A neighborhood in Dallas has been put on police lock-down after a dozen violent hate crimes against gay men and several robberies were reported.
The city’s Oak Lawn gayborhood has seen a frightening uptick in antigay bashings in recent months. Last Thursday, Geoffrey Hubbard (pictured) became at least the twelfth victim in three months of an antigay hate crime when he was bashed him in the skull with a rock while walking to a friend’s house. He sustained a temporal bone fracture that required several stitches to his head.
Related: Vicious Attack On Two Gay Atlanta Teens Not Considered Hate Crime, Victims Will Face Charges
“Survivors have been beaten with bats, stabbed with box cutters, pistol whipped and pummeled with fists,” Rally for Change, a local organization who has been demanding increased police presence and better protection in the area for months, said in a statement. “In several of these attacks, homophobic language has been used by the assailants.”
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The statement continued: “For weeks DPD has promised an increased presence in the neighborhood. When pushed on the fact that such an increase has been spotty and largely invisible, DPD has pointed to officer shortages and has now even suggested that the protection provided by our tax dollars is not enough and that we should pay for expanded patrols by off duty officers.”
Related: Hate Crime Victim Claims Police Intentionally Left Gay Slurs Out Of Official Report
In response to the most recent attack, the city is finally taking action. Oak Lawn has been put on “lock-down,” with police encouraging residents to be cautious and “take care of each other.” Additionally, a group of “roughly a half dozen” officers have also been assigned to the area instead of patrolling a larger beat.
On Friday, Mayor Mike Rawlings also went door-to-door to help assure residents he is doing his best to address the issue and to let them know CrimeStoppers has increased its reward for information in the attacks from $5,000 to $10,000.
So far, there are still no leads yet on suspects in any of the assaults. Hubbard, who is still recovering from his injuries, is encouraging people to be extremely cautious.
“I’m not saying avoid the streets and lock your doors,” he told WFAA-TV, “but don’t travel alone.”
Related: Austin Dentist Provides Dental Reconstruction For Hate Crime Victim, Free Of Charge
h/t: Dallas Morning News
Sidney DaviesWinter
He needs to be in JAIL, not on “lock down!”
Brian Nesbitt
This has been a terrible few months. I live on the main strip and frankly the city isn’t doing enough. Neither are the bar owners. There is a tavern guild and the initial response of one of their leaders was to blame the victims. Disgusting.
Brian Nesbitt
And some of the attacks have been robberies but others the motive seemed to be anti gay violence.
Grant Mealey
Oh my….sigh
Peter McKinney
I would personally stay out of that neighborhood until they catch everyone involved in the attacks.
Louie Mars
Organize a citizen patrol in connection with officers, it has worked in other gay neighborhoods…
wagnerwallace
TWO WORDS: concealed carry.
Daggerman
…what are these people like? There’s a little boy here. Are they deranged. Why are gay hating f**kers so jealous? Because most haven’t got a life and desperately need to get one.
Lawayne Williamson
This hardly ever happen when I lived in Oak Lawn back in the 1980’s, if someone was attacked, we protected ourselves as we knew the DPD would not take care of the crimes.
1EqualityUSA
“the protection provided by our tax dollars is not enough and that we should pay for expanded patrols by off duty officers.”
How can this excuse be given without uproarious laughter following it?
SeeingAll
@Brian Nesbitt: Thanks for the info.
Stache
@wagnerwallace: You ‘d be a fool not to carry a concealed weapon around that area. In TX they have the stand your ground law so any threat can be dealt with appropriately.
SeeingAll
Is it supposed to be the same muggers/attackers each time, or……different…?
GLF
The hell with concealed carry. Go get some AR-15s, stand on the street corner and say you’re protesting for your second amendment RAIGHTS. A pair of gays back-to-back each block might make these people think two or three times before pulling this bs again. The police are not going to help you. The businesses are not going to help you. It’s time to bash back.
Glücklich
I haven’t heard of anything recent but SF’s Castro had a problem for a while where some stumbling out of the bars after last call would get assaulted and robbed walking home along the side streets.
Sounds like until DPD gets their shit together Oak Lawn residents and visitors should travel in packs.
onthemark
Ugh. The usual gay news from Texas. The only time I EVER want to see Texas again is from the windows of a plane, or Amtrak’s Sunset Limited. Long ago I saw Palo Duro Canyon, which I gather is the only mildly interesting natural feature in the whole state, and Cadillac Ranch (from the Springsteen song) which is just ridiculous. If there is anything else “interesting” in Texas I will take your word for it, but you couldn’t pay me to spend any time there.
CWM85
I hope they catch these bastards! Just terrible… I don’t think texas has a hate crime against glbt folks tho… does dallas? Dallas just voted No for anti discrimination for everyone basically. Smh
gaym50ish
The last time I was in Dallas, which admittedly was a long time ago, all the gay bars had security guards on foot patrol in the parking lots. Has that changed?
David Chachki
Fight back.
M J Martinez Crogan
Texas is open carry. Arm yourself, stand your ground ….
Chris
Things like this result in a loss of trust in the police and to people taking the law into their won hands. It’s already happening in many developing nations; I hope it doesn’t get to that point here in U.S. of A.
SeeingAll
@Glücklich: Yes….it’s an age-old tactic to rob the stumbling drunks. Just good to remember. (No, I’m not blaming the victims, folks, so don’t go there).
Patrick Laney
Wow just took this happening to citizens before actually doing something about it… Yeah great…
Mark Johnson
Shoot the bastards. Don’t cry about it.
Glücklich
@SeeingAll:
All the more reason for me to drink at home. Alone. With the lights out sitting in the bathtub or on the closet floor.
SeeingAll
@Glücklich: Awww…I don’t think you have to go THAT far into hiding.
SeeingAll
@Patrick Laney: Isn’t that how it usually works ?
Glücklich
@SeeingAll:
Are you kidding? That’s not going into hiding, that’s how I spend my free time!
1EqualityUSA
Lightnin’ Hopkins came from Texas. Blues wrought by poverty, unfairness, and exploitation. What a treasure. Sometimes the most pure gems come out of hardship. Glucklich, your turkey is festive. A documentary must be made about this state. It needs to be captured on film, starting with clips of politicians. This is one for the history books. Get it on film while the hatred is hot, fresh, and moist. Day-old hate is good too. It breaks up nicely for stuffing.
Giancarlo85
Carry a concealed weapon and you will probably get pistol whipped or you will end IP hitting bystanders. I think we need to do what many developed countries have done. Create a more heavily armed police force (like the carabinieri). Police forces are blighted by in professionalism in America. I suppose sending in the FBI would be the closest equivalent.
SeeingAll
@Glücklich: lol
Giancarlo85
https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/slE0cKNCiiiweiyxTUwluw–/YXBwaWQ9eWlzZWFyY2g7Zmk9Zml0O2dlPTAwNjYwMDtncz0wMEEzMDA7aD00MDA7dz02MDI-/http://www.formialibera.it/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/carabinieri.jpg.cf.jpg
Hope that link works… A national police force could solve some issues and be more deployable. Italy still has local police, but the carabinieri actively operate everywhere. Same goes to Chile, which has a similar force. If corruption and bias is causing issues in local police, they can halt this.
Dinodogstar
I am gay, and in and from St. Louis, Missouri. I have seen the strong and determined response to the killing of an unarmed Black teenage man, Mike Brown, in the 2014 ‘Ferguson Riots’. We DO need to say something, and search the bottom of our dresser drawers and closets, to find the t-shirt, “Silence = Death”. We did NOT get this far in the struggle for equality, by only being nice and friendly, asking nicely if we can not die or be killed through neglect or overt hate and harm. We NEED to be out, and maybe we also need to have more out celebs and law enforcement, politicians, priests and the like, when we KNOW that what has changed up the debate and the scene, is that we are seen and heard. We have been deeply lucky to have had Wentworth Miller, for example, come out and use his power and position to tell Russia that anti-gay BS is NOT acceptable, or Ellen Page to come out with the demonstrated effort to end homophobic and biased harm. She showed up at the Iowa Debates this year, and went off on some asinine Republican candidate,maybe Ted Cruz. Say SOMETHING. aAt the very least, use your voice, rather safely, to speak out on-line, show your intellect, power and numbers, and be assertive, if for no other reason, to make your won life less hard and even dangerous.! Imagine if we put as much effort and money, concern and attention back on and to our own community, what we could then accomplish. I am made sad and unpleased with myself, when i’ve read this, and thought, ‘Oh, twelve doesn’t seem so shocking. ” A Black man was beaten down at a Trump rally, and that will be the end of his campaign, i assure you. But yet, in Fort Worth, Texas, an organized, police effort to revisit the Stonewall Riots, and stage an attack on a bar in that city, on the very same day, the 40th anniversary of that day’s memorial, to do the exact same thing, is still not our NEW Stonewall for today. Years ago, when I came out, there was a sort of community-shared article from “Queer Nation” or “ACT-UP”, that i best remember it essentially reading, “Queers read this:..Let yourself be angry that the price of your life and visibility is the constant threat of hateful violence.” Don’t participate in YOUR OWN oppression and abuse, by being silent and passive and, thus, willing and accepting of that fate. Save at least your OWN life!
Dinodogstar
We tend to think that our voices and our words, matter less, as it seems to so easily say something on-line or in a facebook story thread, to not even elicit any response. But it does. Take maybe 15 minutes a day, to USE your voice, AND your power, to change the game. Write SOMETHING complaining to the big Dallas Newspapers and organizations, the local Dallas news facebook page, for example. IT DOES matter, and they ARE listening. We can feel, so easily, like we’re back to being the bullied gay boy in high school, and just wanting to slip away into obscurity and invisibility, to save ourselves. But you are NOT a child, and you ARE NOT dis-empowered now!!! Type it out, take that just anger and not waste it here, preaching to the choir, and thinking that will somehow add in to the change and remedy needed. SAY IT SOMEWHERE ELSE TOO!!!!!!!!!!!! POST on CNN or the Dallas NBC local news affiliate, the Huffington Post or something, hell, Fox News would be a great choice, to go and tell!!!! DO ASK, DO TELL!!!! And do that OUTSIDE OF THIS SAFE AND, WELL, NO OFFENSE, BUT THIS DEAD-END NEWS OUTLET. This is where to START expressing your voice and opinion, not the final easy place to vent your anger. We ALL are annoyed and pizzed off- take it and go with it.!!!
MAKE TROUBLE! You can now, and you can also NOT participate and facilitate your own suffering or your community’s either. It’s VERY SAFE AND EASY TO SAY AND SPEAK YOUR ANGER ON FACEBOOK OR A WEBSITE OUTSIDE OF THE GAY MEDIA CONFINES. You can, like here, do it anonymously and safely too, so go do it.. Remember the Olympic song to sing to yourself as you go search for places to shout your just anger, this song, ‘What have You Done Today to Make Yourself Feel Proud”!?!?!?
Dinodogstar
There are two big blue boxes at the top of this story. Hit them, and SHARE them, outside of our own little chatter places.
Listen to the songs from our wise, older sisters, and play the INDIGO GIRLS song “Go”, and DO that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lyrics to motivate and inspire you: Indigo Girls, again, “Hammer and a Nail”:
“Gotta get out of bad and get a hammer and a nail, learn how to use my hands, not just my head. I think myself into a jail. Now I know a refuge never grows, from a chin in the hand, and a thoughtful pose, you gotta tend the earth, if you want a rose. …But my life is more than a vision; the sweetest part is acting after making a decision. If I have a care I have a gift to bring.”
SAY SOMETHING, SOMEWHERE ELSE …go GO GO ..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dinodogstar
Go to ” NBC DFW ” on facebook..it’s the Dallas, Ft. Worth NBC news affiliate.
Look up ANY and EVERY Dallas and Ft, Worth facebook page you can, and tell this story, or even add it as a link.
Ft. Worth, you might remind them, was where the local police department invaded and attacked the gay bar customers, on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Police Raid and riots, and several men and women were hurt, and one, so badly, he’s suffered brain damage as a result. If you think that was just happenstance or a coincidence, then you are not thinking straight, so to speak.
TAKE this story, and GO TELL IT NOW…Not on some OTHER lgbtq page, but to those who do not know the story, and clearly care less to tell it. DO ASK DO TELL…GO!
Glücklich
@Dinodogstar:
You absolutely lost me at Indigo Girls. I think the North Koreans play that “music” over the loudspeakers at their concentration camps.
SeeingAll
@Glücklich: (lol again)
Bauhaus
Here in D.C., we have a LGBT task force within the MPDC. The police officers are LGBT, they investigate hate crimes, crimes in gay neighborhoods, patrol areas where gay clubs and bars are located, and are assigned to cases of domestic violence, disturbances, and disputes of LGBT couples. The task force keeps the department abreast of what’s happening in the community and where police resources are needed.
SeeingAll
@Dinodogstar: If I fought back too hard against the Dallas attackers the ultra-pc will say I must have racial problems.
onthemark
@Giancarlo85: Come on, GC, we know what you REALLY want… California Uber Alles!:
Now it is 1984
Knock-knock at your front door
It’s the suede denim secret police
They have come for your uncool niece…
Die on organic poison gas
Serpent’s egg’s already hatched
You will croak, you little clown
When you mess with President Brown!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Über_Alles
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deadkennedys/californiauberalles.html
Glücklich
@SeeingAll:
I hear something similar about home invasion robberies out here in the SF Bay Area when the homeowner turns out to be armed.
SFGate commentors are infamous for the whole “are your things worth more than a human life?” Yes. Yes they are. They’re MY things, which I paid for with money I EARNED.
Luckily the buildings in my complex have doormen even if they’re frequently drunk.
onthemark
Neighborhood watches are the way to go. They could even be armed, and meet anyone’s definition of “militia” in the Second Amendment. Think of the legendary Pink Panthers in New York back in the ’80s (who weren’t armed, not with guns, but were often effective.
Most gay guys out for the night in a gay neighborhood are out trying to have fun. A LOT of them have been drinking. You can’t just expect everyone to conceal-carry, that’s crazy! Besides, carrying a gun would make it rather difficult to go dancing. 🙂
Anyway, a place like Dallas doesn’t have weather that makes it easy to conceal-carry. Unless you can dress like the 1920s gangsters on “Boardwalk Empire” you can’t really pull that off with any style.
@Bauhaus: That’s the right approach with police departments. Most of them in the northeast are like that.
SeeingAll
@Glücklich: Those types of people can be just as bad as those who are too pro-shoot-em-up. Extremists on either side are the worst. (But maybe both are needed to balance things out).
Giancarlo85
@onthemark: No. Just a national investigation and police force like every other developed country. Those countries are more free and Socratic than this one, so your non point is out the window. I suppose the FBI may qualify but they are mainly investigations and apprehension.
Giancarlo85
*democratic. Socratic? Ha. Weird autocorrect.