UES Gay Bashing Spree Continues, AVP Issues Community Alert

The NYC Anti-Violence Project has issued a community alert (PDF) after a third Upper East Side gay bashing in one week by what appears to be the same group of young men who committed the attack I reported on Monday. The victim in that attack provided the NYPD with the sketch (left) of one of the men involved in his assault. There have been three other attacks on non-gay persons.

Community Alert: Three out of six attacks in the last month on the Upper East Side investigated as anti-LGBT Hate Crimes.

This morning, the New York City Anti-Violence Project learned of six violent attacks on the Upper East Side that have occurred in the span of just over a month, but most between June 26th through June 28th. A disturbing commonality in at least two of the incidents has been the use of slews of anti-gay epithets during the attacks, regardless of the self-identity of the victims. Three of the incidents are being investigated as Hate Crimes by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force. The Anti-Violence Project is urging the NYPD to investigate all six as possible hate crimes. All of the attacks occurred in the early morning hours.

The news comes just after the release of the 2008 Hate Violence against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People in the United States report, which includes the New York City Anti-Violence Project’s data on anti-LGBT hate violence in New York City. The report documents that in NYC there was a 12% decrease in reports of incidents, but an increase in the severity of the attacks. Murders alone increased 67%; robbery and larceny rose 140%, and sexual assaults increased 171%. The recent reports from the Upper East Side have made clear that the trend in severity appears to be continuing.

On Sunday a 40 year-old man was assaulted on Second Avenue near East 84th Street as he walked alone from the subway. Police are seeking the same four to six young white men for all the attacks.