YouTube footage of LGBT hate crime goes viral

boing
42

What bums me out the most is that I’d only just discovered the Follow feature on Discus, and started following a whole bunch of my favourite posters (yourself included, IIRC)… : (

Another thing I’m having trouble with is the weird version of BB code that happens in the input field… and as you say, the threading is a pain, but there are one or two flipsides to that, and there’s a hell of a lot else to like about this board. It’s pretty damn slick, with quite a lot of neat features.

I have mixed feelings, but they’re mostly positive; the guys running the site seem to be working pretty hard to tweak it according to feedback.

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43

Precisely.

It’s just that in pretty much any law-abiding society, if you make enough of an arsehole of yourself, you run the risk of being taken down. IOW, if onlookers would cheer if some bloke king-hit you, you’ve probably crossed the line.

Seems fair enough to me; it’s rare for the cops to be on the scene in time.

I’m not really equipped for that approach myself, but I might try something verbal…

A lot more aggressive than the ‘calm down’ guy though.

IMO it’s pretty easy to demonstrate what’s just concerning gay folks, even to fuckwits, viz:

Do you think it’s a choice to be gay?

If no, then you’re the undeniable moral equivalent of a racist, so fuck off and die.

If yes, then can you ever imagine choosing to be gay yourself?

If no, then your position is inconsistent; see above, fuck off and die.

If yes, I offer my own experience of actually attempting to choose to be bisexual, and totally failing to develop any desire for another dude. I can do the job; one guy heaped praise on my abilities. But I’m happy to never go there again despite being for it in principle. And I can’t imagine how a man could ever choose to be exclusively homosexual, to boot.

You could offer this example or a similar one, or otherwise just mention the closet.

44

Arseholes. I’d like to think that in a few more years those guys will be like the asswipes who commit and committed race crimes. A real threat, but dwindling and pathetic at the same time. Race crimes are awful and ongoing, but not at the scale of 40 years ago. I suspect the same will eventually happen with crimes against LGBT people.

That is, unless the current slide into authoritarianism continues, in which case all bets are off. LGBT would be a very easy other’ for a manipulative dictator to demonize.

Also - I hate this commenting system. I find myself reading the same posts multiple times. I know I am commenting a lot less.

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45

Well, the writing is on the wall I reckon.

Hey, it’s not a hate crime to hate on hate criminals, is it?

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i’m not saying she should have remained silent, but what she was yelling wasn’t helping the situation, either.

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For those of us who have seen how often women stop fighting in order to save their lives, then are either not believed by family, friends, and the police or even if believed, there isn’t enough “evidence” (and yes, I’m including cases I know personally where there were multiple eyewitnesses and even voluntary confessions) to prosecute…the idea that a video (which after all was in the process of being attacked and could well have been damaged or destroyed) would somehow ensure that legal punishment would ensue is naive at best.

We only know now after the fact that the woman being attacked was not killed. At the time, there was no guarantee how far the attack would go.

The only way to stop people like this is for the general public to show they won’t just stand by…they will step in to stop the violent behavior even if it isn’t happening to them. That’s as true at a frat party as it is on a subway train.

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48

Good question. My guess is that if someone stepped in between, the asshat would get all punchy, thereby requiring self-defense from the one that stepped in.
Might be touchy legally at first, but I have a feeling any “first year law student” (as they say) would be able to get you out of it…

49

From behind, with an arm-bar, and ‘citizen’s arrest!’ yelled at the top of your voice?
I don’t wanna come across all internet tough-guy, cos I am actually soft as shite, but that seems reasonable to me (I’ve done it myself, to some dickhead in a bar hitting a guy who looked like Santa with a barstool. Who the fuck hits a dude that looks like Santa? Howay, man).

50

Aye, it’s horrible. Why are replies posted twice, with the option to reply to said replies only available if you scroll down to the second posting of it? After which, you’re bounced to the bottom of the page, and you have to scroll back to the first reply so that the conversation has any coherence whatsoever? I adore boingboing, and have commented here under various guises for at least ten years throughout its many variations, but seriously, this thing as it stands is nee good, like. Propa shan, in the local argot.

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51

i think it’s extremely telling. rape is often about getting off on power and dominance.

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52

Yeah, the guys being harassed and threatened are the ones that need to “shut up and take a breath”. Classic victim blaming. How 'bout you focus on the ACTUAL HARASSERS, instead? Christ.

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53

Was that how this assault started?

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If you say anything anywhere near this hateful and disgusting when you’re drunk, that’s not “running your mouth”: That’s being a hateful jerkwad who should perhaps stop drinking and get some therapy. I would also very much wonder if maybe your real self comes out when drunk. Why would someone say such hateful shit, drunk or not, unless they mean it? I can be kind of mouthy when I’m drunk, but never HATEFUL.

Being annoyed and frustrated at people is one thing, but to be hateful? is something entirely different. Not surprising that you brush off your likely-hateful crap because “you are drunk”, though.

Icky.

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56

um, please don’t twist what i said. my original comment was directed to EVERYONE. i’m not blaming her.

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Woah woah woah. Yeah, not like that. I have a tendency for cheering for the not-home-team in the home team bar. Things like that.

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Is there a correct way to receive abuse? One which doesn’t make the victim an inevitable trigger for the abuser?

Your view, that everyone should just calm down seems to forget the part where the abusers are the ones responsible for creating a sudden dramatic violent situation and they bear ALL the responsibility for doing so.

Getting upset because people defended themselves wrong is pretty offensive.

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59

holy shit. all i was hoping for was cooler heads, and wishing that more gasoline wasn’t thrown on a fire. it’s already clear that the guys are homophobic, hate-filled, irrational dbags – what does yelling back even accomplish, other than escalating things? the situation was already well in hand, being documented, and authorities were coming.

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Thank you for the clarification.

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I didn’t twist your words at all. You are blaming the victim, full stop. If someone is having hateful bigotry spewed at them, they just need to sit around silently and take it? It doesn’t matter WHO you are talking to, you are still trying to silence the oppressed.

You are free to handle abuse given to you in any way you want; not everyone has the means or ability or desire to speak up, and that’s fine. But STOP trying to silence the oppressed. Stop putting the focus on the victim. STOP blaming the victim. (And, yes, you did.) It is not your fight nor or business.

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62

Oh. So basically, the VICTIM was “hurting” the situation. There you go, putting your ENTIRE concentration on what you think the victim did “wrong”. This is victim blaming. Classic victim blaming. It is wrong, it is disgusting, and you need to stop it. The victim did nothing wrong, here. When you’re confronted by such hatred, it’s not always easy to know how to react. Shit gets real and humans aren’t always equipped to act perfectly nice and awesome toward people WHO ARE THREATENING THEM.

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