Calling themselves the Latin King Goonies (not to be confused with the real Latin Kings), some nine men aged 16-23 have been rounded up by NYPD for allegedly attacking two teens and an adult man for being gay. And I thought today’s round of NYC-based queer violence had wrapped up.
The Times has the most gruesome allegations:
The spree began last Sunday about 3:30 a.m., when the crew members snatched a 17-year-old off the street, took him to the apartment at 1910 Osbourne Place in Morris Heights and essentially sought to force him to confess to having performed sex acts with a 30-year-old man, one official said. The boy, who had been trying to join the street crew, was, “thrown into a wall, made to strip naked, hit in the head with a beer can, cut with a box cutter and sodomized with the wooden handle of a plunger,” said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, who outlined the arrests at a news conference at 1 Police Plaza with Chief of Department Joseph J. Esposito and other officials.
About 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, the street crew members grabbed a second 17-year-old, took him to the same apartment and grilled him about his contact with the same 30-year-old man, the police said. Then they lured the 30-year-old man to the apartment by telling him a party was being held there and forced the teenager to hit him and burn him with a cigarette, the police said.
The assailants also brutalized the 30-year-old, hitting hit him with a chain, sodomizing him with a small baseball bat and forcing him to drink 10 cans of the alcohol-spiked energy drink they asked him to bring to the party — a brand called Four Loko, Mr. Kelly said. While holding the man hostage, the attackers took his keys, went to his apartment and robbed his brother of $1,000 and two debit cards, Mr. Kelly said.
More:
The attackers forced the man to strip to his underwear and tied him to a chair, the police said. One of the teenage victims was still there, and the “Goonies” ordered him to attack the man. The teenager hit him in the face and burned him with a cigarette on his nipple and penis as the others jeered and shouted gay slurs, the police said. Then the attackers whipped the man with a chain and sodomized him with a small baseball bat.
The beatings and robberies went on for hours. They were followed by a remarkably thorough attempt to sanitize the house — including pouring bleach down drains, the police said, as little by little word of the attacks trickled to the police. A crucial clue to the attackers was provided by someone who slipped a note to a police officer outside the crime scene, at 1910 Osborne Place in Morris Heights, near Bronx Community College.
The victims are not facing life threatening injuries, so that’s a plus. The suspects — Ildefonzo Mendez, 23; David Rivera, 21; Nelson Falu, 18; Steven Carballo, 17; Denis Peitars, 17; Bryan Almonte, 17; and Brian Cepeda, 16; (Elmer Confessor, 23; and Ruddy Vargas-Perez, 22, are still being sought by police) — managed to clean up much of their crime scene before investigators arrived. And while I hate prison rape jokes, because nobody deserves that, I can only imagine these guys have some awful karma coming their way.
How about we take this to the next level?
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UPDATE: The brother who was robbed of a thousand bucks at his home? He called police — but didn’t mention the other attack.
The brother managed to free himself about three hours later, and he called the police, leaving out the fact that his brother was being held. By then it was Monday morning. Detectives went to the brothers’ home and, upon leaving, saw the 30-year-old, passed out on the landing from the alcohol he had consumed. But having no reason to believe he had been a victim of a crime, they did not question him. Detectives returned later that day, suspicious of how the robbers had entered the brothers’ home without using force, and the 30-year-old told them he had been picked up in a van by strangers and forced to give them his keys and address, the police said.
One suspect has confessed.
[This post originally cited seven suspects; there are nine.]
David
Bunch of fucking animals..
TruthTeller
Watch how the pc gays of NYC totally hide from this story. If the “attacker” is not lilly-white, they don’t want to know it exiats. Now go ahead and start giving me a thumbs-down, but you know it’s true. (No insult intended to NYC Latins, who are generally more gay-supportive than not).
SageLinear
@TruthTeller: If the “attacker” is not lilly-white, they don’t want to know it exiats.
LieTeller. That’s a crock of BS. It’s actually the complete opposite. If the attacker is anything other than white, the vultures come out to feed. Let anyone who isn’t white commit a hate crime, or even says something that isn’t gay-embracing, and it’ll take all of three seconds before people start making condescending slants toward whatever their race or ethnicity is. The white community doesn’t get shamed for the homophobia of its citizens, yet non-white communities do. Odd.
professor Moriarty
classy.
Xilch
I’m sure the victims will feel much better once they see the thoughtful photograph you’ve attached to your story. You stay classy, Queerty.
TruthTeller
No, SageLinear, it is 100 percent the opposite of what you say. I understand you’re sensitive to racism (real or imagined) but if you look at all past homophobic attacks in NYC, and then look at the response with coverage or protests (or non-protests) depending on who the culprit is, you’ll see I’m correct. But I do understand where you’re coming rom, you’re just (in my opinion) mistaken.
uhoh
@TruthTeller: Happy to oblige you on your thumbs down request, clown.
jason
The assailants sound like Latin trash to me. Send them back to Mexico.
TruthTeller
Thanks for proving me right, on everything, UHOH.
TruthTeller
Trash, maybe…Jason. But, c’mon. And we don’t even know if they’re Mexican (which is okay) or something else.
Yellow Bone
@TruthTeller: The gay community goes out of its way to attack non-white people for hate crimes, blaming both the individual and the individual’s entire race, while when a white person commits a hate crime, it’s because of “religion” and never because of race.
TruthTeller
Yellow Bone : There might be a few people who make racist cracks on blogs when the perp is a-person-of-color, but if you look at the official reactions by organizations, as far as protests and publicizing the crimes, as well as threatening the perps (some even who turned out innocent) as well as the perps’ family, you’ll see the pc gay establishment will only go after Caucasians.
tjr101
How typical for a comments thread on Queerty concerning a hate crime to go completely off topic and into a racial tit for tat.
Baxter
And this is why you don’t try to join a gang…or hook up with someone who is trying to join a gang.
Hyhybt
So… why the [] didn’t the brother tell the police in the first place?
ousslander
gass em all
ewe
Throw the animals in the garbage and dispose of them meaning lock em up and throw away the key.
reason
@Hyhybt: I would assume because he was afraid of reprisals. I am not sure how powerful that gang is, but if they are anything like the Latin Kings, this will not be the end of it. The fact that the police are involved will make the gang more vicious. They gain power by making people afraid to call the police, if someone does they go out of their way to set the example.
Dechu
Ugh. I hate things like this. For the people who say they wouldnt have made the news if the attacked werent gay…Well, thats like saying that Mars could support life if only the sun were closer. It may be techniclly true, but it ignores a gigantic problem, though not quite as much of one as my previous remark. Its news because of the severity of the crime. There was false imprisonment, attempted murder, rape, unlawful coersian of a minor (getting a minor to burn someone else using threats is probably unlawful and forced, but an actual name for that crime eludes me.) Also they had kidnapped another teen, and sodomized someone with a miniature baseball bat. If you dont know much about it, well, the damage done will be quite painful and infection prone. Its honestly a lot like when cultures participate in ritual genital mutilation: an attempt to stop someone you dont like from doing that thing which so disgusts you. It is heartless. It is soulless. It is certainly unchristian, and will only push more of us away from that faith that is starting to look more and more like those we fight in the mideast. And the same goes for anyone in the comments, here or elsewhere. Supporting these actions because you think gays are evil in god’s eyes is actually far more evil. Please dont make me expand my “List of christians going to hell if their own stated beliefs are true.” :/ If it werent for the awfulness these groups have been treating us with, we could avoid these problems much moreso. Because theres nothing like an “Anti-gay gene” that makes people hate gays…Its how they were brought up to think. And that saddens me deeply.
I have such high hopes for humanity, hope we can become something other than frothing hatemongers and warlords. A society where we can live together without fear of being outcast as an “Other” by a change of whims in the majority. Tired of being scared, tired of this form of oppression. And thats what it is, oppression. Because any time this thing happens, another gay couple can become afraid of even holding hands in public; when you know such actions could bring harm to the one you love, you often attempt to avoid them. We are not monsters! We are the ones being attacked BY the monsters! Attacked by those who have an innate fear and disgust of us. Attacked by those who secretly are gay/bi but so afraid of it that they do anything they can against gays. And worst of all, attacked by people who have serious personal problems with their spouse, and use us as a useful scapegoat. The powerless often make good scapegoats cause they often lack the numbers to challenge you. Im sure theres at least one christian couple who has said, with no irony or sarcasm, that their marraige would be better if there just werent any gays trying to…take away their right to marraige? or something. I just dont get why us being in love is such a huge freaking deal to some people. We just want to be left alone, to participate in society that we love, to fight to defend it from those who would harm us all, and just to go from day to day without having to constantly fear vicious attacks. Im tired of living with a “room-mate” and just want to have a boyfriend.
All this hate..Its so terrible. Its so vicious..and those who think its righteous to do these things are all the more monstrous. We dont understand why they hate us so. We’re still people; friends, neighbors, children, parents…all people, just like everyone else. We dont want their marraiges to collapse. We dont want the country to fall. We are not even sure how giving us hospital visitation rights as if we were married could cause any problems.
We just want to be treated as you would like to be treated. We just want to be able to live our lives, without being terrified by our own countrymen. Even if you think it is unchristian, remember: God is the judge, not you, and we will deal with that bridge when the time to cross it comes. That time is not now.
Hyhybt
@reason: Thanks; I’ve since seen that from reading another article elsewhere which was more clear on the point.
Debbie
DECHU, thank you. You said it perfectly. I cried today with my therapist when I read the news for the first time online last night. You could not have said it better.
Deb