Protests planned over police response to string of homophobic attacks
Rally to take place after latest attack victim left with fractured skull.
LGBT activists have planned a huge rally outside the Dallas Police Department headquarters this weekend due to their lack of response to a string of homophobic attacks.
Geoffrey Hubbard was left in intensive care after being assaulted while walking to his friend’s house after work late on Thursday (19 November) night.
As he was trying to walk around an unknown man, he was hit with an unidentified object. The man then went through his pockets and robbed him.
Local media say the assault is the twelfth attack on gay men in the city of Dallas since September.
At least three other attacks have also occurred, but are yet to be reported to police, says The Dallas Voice.
Many of the victims are said to be employees of gay bars leaving work late at night.
The authorities are yet to apprehend a suspect – and are treating just one of the attacks as a hate crime.
Due to their apparent lack of response, protesters are planning a rally in a hope to force the local police into action.
“Since Sept. 20, there have now been 15 reported violent assaults on gay men in Oak Lawn,” organiser Daniel Scott Cates said in a Facebook post announcing the rally.
“Survivors have been beaten with bats, stabbed with box cutters, pistol whipped and pummeled with fists. In several of these attacks, homophobic language has been used by the assailants.”
However, despite police promises to increase patrols and visibility in the “gayborhood”, Cates said “such an increase has been spotty and largely invisible.”
Rafael McDonnell, a spokesman for the Resource Centre in Dallas, also warned that the recent attacks may result in murder if nothing is done.
He said: told CBS: “I hope that it doesn’t lead to something really bad, like a homicide.
“In this particular case the victim was so fortunate in that he had the presence of mind, in the middle of the attack, to roll under a car.”
Local police are yet to make an arrest in Mr Hubbard’s case, and ask anyone with information about the attacks to contact them on 214-671-3584.
