the irrational hatred of men (and some women!) who feel they must use violence to enforce heterosexist male stereotypes.  Baby Roy will never have a chance to show the world who he was becoming. Instead of making him socially acceptable in a hyper-masculine world, the man who said he loved the child, “loved” him to death.

August 12, 2010 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Beatings and battery, Hate Crime Statistics, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Law and Order, Mistaken as LGBT, Native Americans, New York, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, transgender persons, transphobia, Uncategorized, Vigils, women | , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on New Yorker Murders Boy Toddler “For Acting Like a Girl”

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