July 21, 2008
Yuengling Driver Assaults Gay Man on Spring & 6th
Last week Brad Walsh (nightlife photographer, musician, Christian Siriano's boyfriend) recounted an experience he recently had on Spring and 6th, involving a hostile Yuengling truck driver.
A delivery truck driven by a guy on a cell phone was turning and almost hit me and another guy. Me and the other guy put our hands up like "what are you doing," but we didn't say or mouth anything to the driver. The driver (jacked) got out, followed me down the street (not the other guy), called me a "faggot" several times, punched me really hard in the jaw, knocked my stuff onto the sidewalk, and went back to his truck. Then when I looked at his license plate to memorize the number he came back, called me a "faggot" again, and asked me if I was going to "be a bitch" and "tell" on him. I got the plate number, though, and the name of his company from the side of the truck.Following the incident he filed a police report and called the company to file a complaint. Today, five days later, he still has a sore neck -- along with other physical and emotional distress. Meanwhile, Yuengling has told him that the driver was not an employee of their company, but rather of a distribution company they use, and was unresponsive beyond that when asked about who to contact about the matter. Walsh is now calling out the beer company, asking if Yuengling condones such hate crimes.
Photo via mariab3bx's flickr.
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shouldn't be hard to find, but why didn't Yuengling tell them who their NE distributors are?
what did you expect from a PA company, PA is second to OH when it comes to white supremacy groups.
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He should sue the driver, sue the distribution company, and sue the manufacturing company.
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Yeah... random violence happens all the time. No one would leave a truck and assault someone if they weren't provoked. Sounds like the guy just wants some $$. Wouldn't be the first time.
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Why don't we all give them a call?
Dick Yuengling, Jr. – President and Owner
570-622-4141
Fax:. 570-622-4011
dyuengling@yuengling.com
David Casinelli – Chief Operating Officer
570-622-0153
Fax:. 570-622-4011
dcasinelli@yuengling.com
Marketing Manager - Lou Romano.
lromano@yuengling.com
Enjoy!!
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Chase up 'Manhattan Distributors'
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Just, make it work, Christian.
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ask and ye shall receive, but these guys are a bit tougher:
Manhattan Distributors
Bronx Facility
Corporate Offices
400 Walnut Avenue
Bronx, NY 10454
(718)292-9300
Bill Bessette
COO at Manhattan Beer Distributors
http://www.linkedin.com/ppl/webprofile?action=ctu&id=26569363&authToken=OD5W&authType=name
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The police have the license plate number and are doing nothing? That's also not a good sign.
Anyway, here's a list of Yuengling distributors in NY State: www.yuengling.com/distrib_ny.htm
You want to really get their attention? Organize a boycott of their beers. There's nothing like a little bad publicity and a dip in sales to wake up a sluggish management. At least the bit of bad publicity shouldn't be that difficult. An organized boycott wouldn't be easy.
At least call or email one of the officers of the company. Perhaps Mr Walsh could supply the NYC Police with these phone numbers. That might get them to do a bit more than just record the incident.
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"Yeah... random violence happens all the time. No one would leave a truck and assault someone if they weren't provoked."
Random violence is a myth and it doesn't happen all the time. Millions upon millions of people get through their days without wanting hurt people or fearing being hurt.
And your point about provoked..If he was provoked it is not random.
The only thing I can bet is the driver wouldn't have picked on someone his own size. Coward.
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Send it to Consumerist, find out who does their PR and start feeding them the bad press.
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Guy was definitely a douche but to be fair to Yuengling it's true that the truck driver is not an employee of Yuengling itself but rather of whatever distributor owns the truck. The distributors typically are allowed and/or encouraged to paint the trucks up with the various beer brands that they carry.
Too bad the guy didn't get the distributor's name from the truck as opposed to the brewer's name as the driver works for the distributor.
To the douche truck driver: you can't get angry and punch homosexual men just because they turn you on so much. It's not their fault that you're living in the closet.
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Finalshaft;
Truck drivers, as we all know, are timid things who inch along quietly, afraid of offending or startling pedestrians, bikes, and other drivers. Gays, on the other hand, are well known for provoking fights with truck drivers.
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I already boycott that beer; tastes like someone poured it through dirty socks.
Maybe the driver was pissed about delivering beer just slightly more palatable than piss.
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Hap Boening, Founder
Boening Brothers Inc.
1098 Rt.109
North Lindenhurse, NY 11757
631-957-0200
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I don't think the guy should sue...lawsuits ARE for BITCHES.
But the company definitely owes him a MAJOR apology, and should demonstrate that its taken steps to make sure this never happens again.
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he did get the distributors name (presuming it is the text that was on the side of the truck), its written above:
"I got the plate number, though, and the name of his company from the side of the truck."
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@virgil:
Think about what you said. Really read it. See how stupid you sound.
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unless you're kidding. in that case, i should really read it.
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Ha, Boening Brothers. This is starting to get good.
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bxbrain
Sarcasim was killed by the internet.
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This is a disgrace. I'm sorry, but Yeungling should take some responsibility. Do they really want some goon driving around in a truck with their name on it beating down bystanders? It's a disgrace and there is no excuse or reason for it. I mean, really?
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That image is photoshopped, right?
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They'll have to be boycotted. What idiots. Yeungling's directors can't be so stupid that they fail to recall the boycott of Coors in the eighties as well as other well-placed boycotts against brewers and their distributors that all to often promote a culture of hostility towards gays. Coors found out that if gays make up 5-10% of your market and your annual beer sales creep up at an average .5%-1.5%, dismissing gays is a good way to get your stock price cut in half. If Yeungling is privately held, then they can act like idiots and promote themselves and their product as a niche alternative for gay bashers but that only works for James Dobson books.
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This story doesn't make much sense, and I feel like major details are missing. Be careful how seriously you take a story like this. Libel can get you sued too.
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The driver should be found and held responsible for his actions. However, unless the distributor was aware he was prone to violence, the company shouldn't be liable for the criminal acts of their driver just because he was driving their truck before he committed this battery. He left the truck when he punched Walsh in the face, and was not acting as an employee of the company.
I've never been completely comfortable with the idea of hate crimes, which I think cross the line into thought crimes. I think all victims of violent crimes deserve to have their assailants punished equally.
This sounds more like a case of road rage -- it seems unlikely that the driver was cruising around in his work vehicle looking for someone gay to start a fight with. A lot of times, when people fight, they call each other names. If the victim was fat, or short, or bald, or ugly, or homeless, or a hippy, or a Republican... the offensive comments made might be on one of those characteristics, which aren't protected, so would not trigger a hate crime.
To me, it seems like the hate crime label makes some groups more protected than others. I'm not condoning the driver's use of offensive comments, but I think the crime committed was punching Walsh in the face, not calling him an offensive name.
I also wouldn't be surprised to learn that Walsh did something more to provoke a fight than his version of the story lets on. Not that this would in any way justify what he says the driver did, but Walsh's account -- I'm walking down the street, a driver almost runs me over, I put my hands in the air and he gets out of the truck and chases me down the street and punches me in the face -- seems like it might be missing a few details.
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This is clearly a terrible incident, but everyone is directing anger at the wrong place. That isn't a Yeungling truck. Beer distributors typically get some type of kickback, discount etc. to paint a companies logo on the truck, but don't have anything to do with the company legally, other tha re-selling their products. This would be akin to boycotting Brooks Brothers because some yuppie in one their suits attacked you (you should actually Boycott Brooks Brothers because their suits are exclusively designed to fit paunchy white men over 40 but that's another boycott).
I'm all for getting this truck driving creep, but if you have the plate number, the police know who that truck belongs too.
If you really want to make this boycott effective, boycott any bar that the distributor serves. Bar owners pay distributors bills, and boycotts work well on a smaller level. Find out who they sell to and let the owners know you aren't buying a drink their until they switch distributors (which isn't an easy thing to do) or this distributor makes things right.
Where is Yuengling's PR on this?
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"I already boycott that beer; tastes like someone poured it through dirty socks."
Except for the punctuation, I agree wholeheartedly.
:)
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? Nannystate, that comment makes little sense. This driver could have been delivering Pepsi, or Coke, or donuts. The driver works for a distributor. It isn't like a corporate representative of Yuengling attacked someone. If the driver hit Walsh with the truck, I could see a case against the company. However-- giving full credit to Walsh's account-- he LEFT the truck to attack him. He isn't doing anything related to his job at that point. Yeungling isn't to blame.
According to Walsh, Yuengling told him that the driver was not an employee of their company, but rather of a distribution company they use. Walsh has the license plate number-- at that point, it seems it's a police matter to identify the distributor and determine who the driver was. Walsh's complaint seems to be that, 5 days later, this hasn't been acted upon as quickly as he'd like - the problem is with the police department.
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It's not even clear that the distributor is aware of this incident.
Boycott Yuengling, boycott bars that the distributor serves??? ridiculous.
Put pressure on the police department to follow up on the case. They know it's a truck that says Yuengling on the side, have a license plate, and a description of the driver. Can't be that hard to determine who the driver is. If the cops cared about this crime, they would have caught the guy already.
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It is a police matter and the police should be handling it.
Yuengling, however, knows who its distributors are. There is most likely only one distributor for New York City, so they could easily track the truck to that company and provide the victim with contact information for the distributor, at the least.
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Or wait for the cops to do their job. They run the plate. Identify the business. Find out who was working that route on that day. End of story.
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Dozens of people saw this happen to me, in the broad daylight in Soho, and everyone ignored it and moved along. I understand nobody getting physical with the guy on my behalf; I probably wouldn't do that for a stranger. But everyone looked away and walked away, nobody would be a witness even after the guy left. This is why I hate when people tell me I'm not on the shit side of a new Civil Rights Movement and/or that gays have basically achieved equality in 2008.
oh, the drama
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@ #27 = "Except for the punctuation, I agree wholeheartedly."
What is it with the Grammar Police all the time on this blog?
The sentence of #13 was perfectly correct. A semi-colon was appropriate; there was a close relationship between the two sentences.
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@FrankMartin
Sarcasim [sp] was not killed by the internet, I just gotta pay more attention and not be all bothered while posting.
I'm not gonna comment on spelling.
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yuengling = piss
all american beer = piss
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!harr-dee-harr;!:", good one *snoops!
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Walsh better have filed a complaint in a timely manner, gotten a complaint #, & be following up daily pushing the 1st or 6th Pct. DT on the assault complaint. If he didn't file, get the comp#, & push for follow-up, he's got nothing to bitch about. The whole focus these days is "Crime is down". If he doesn't push this will get sh-tcanned & not appear in crime stats. And hey, if some fwad nearly runs me over then gets out of his truck & punches me, how come I don't get press & the ability to press for a higher charge than assault. And provocation is no excuse. Words are words, assault is assault. Walsh is no different than any other ped(estrian) in NYC. He just complains louder.
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And, as an aside to Walsh, how many of those who "looked away and walked away, nobody would be a witness even after the guy left" were gay? You were in the West Village, fer Chrissake. You're not the snail darter or the Andean condor. We're all the same except for those of you who consider yourselves to be "special".
You're not, you're a guy on the street just like the rest of us. Get over it.
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Well, the lesson learned here is - don't talk shit unless you're willing to back it up. If you're going to engage in provoking drivers, who could fly into road rage, you better be ready in-case you're dealing with a psycho. Baring that, Im not sure why he didn't call police to the scene right away.
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That's it #1 bring OH into the mix again. Where do you get your information? White supremacy groups? Have you ever seen Cleveland?
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Nice backlash we got going here. Somebody gets assaulted for no good reason and you assholes crow about it.
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all american beer = piss
So does that mean that all Anheuser-Busch beers will not taste like piss anymore because they're about to be officially Belgian?
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If Walsh had been as FIERCE as his boyfriend, maybe he would have hit the guy back.
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1. the make it work comment was hilarious
2. the comment about AB becoming belgian and thereby negating the american beer=piss equation was top notch
3. man up
4. yuengling is america's best beer.
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#2 writes, "He should sue the driver, sue the distribution company, and sue the manufacturing company."
I'll give you three guesses as to this person's ancestry, but you'll probably only need one.
I don't blame Yuengling for anything other than selling fermented panther piss. Why would they get involved? The queer has the license plate number. Work with the fucking cops, dummy, and stop trying to act like Yuengling is the problem because they have the deepest pockets.
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Smells like major bullshit to me. If the driver pulled over and beat-down every pedestrian who looked at him angrily, he wouldn't have time to make deliveries! How much can I bet the gay guy is one of those auto-phobic Streetbloggers?
I'd love to hear the driver's side of the story.
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bxbrian
humer is dead to.
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how unfortunit.
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"This is clearly a terrible incident, but everyone is directing anger at the wrong place. That isn't a Yeungling truck. Beer distributors typically get some type of kickback, discount etc. to paint a companies logo on the truck, but don't have anything to do with the company legally, other tha re-selling their products. This would be akin to boycotting Brooks Brothers because some yuppie in one their suits attacked you"
emilydickinson (#26) is correct. there is a lot of misguided anger surrounding the incident right now. it is, as many other commenters have noted, a police matter. the pressure for answers should be directed at them. as others have noted, there doesn't seem to be sufficient information available regarding the incident, either.