Hate In The News

Yesterday, I wrote about the murderer who was found not guilty after admitting to stabbing a man 61 times. Now there is a trial that began yesterday in the death of a trans-woman in Syracuse NY and in another the case there were arrest made in the beating of a trans-woman in New York City. Earlier in the month a woman was attacked in Jackson Heights NY by two men. Let’s hope that these trials have a better outcome then the Chicago case.

NY to use hate crime law in transgender case

By WILLIAM KATES – 1 day ago

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — It was no secret to friends and family that Lateisha Green was born a boy. She had been living mostly as a female since age 16.

On a Friday night last November, Green — this time dressed as a man — and her brother, Mark Cannon, went to a party. Several guests objected because they thought the two were gay. Several started yelling "profane and vulgar comments," police reports said.

As Green and Cannon were sitting in their car a few minutes later, one of the partygoers emerged from the house with a .22-caliber rifle. Without a word, police say Dwight DeLee fired a single shot. The bullet grazed Cannon's arm, and with a deadly thud hit Green, 22, in the chest.
...
Prosecutors agreed and charged DeLee, 20, with second-degree murder as a hate crime under the state's nine-year-old law. The hate crime label could add years of additional time to DeLee's prison term if he's convicted.

In the second incident...

2 arrested in Queens bias attack on transgender female

BY Irving Dejohn
and Brendan Brosh
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Updated Friday, July 10th 2009, 1:57 AM

A transgender female walking down a Queens street was attacked by a pair of bigoted thugs who pelted her with rocks and beer bottles, prosecutors said.

"I was being attacked because of who I am," said victim Carmella Etienne, 22.

"I'm pretty traumatized."

Nathaniel Mims, 25, and Rasheed Thomas, 22, allegedly screamed anti-gay slurs and threatened to cut the woman's throat Wednesday night in St. Albans.
...
"They were yelling homophobic slurs at me. They threatened to kill me. Chunky rocks and empty beer bottles they were throwing at me," said the aspiring fashion designer. "Don't ever walk that block anymore or we will slash your throat," one of the defendants said, according to cops.

Etienne is now afraid to leave her home.

In the incident from last week...

Beating was hate crime: LGBT groups
Activists push DA Brown to prosecute Woodside men in transgender attack

By Jeremy Walsh
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 6:04 PM EDT

Elected officials and nonprofits are rallying behind a transgender Jackson Heights woman who was severely beaten by a pair of men in Woodside last month after the Queens district attorney’s office did not initially categorize the attack as a hate crime.

Leslie Mora was walking home around 4:20 a.m. near Roosevelt Avenue and 72nd Street June 19 when she was accosted by two men, Gilberto Ortiz, 32, and Trinidad Tapia, 19, according to a criminal complaint filed by the DA’s office.

The two Woodside men beat Mora with a metal belt buckle before fleeing the scene, the complaint said. Mora suffered bruises all over her body and a cut to her head.

Michael Silverman, Mora’s attorney, said the men repeatedly called Mora “faggot” and did not stop beating her until a passing motorist threatened to call police. The criminal complaint does not mention gay slurs.

Both men were arrested and charged with assault and weapons possession, the DA said. They were released on their own recognizance and scheduled to return to court July 13.

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