Upper East Side Tokers Go Gay Bashing During Pride Weekend

A former Village Voice staffer in town for the weekend, was jumped, badly beaten and called a faggot by a group of young men on the Upper East Side in the wee hours of Saturday morning. 36-year-old Joe Holladay of Boston was smoking outside the friend's apartment on East 85th near York around 4 a.m. Saturday when the group of five or six men came up to him and hit him with an object, possibly the butt of a gun. Holladay told the Voice, "It's very blurry. But yeah, they said 'faggot.' And the next thing I know I'm in the hospital." A neighbor said they spotted a group of young white men with crewcuts, wearing wife beaters and smoking pot nearby before the attack. It's believed that they hopped in a gold Subaru older model station wagon after the attack. Upon reading about the incident, State Senator Thomas Duane got involved with the possibility of pursuing it as a hate crime and said, "Hate and prejudice of any kind are unacceptable in New York City or anywhere and there is a heightened injustice that this apparently anti-gay incident occurred during Pride Week."

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By Billy Parker in News on June 29, 2009 5:50 PM

Comments [rss]

pigeon

@imadick: "particular groups of people" who have historically been the targets of violence by neighbors, government, religion, etc. So yeah, there's a difference, though I'm sure it's nearly imperceptible to someone who has no idea what it feels like to be marginalized.

pigeon

@imadick: "particular groups of people" who have historically been the targets of violence by neighbors, government, religion, etc. So yeah, there's a difference, though I'm sure it's nearly imperceptible to someone who has no idea what it feels like to be marginalized.

pigeon

@imadick: "particular groups of people" who have historically been the targets of violence by neighbors, government, religion, etc. So yeah, there's a difference, though I'm sure it's nearly imperceptible to someone who has no idea what it feels like to be marginalized.

pigeon

@imadick: "particular groups of people" who have historically been the targets of violence by neighbors, government, religion, etc. So yeah, there's a difference, though I'm sure it's nearly imperceptible to someone who has no idea what it feels like to be marginalized.

pigeon

@imadick: "particular groups of people" who have historically been the targets of violence by neighbors, government, religion, etc. So yeah, there's a difference, though I'm sure it's nearly imperceptible to someone who has no idea what it feels like to be marginalized.

pigeon

@imadick: "particular groups of people" who have historically been the targets of violence by neighbors, government, religion, etc. So yeah, there's a difference, though I'm sure it's nearly imperceptible to someone who has no idea what it feels like to be marginalized.

jerseyandy

Was one of them Will.I.Am's manager?

imadick

why does saying "faggot" make this crime oh so much worse? he could have been just using it as a pejorative.

are we really more accepting of a sociopath who hands out beatdowns indiscriminately than a sociopath who hands out beatdowns to a couple of particular groups of people?

ides_of_march

"...and hit him with an object, possibly the butt of a gun."

Just had to work the word "butt" into this story, didn't you.

theLtrain

How did they know he was gay?

theLtrain

How did they know he was gay?

calcetines

I doubt they were only on weed...

Billiamsburg

crew cuts! lol. Get long island on the phone. i bet these guys are outside their mother's house rubbing ben-gay on each other's pecs right now.

Clarice City

and apparently taking her car out for a spin.

UnrepentantFenian

Smoking weed and then kicking ass? You don't hear that too often. Usually on weed you just kinda want to sit down for a while.

Clarice City

Closeted little bastards. What's gayer than a long gold, vintage car full of men, I ask.

fauxsella

You know, throwing these guys in jail fixes nothing. The punishment should fit the crime. They deserve a beating at the hands of a poetry-book-toting, Noel Coward-quoting gay guy--*five* of them actually. Respect is overly important to ignorant/stupid people, so take it away.